Van Jones

This excerpt originally appeared at Progressive Book Club.

Four False Solutions to the Climate Crisis

<Posted by Elena Sytcheva>

The following is adapted from The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems by Van Jones.

The government should take advantage of the technologies we have such as solar power and wind turbines to break the downward spiral of stagflation and avoid climate catastrophe instead of clinging to the false solutions represented by corn-based ethanol, nuclear power, “clean coal” or destructive drilling.

1. Ethanol
“Government-mandated and –subsidized ethanol from corn will go down in history as the “Iraq war” of environmental solutions: ill-considered, costly, and disastrous. In a world full of hungry people, burning food should be criminally punished—not financially subsidized—by the U.S. government.” As food prices are increasing throughout the world and people are going hungry, “corn should be food, not fuel.”

2. Nuclear power
Highly toxic nuclear waste poses new dangers and is potentially hazardous for neighboring communities. It is not a “low-carbon” solution as it requires large amounts of carbon spewing concrete for the construction of a single power plant, in addition to uranium being a nonrenewable energy source.

3. “Clean Coal”
“Clean coal” is an oxymoron at this point; the technology for it does not even exist. It is just a great slogan that conceals the awful fact that the mining and burning of coal are two of the dirtiest activities occurring in the United States. “Clean coal” represents a breakthrough in the marketing of coal, but not in the science of burning coal.” It also remains a nonrenewable resource and at some point coal supplies will drop.

4. Drilling
Drilling for more oil is no solution because it would only compound stagflation and as supplies drop the prices of oil would be pushed up again. It would also destroy protected areas in pursuit of every last drop of oil.

“With these ’solutions’ we will at best prolong the problem and not solve it.”

“Given the climate crisis, we need urgently to begin the transition now. Fossil fuels are a finite resource doing infinite damage. As long as we rely on fossil fuels to power our society, our economy is at risk for stagflation—and our planetary home is at risk too.”

“We may as well move the society as dramatically as we can, in the direction of a fully clean and renewable system.”

This excerpt originally appeared at Progressive Book Club.