Looking for a Way Forward: The Obama Administration Stumbles Some on Climate Change

What kind of world do you want?

This blog went dark more than three years ago when I finally understood that: 1) the Obama administration and Congress were absolutely not going to deal with climate change; 2) the American people were absolutely not going to deal with climate change either. 

#2 was the straw that broke my 53-year-old back. It was bad enough watching the Kennedy's and their ilk fighting to stop an offshore wind project that would supposedly ruin their sweet view of Nantucket Sound, but watching environmental groups get all tangled up in their knickers over natural gas fracking was just pathetic. I couldn't take it anymore. 

In my past life I was an environmental advocate and a technology planner -- working with dozens of governmental agencies and corporations for more than 30 years. I analyzed the economics of energy systems and the cultural
requirements for more rational management of resources (both natural and man-made). I've spent the last three years focused on writing fiction (particularly novels), but I think its time to step up again here at Blue Olives. 

Why? Partly because in just three years we've developed far more potential to get the global warming problem under control than we did in the 30 years before. There's no question that the natural gas industry needs to be forced to more rationally manage how it extracts product from under ground, but, indeed, the US is now the largest producer of cheap natural gas in the world. There's a lot of talk about Obama's "war on coal" but that's total bullshit. Coal is just not a very practical way to fuel modern America anymore. 

Natural gas is far cleaner and effective for future power generation. Yes, we need to get better at distributing it and using it (methane leaks, whether in water supplies or into the atmosphere are unacceptable). The question is whether the right people can step in and stop fighting for long enough to develop standards and regulations that will continue to help limit unnecessary carbon emissions and reduce pollution and environmental destruction once and for all. 

What really spurred me to finally make another post here, and, hopefully will keep me going for a while, is a fascinating teaser at Harper's website by Mark Hertsgaard headlined "A Top Obama Aide Says History Won’t Applaud the President’s Climate Policy." It's a teaser because he's offering an overview of a lengthy piece to be published in the July edition of the magazine providing what sounds like some pretty detailed insider perspectives on the current administration's ability to manage this huge dilemma that no one has really wanted to deal with in Washington ... EVER. 

My interest in the article is not because it is critical of Obama and his team. That's boring and easy. It's also misguided. Think about it: We needed so much mass energy (and action) to overcome the cognitive dissonance of slavery, apartheid, and the subjugation of women. We're still working on those problems, but one thing we've learned is that mass energy (pardon the pun) does not come from presidents and kings. It comes from the people. Experience and history tell us that leadership doesn't even come from presidents and kings. 

If your answer to big problems is, "my hands are tied," you are part of the problem. Your hands are not tied. Not here in the good old U.S. of Freakin' A. We have this thing called the Constitution. It means you're free. Got that? The question is: What are you going to do with that freedom? That's always been the question for us as a culture.

I hear a lot of people say that it's too late to do anything about climate change. These are people who agree that global warming is real, and that the man-made portion of it needs to be curtailed. My own simple-minded feeling three years ago was worse. I thought we're just incapable and that, yes, it doesn't matter. Human culture is just going to need to adapt. 

That's stupid. Both of those perspectives are on par with deniers who say the science proves nothing. They're all just excuses to not get involved and and to not invest our hearts and souls in a future we want. Whether we turn this around over the next decade, or by 2050 ... or even 2100, we have to do it in order to minimize the impact of what we've already done. There's no choice. All there are is excuses.  

The beauty of things today is that we actually have all the tools coming into being right now as we continue to rush headlong into a future where we're acting like there's nothing we can do about something so massive and out of our control. Plug-in cars were a pipe dream just three years ago. Over the next year they will be everywhere in the U.S. (I drove a Ford Fusion Hybrid Energi for two days last month -- owned by my 22-year-old son -- and was blown away!). Higher mileage gas powered vehicles are popping up in a huge way as well. So if you bought a big-ass pickup or an SUV in the last few months, take that dinosaur back and get yourself a real car.

Japan is investing heavily in fuel cell technology. And over the next five years, the concept of "personal power plants" is going to start becoming a reality (were you around in 1981 when IBM introduced something called a PC?). 

I could go on. Yes, China and India need to get their shit together, too. But we claim to be the only "super power" in the world. Are we really? If so, then we need to be bold and super. Let's deal with the future now. The rest of the world will follow. They always have. 

Yup, there are tough choices to make. Nuclear power is a major technology option to coal power. Teaming up with the nuclear and natural gas industries, creating a political block for support of renewable energy, conservation, and leading edge transportation technologies makes total sense. Pushing for a global carbon tax would be a real possibility with the right allies. A real carbon tax, folks. If we doubled the cost of carbon fuels, our priorities would shift in under a decade. Would that hurt the economy? I don't know. But it couldn't be as bad as what we just did to global finance with our collective greed and laziness in the naughts. 

We need leaders here. Not in Washington or the U.N., but on the streets. So far the environmental community has demonstrated they're not up to the task. Neither are the so-called policy experts. And, quite frankly, neither are scientists. 

Why is it so hard for leaders to emerge here? Partly because so far most of us see climate change as either an environmental issue or a technology issue. Those are part of what's at stake, but in truth this is a massive cultural problem that touches everything from the economy to our dependence on Internet communications to the deep sense of security and ease that cars, electricity, and pretty much all forms of entertainment give us. 

So far, it looks like Bill McKibben and Al Gore are the closest answers to leadership. But here's the real problem: those guys have basically expended all their cultural capital getting people to pay attention enough to agree this thing is real. They're the messengers. You gotta love 'em for that. But now we need solutions. It's not enough to point and say "pay attention," or to create a yard stick that says "350 ppm or death." McKibben is working to organize a major demonstration in New York City in late September. But the message there is about fear, divestment, and political action. Demanding action is part of the change required, but we need someone (or someones) to completely leap-frog the cognitive dissonance holding us all back. We need them to truly pack the old game of sloth and selfishness away. And we need them to help us all find a way forward that works.  

Does Obama's "historic" decree actually start to change the game? Not really. It is a small step, though, and nudges us in the right direction. Now, go out this weekend and trade in whatever you drive for a hybrid plug-in; cancel your jet travel trip to Europe (have you got any idea how bad air travel is for the upper atmosphere?); and start prepping for September in NYC. There may well be a leader that emerges if enough of us show up. Who knows, that person might be you.