energy changes. The day that happens is the day that everyone finds their way to a local farmers’ market. Helpful changes roll out, from
bus and train commutes replacing cars to the rising popularity of densely inhabited urban blocks, as cul-de-sac suburbia loses its appeal. Local store- fronts naturally get the nod over big box chain stores, too, and so on.
The Key to Change How do we make it happen? How do we change the price of energy, which is what almost every observer thinks is the only way we can make a real change in the physics and chemistry of the current global warming phe- nomenon, and make an effective difference in the short time allowed before the harmful consequences explode exponentially? If only everyday people could do
it solely by making personal energy improvements around the house, at work and in their communities— through such steps as switching to more energy-efficient light bulbs and riding our bikes to work. Such chang- es are good to do, of course, and it all helps, but we don’t have a century to turn around our global situation. Which means we also need to engage in… politics.
This year, China surpassed the United States as the world’s largest energy user, a status held for more than a century. Because China gets most of its electricity from coal, it’s also the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases as of 2007, yet the United States remains the world’s biggest oil consumer by a wide margin. We’re also by far the bigger energy consumer per capita, despite an overall 2.5
percent annual improvement in energy efficiency since 2000; the average American burns five times as much energy annually as the average Chinese citizen.
~ International Energy Agency We need to put the pressure on
our leaders now to change the price of energy now. Remember—they’re getting plenty of pressure from lob- byists pocketing profits on the other
side. Because of government subsidies and cartels, fossil fuel is the most profitable industry humans have ever engaged in; last year, Exxon Mobil Corporation made more money than any company in recorded history. That buys them a lot of power. We won’t be able to outspend them, so we will have to do what people have always done when they have found themselves needing to take charge of their future: We must build a movement. Politicians won’t change because scientists tell them we have a problem—they’ll change because enough people tell them they have to, or they’ll lose their jobs. Building just this kind of move- ment is entirely possible.
Citizen Action Plan Two years ago, a few concerned citizens joined me in launching 350. org, a wholly grassroots campaign that takes its name from a wonky scientific data point. NASA scientists led by James Hansen have published reams of data showing that, “Any value for carbon in the atmosphere greater than 350 parts per million [ppm] is not compatible with the planet on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted.”
It sounds like an unpromising
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Phoenix
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