Outstanding coverage the whole way through. And while the outcome falls far short of what’s needed as climate change accelerates, your strategy of attacking the fossil fuel industry via their financing/banks, may just be the most effective activism of all. Thank you for your honest account of COP26.
I think a intellectual honest assessment is needed to slow down, perhaps avert, a global "Final Act".
My assessment is that we should honestly think more about mass migration planning versus mass mitigation planning.
Right now, I see little effort we are collectively acting in unison for our common good. For example, I think the "Third Act" leaders and members should be favoring a Carbon Tax ... why aren't they? Is it because the young progressive leaders at the Green New Deal don't see the wisdom in it.
Distavorous Global Warming will continue as business as usual for at least the next 100 years. Most of the Drop in the bucket efforts by Climate Activists and Governments are too little too late as they are primarily ineffective where the "House", meaning Nature, is winning by continuing to warm.
The COP26 talks underscored the COMPLEXITY of trying to persuade scores of countries, each with its own economic interests and domestic politics, to act in unison for the greater good. In the end, at the urging of India, which argued that fossil fuels were still needed for its development, “phase out” was changed to “phase down.”
When simple language cannot be agreed upon such as "phase out coal" that means to me that human life on this planet is in a slow "phase out" / "Final Act" mode and it's time for migration to more northerly latitudes and also toward higher / cooler elevations.
Diplomatic resolutions always rely on specifically chosen words to reach an accord amongst opposing parties. In this case, it was “phase-down” over “phase-out.” But poorer nations never received the billions of dollars pledged by richer nations in the Paris Accord to assist them in using renewables and cleaner energy to meet the needs of their citizens over the last five years. As disappointing as the word choice of “phase-down” is, keep in mind that the Earth’s natural resources have not been equitably distributed. If they had been, the US would have used up its portion by the early 1940s. With regard to your comment on mass migration, international law is wholly unprepared for the nightmare that awaits us when climatic events force people to cross borders in search of refuge. Just look at the US response to climate refugees from the dry corridor in Central America in 2018. We should be planning and creating legal language to accommodate climate refugees, as without it, conflict zones are inevitable. The complexity of the climate crisis can be overwhelming, but nations must keep talking, activists must keep up the pressure, and science must keep innovating. I so appreciated your comment to mine!
<blockquote>Activists did all they could in Glasgow, but their leverage in the U.S. is limited ...</blockquote>
But Bill, you hinted at the way forward later in your post. Yes, I know Big Finance needs to get more transparent, needs to publish a schedule by which they'll stop giving out any loans for fossil fuel projects. Pressure in the streets helps some, but it's not a strong lever. I wonder if, instead, XR, and 350.org, and FFF ought not to back solar farms, whose travails in town approvals you've chronicled, and help convince people of means (at least, and by that I mean, for instance, nearly everyone living in Massachusetts suburbs) to get air source heat pumps and geothermal. They could, too, argue, that, yes, it's well and proper for the transmission line through Maine intended to carry problematic Quebec Hydro power south to be stopped. But that isn't the end for renewables, as I'm sure some explosive methane company executives would like to argue. The other option is <em>decentralized energy</em>, electricity generated close to where it is consumed. My view is that for climate and environmental justice reasons, the people who consume gadz of electricity in the suburbs ought to cede some of their land -- or farmlands -- to renewable generation to power their appetites. If solar isn't the cup of tea, then wind turbines ... They have a much smaller impact on landscape than solar. And this appetite should grow, as people buy EVs.
Or XR, and FFF, and 350.org could argue that private property rights for putting up solar on residences and private grounds ought to be liberalized. Some of the towns have silly restrictions that such installations besmirch the land, and turn the "natural" land into an industrial-looking area. Really? Lawns managed with pesticides and insecticides and artificial, non-native plantings are "natural"?
These are things which are immediate tangible helps to reducing emissions, and don't need to wait for some hypothetical political process to deliver it with tortured investments of time and jawboning.
There's a lot that could be done here. I strongly suspect the shadow network of the Koch Bros and others appears at some hearings to discourage renewables development. It certainly has on Cape Cod with respect to wind turbines, and it certainly does, found by personal interviews and reports, when sensible proposals for dealing with sea level rise are advanced in places like South Carolina. It's time that people who care about climate got engaged in the local.
This is why I have joined a Fridays For Future group in Wellesley and Needham, and I run Needham. Every Friday afternoon, we are on Needham Common pushing Fridays For Future. We engage with drivers, with students returning from school. We were out there today in torrential rains and strong winds, suitably attired, of course. The place to convince isn't only the boardrooms of JP Morgan Chase, but those neighbors in my town of Westwood who object to a neighbor two properties down who wants to put up a ground mounted solar frame, so they can better farm the photons.
Thanks for all you do. You continue to be an inspiration!
Outstanding coverage the whole way through. And while the outcome falls far short of what’s needed as climate change accelerates, your strategy of attacking the fossil fuel industry via their financing/banks, may just be the most effective activism of all. Thank you for your honest account of COP26.
