Climate Crisis Requires Big Actions

You can't save the climate by going vegan. Corporate polluters must be held accountable. Many individual actions to slow climate change are worth taking. But they distract from the systemic changes that are needed to avert this crisis

Michael E. Mann and Jonathan Brockopp, June 3, 2019 (USA Today)

“…Personal actions, from going vegan to avoiding flying, are being touted as the primary solution to the crisis. Perhaps this is an act of desperation in an era of political division, but it could prove suicidal…This new obsession with personal action, though promoted by many with the best of intentions, plays into the hands of polluting interests by distracting us from the systemic changes that are needed…There is no way to avert the climate crisis without keeping most of our coal, oil and gas in the ground, plain and simple…Massive changes to our national energy grid, a moratorium on new fossil fuel infrastructure and a carbon fee and dividend (that steeply ramps up) are just some examples of visionary policies that could make a difference…

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…[T] he "Green New Deal," support it or not, has encouraged a much needed, long overdue societal conversation about these and other options for averting climate catastrophe…[But we] need a national plan of action that will include everyone…With five years of concentrated effort, we could have a supply of clean, renewable energy that is virtually inexhaustible…Focusing on policies that incentivize corporate environmental stewardship will force us to work together and cross political, racial and religious lines…[and] connect us to the rest of the world as we aim to solve a truly global problem…There is still time to avert the worst impacts of climate change, but not without immediate, collective action.” click here for more

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