Every few months, a new report on climate change comes out that spells doom for the future of the planet. The news is almost never good. Every year, scientists warn time is running out to reel back emissions. And each year, the world emits about three to five percent more greenhouse gasses. What needs to be done vs. what is being done are almost completely opposite.
For more than a decade, we’ve been told to turn down our thermostats and stop flying on airplanes, change your light bulbs and to buy e-cars, or better yet, to stop driving entirely. A few years later, food activists told us to eat food grown nearby, to stop overfishing the oceans, and to stop pouring huge quantities of water, land, and grain into raising meat.
Emissions continued to rise every year, dipping only slightly in 2009 when the world’s economy nearly collapsed. Climate change legislation that redefines capitalism is the radical—and likely the only effective—way to solve the problem.
Few who enjoy the benefits of modern life would willingly give them up (would you?). No one will change unless they’re forced to—which is a political problem more than a scientific one. Put it this way, stalling on climate change isn’t a result of crazy people and science doubters. It’s a function of you (and me) being unwilling to change our lifestyles.
Oil companies with high-dollar lobbyists take their cue from their customers who would balk at higher rates. Fuel-guzzling airlines fight for low taxes to accommodate more passengers. Carbon credits and hybrid cars not only fail to solve the problem, they hardly even help. When put in context of the planet’s future, the fix to fossil fuel needs to be something big. It is up to us, not the politicians or their corporate cronies. It’s either us, or nothing at all.
