by
Rich Rodriguez
Spending trillions of dollars on a crisis against an invisible enemy sounds crazy, right? We just did that in the blink of an eye.
The problem is we are fighting two crises. The global COVID-19 pandemic and the environmental crisis. We’re fighting a good battle on the COVID-19 pandemic, with some winning results. In large part, we are ignoring the environmental crisis as its invisible hand is felt more and more. In 2018 some 37.1 billion metric tons of fossil-fuel CO2 was dumped in our air. There is a price to pay for this recklessness: Witness the recent Oregon wildfires.
To many, it would have seemed ludicrous just three months ago to say we need to spend trillions of dollars to reduce CO2 emissions. Yet, in the last few weeks, the White House negotiated with a cabal of oligarchs and a ruthless kingdom – to raise oil prices! Let that sink in.
From an environmental standpoint, the correct decision would have been to let the frackers go bust while simultaneously announcing investments in renewable energy, energy storage, improvements to the electric grid, and more – creating quality sustainable jobs.
Times of great crisis also creates opportunity. The White House just squandered a golden chance — and placed our existential survival at increased risk. Despite this mistake, we learned something. The people of the United States just learned it is possible to wage a war against an invisible enemy, spend trillions of dollars in the battle, and create winning results.
Let’s get it done. Beat the CO2 crises. Beat global warming. We don’t have much time.
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