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.
<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.
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!