The Policy Lass

Horrific images of dead sheep, koalas and kangaroos lining the roads of Batlow, New South Wales.

You knew it would happen. It’s already happened. It’s going to get worse. Yes, it’s big oil, the most subsidized industry around, asking for more subsidization to protect its facilities — that are the primary source of greenhouse gas causing climate change…

Irony is officially dead.

BIG OIL ASKS GOVERNMENT TO PROTECT ITS TEXAS FACILITIES FROM CLIMATE CHANGE

From the article:

PORT ARTHUR, Texas — As the nation plans new defenses against the more powerful storms and higher tides expected from climate change, one project stands out: an ambitious proposal to build a nearly 60-mile “spine” of concrete seawalls, earthen barriers, floating gates and steel levees on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Like other oceanfront projects, this one would protect homes, delicate ecosystems and vital infrastructure, but it also has another priority: to shield some of the crown jewels of the petroleum industry, which is blamed for contributing to global warming and now wants the federal government to build safeguards against the consequences of it.

The plan is focused on a stretch of coastline that runs from the Louisiana border to industrial enclaves south of Houston that are home to one of the world’s largest concentrations of petrochemical facilities, including most of Texas’ 30 refineries, which represent 30 percent of the nation’s refining capacity.”

Texas is seeking at least $12 billion for the full coastal spine, with nearly all of it coming from public funds. Last month, the government fast-tracked an initial $3.9 billion for three separate, smaller storm barrier projects that would specifically protect oil facilities.

That followed Hurricane Harvey, which roared ashore last Aug. 25 and swamped Houston and parts of the coast, temporarily knocking out a quarter of the area’s oil refining capacity and causing average gasoline prices to jump 28 cents a gallon nationwide. Many Republicans argue that the Texas oil projects belong at the top of Washington’s spending list.

Russia announced that it will be adapting its economy and taking advantage of the increase in temperature due to climate change and global warming.

From the article:

“Russia has published a plan to adapt its economy and population to climate change, aiming to mitigate damage but also “use the advantages” of warmer temperatures.

The document, published on the government’s website on Saturday, outlines a plan of action and acknowledges changes to the climate are having a “prominent and increasing effect” on socioeconomic development, people’s lives, health and industry.

Russia is warming 2.5 times faster than the planet as a whole, on average, and the two-year “first stage” plan is an indication the government officially recognises this as a problem, even though Vladimir Putin denies human activity is the cause…

Moscow formally adopted the Paris climate accord in September last year and criticised the US withdrawal from the pact.

Russia announces plan to ‘use the advantages’ of climate change

The latest data:

The science is settled: humans are changing the planet’s climate through land use and the mining, production of and burning of fossil fuels. What’s left is to convince the public to force policy makers to address it.

That’s it, really.

Policy makers – politicians – won’t act unless and until they are forced to do so because of public opinion. Their funders don’t care — they are the ones who are currently benefitting from BAU.

It’s Joe and Jane Public who must be moved. They have to be convinced that the science is settled and action is necessary.

That will only happen if those scientists and communicators who have public-facing platforms beat the drum long and hard, not just to convince the public that climate change is real, but that they can do something about it — and not just by using bamboo toothbrushes or recycling plastic bottles, although everything helps.

They have to use their real power — their vote.

The Carbon Majors and Plutocrats know this. They have deep pockets and the inexorable logic of their world is to keep exploiting their resources and enlarging their wealth. They are spending billions to fight against action.

Scientists and concerned enlightened citizens, in contrast, have much shallower pockets but we have the truth and we have a different logic, focused on the well-being of our children and their children. The Carbon Majors and the Plutocrats want to keep exploiting the resources and running things as they have for the past fifty years until it no longer makes economic sense. That’s the only sense that they understand.

We, the People, have to fight back.

We can’t compete in terms of money. We won’t do it by using recycled paper towels or Brita water filters. We won’t do it by moralizing to each other about what food we eat or what kind of fabric we wear.

We will only do it when we tell our politicians and policy makers that if they don’t enact policies that address climate change in a serious way that reflects the urgency of the matter, we will kick them out of office.

Plutocrat funding be damned.

So, the fight isn’t over the data or the projections or the paleoclimate reconstructions.

The fight is in the political realm.

Those who can must focus on public education. We must focus on disseminating the facts and options for addressing those facts. The people must be moved if anything is to happen.

It has to be a message with enough urgency so that people know they must act, but also a positive message so that people don’t give up and despair that it’s too big or beyond their reach.

We need the best communicators to spread the word, to promote the facts, and to disseminate the options.

It’s our children’s and grandchildren’s futures we are creating today.

The real battle now is for the public mind and for their votes.

Tell the policy makers that they have to act now or we’ll kick the bastards out of office.