Today I learned that some people really don't believe in climate change. While playing tennis this morning we started talking about the brutal temps and it somehow fell into a discussion on climate change. The exact quote was "it's all propaganda. it's really about money". Since I'm a big advocate for leaving bullshit, politics, religion, cell phones, and whatnot off the courts, I told em I'd reply with a text message later. So here it is:
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I'm gonna try and put this succinctly as possible 😂. There is literally a 99% consensus amongst scientific organizations on global climate change being caused primarily by the greenhouse effect due to the human activity of burning of fossil fuels. Keep in mind that these are not just some ivy league indoctrinated climatologist, but chemists, geologists, paleontologists, physicists, etc... whose work is peer reviewed. Since it was mentioned that it was all about the money, I should note that The ONLY proven propaganda on it is has been coming from the fossil fuel industry even though their own scientist were some of the first to draw attention to it. Folks like little what's her name, the autistic Swedish girl are just advocates for change who've been villainized because they're an easy target. I really don't care what you want to drive or burn or whatever you want to believe about science... just know that the only practical solution is an investment into renewable energy on target with the international Kyoto protocol. The main concern I have is not that we'll spend another x billion of SC taxpayer dollars shoring up seawalls or higher insurance premiums, it's the global tensions caused by the competition for dwindling resources caused by climate change. Which brings up another fact that folks often miss in this discussion... the geopolitical tensions associated with fossil fuels. If we continue down that path without any adjustments, some of the most despotic countries in the world will have everyone else by the nuts... Saudi Arabia, Iran, Somalia, Iraq, Russia, Libya, and so forth. Just take a look at all of the post cold war conflicts... 9/11, Afghanistan, Persian Gulf, etc. Even now, the Russia conflict with Ukraine is really about the money related about access to the Black Sea. Ukraine wanted to tax it and since it accounts for about 35% of Russia's oil exports, they said we'll just take it. That conflict is costing us billions because it's a better long term investment than the global instability of handing more power to our adversaries. The 'whole drill baby drill' and 'Biden caused this' on gas price volatility has so little to do with policy and much more to do with laissez-faire economics and the international free market. It's very naive to think otherwise. My dad ran a political campaign against Lee Atwater who was largely responsible for putting Reagan and Bush in office. During that campaign they wrote a song called "Dollar Gas, Kiss My Ass" and performed it on the floor of the house during the Oil Crisis on the late 70s. When they went to have it printed into 45s, the record industry fought back... because well, albums are made of vinyl and it comes from petroleum. Almost every business relies on petroleum in one way or another and so distancing ourselves from it will undoubtedly cost businesses money to adapt. Most of the "news" on it is just history on repeat toying with people's gut reactions about gas or grocery prices. The US accounts for less than 5% of the world's population but it consumes over 25% of the global energy supply. The only real way to keep that advantage long term is to shift some of our resources towards renewable energy. Diversify.. it's that simple. Sure, a bunch of crude cowboys wrangle a new talking head into office every so often who wants to stave off those changes, but unfortunately they're inevitable because it's getting more costly to tap deeper into the ocean floor. Even though folks were mostly pissed at Carter for the gas prices, Reagan ended up having to pay off a bunch of terrorist with fucking cruze missiles in order to close that deal. I'm a moderate on it... drill for some new oil and incentivize renewables at the same time. But please don't fool yourself on climate change. It's definitely real and will have consequences beyond what the majority of folks think they understand.
I kinda see this like me wearing Birkenstock's in 8th grade... all of the same folks who made fun of me ran out and bought a pair about five to ten years later because well... their fucking comfortable and even Walmart started selling knockoffs. Even though gas prices are likely to come down in the next couple years... In ten years, around 2035 when, as predicted, the domestic demand will start to decline, the Saudis will start to run low on cash from their investments in the Dubai free trade zone and will decide to turn down the the crude faucet to drive up prices, y'all will be out looking for electric because well... they're fucking practical.
There's no silver bullet on it with both sides having consequences, but you're right about one thing though... it IS about the money. The reason auto manufacturers are shifting their manufacturing to EVs is because they have some bright folks looking at the future market and not because Greta said all of the children will die. We're lucky to be in an area that will benefit from that transition. Any discussion, feedback, or questions will be welcomed 👊🏼
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The only response I got from the three other fellas in the thread was:
👉🏼 So I'm sharing it here for posterity so I can reference it in five years.