I think a intellectual honest assessment is needed to slow down, perhaps avert, a global "Final Act".
My assessment is that we should honestly think more about mass migration planning versus mass mitigation planning.
Right now, I see little effort we are collectively acting in unison for our common good. For example, I think the "Third Act" leaders and members should be favoring a Carbon Tax ... why aren't they? Is it because the young progressive leaders at the Green New Deal don't see the wisdom in it.
Distavorous Global Warming will continue as business as usual for at least the next 100 years. Most of the Drop in the bucket efforts by Climate Activists and Governments are too little too late as they are primarily ineffective where the "House", meaning Nature, is winning by continuing to warm.
The COP26 talks underscored the COMPLEXITY of trying to persuade scores of countries, each with its own economic interests and domestic politics, to act in unison for the greater good. In the end, at the urging of India, which argued that fossil fuels were still needed for its development, “phase out” was changed to “phase down.”
When simple language cannot be agreed upon such as "phase out coal" that means to me that human life on this planet is in a slow "phase out" / "Final Act" mode and it's time for migration to more northerly latitudes and also toward higher / cooler elevations.
Diplomatic resolutions always rely on specifically chosen words to reach an accord amongst opposing parties. In this case, it was “phase-down” over “phase-out.” But poorer nations never received the billions of dollars pledged by richer nations in the Paris Accord to assist them in using renewables and cleaner energy to meet the needs of their citizens over the last five years. As disappointing as the word choice of “phase-down” is, keep in mind that the Earth’s natural resources have not been equitably distributed. If they had been, the US would have used up its portion by the early 1940s. With regard to your comment on mass migration, international law is wholly unprepared for the nightmare that awaits us when climatic events force people to cross borders in search of refuge. Just look at the US response to climate refugees from the dry corridor in Central America in 2018. We should be planning and creating legal language to accommodate climate refugees, as without it, conflict zones are inevitable. The complexity of the climate crisis can be overwhelming, but nations must keep talking, activists must keep up the pressure, and science must keep innovating. I so appreciated your comment to mine!
That is so very true about Nietzsche. Distance, ha! Made my day. Thank you.
Some real and by 2030 attainable progress (IWMS) can be made here: https://www.wastedive.com/news/opinion-ierm-landfill-methane-reduction-biden/609693/
<blockquote>Activists did all they could in Glasgow, but their leverage in the U.S. is limited ...</blockquote>
But Bill, you hinted at the way forward later in your post. Yes, I know Big Finance needs to get more transparent, needs to publish a schedule by which they'll stop giving out any loans for fossil fuel projects. Pressure in the streets helps some, but it's not a strong lever. I wonder if, instead, XR, and 350.org, and FFF ought not to back solar farms, whose travails in town approvals you've chronicled, and help convince people of means (at least, and by that I mean, for instance, nearly everyone living in Massachusetts suburbs) to get air source heat pumps and geothermal. They could, too, argue, that, yes, it's well and proper for the transmission line through Maine intended to carry problematic Quebec Hydro power south to be stopped. But that isn't the end for renewables, as I'm sure some explosive methane company executives would like to argue. The other option is <em>decentralized energy</em>, electricity generated close to where it is consumed. My view is that for climate and environmental justice reasons, the people who consume gadz of electricity in the suburbs ought to cede some of their land -- or farmlands -- to renewable generation to power their appetites. If solar isn't the cup of tea, then wind turbines ... They have a much smaller impact on landscape than solar. And this appetite should grow, as people buy EVs.
Or XR, and FFF, and 350.org could argue that private property rights for putting up solar on residences and private grounds ought to be liberalized. Some of the towns have silly restrictions that such installations besmirch the land, and turn the "natural" land into an industrial-looking area. Really? Lawns managed with pesticides and insecticides and artificial, non-native plantings are "natural"?
These are things which are immediate tangible helps to reducing emissions, and don't need to wait for some hypothetical political process to deliver it with tortured investments of time and jawboning.
There's a lot that could be done here. I strongly suspect the shadow network of the Koch Bros and others appears at some hearings to discourage renewables development. It certainly has on Cape Cod with respect to wind turbines, and it certainly does, found by personal interviews and reports, when sensible proposals for dealing with sea level rise are advanced in places like South Carolina. It's time that people who care about climate got engaged in the local.
This is why I have joined a Fridays For Future group in Wellesley and Needham, and I run Needham. Every Friday afternoon, we are on Needham Common pushing Fridays For Future. We engage with drivers, with students returning from school. We were out there today in torrential rains and strong winds, suitably attired, of course. The place to convince isn't only the boardrooms of JP Morgan Chase, but those neighbors in my town of Westwood who object to a neighbor two properties down who wants to put up a ground mounted solar frame, so they can better farm the photons.
Thanks for all you do. You continue to be an inspiration!
local, state, national, global--we've got to engage at all levels. thanks for being out there (even in the rain!)