| THE NEW CLIMATE WAR The Fight To Take Back the Planet Michael E. Mann New York: PublicAffairs, January 2021 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
|||
| ISBN-13 978-1-5417-5823-0 | ||||
| ISBN-10 1-5417-5823-4 | 351pp. | HC/BWI | $29.00 | |
By the time this book went to press, the old arguments the Denialists depended on — that human-caused climate change was a hoax, or was not a major problem — had failed them. Even despite Donald Trump giving them aid and comfort during his four years in office, they found those traditional arguments losing traction with the public. Steadily mounting scientific evidence, along with the flooding, droughts, and wildfires visible on the nightly news as well as in cities and on farms throughout the U.S., meant more and more people coming to understand that climate change is a real problem.
As a consequence, the forces of denial and delay—the fossil fuel companies, right-wing plutocrats, and oil-funded governments that continue to profit from our dependence on fossil fuels—can no longer insist, with a straight face, that nothing is happening. Outright denial of the physical evidence of climate change simply isn't credible any more. So they have shifted to a softer form of denialism while keeping the oil flowing and fossil fuels burning, engaging in a multipronged offensive based on deception, distraction, and delay. This is the new climate war, and the planet is losing. – Page 3 |
But the Denialists have not given up; they have merely changed their tactics. Michael Mann's latest book explains those new tactics in detail. In place of denial, there are deflection, division, and doomsaying.
When I say Dr. Mann explains the new tactics these Denialists (or Inactivists, to use his term) have adopted, I do not exaggerate. He provides names and often quotes extensively from their publications, including Twitter accounts. (I'll discuss a few of those named below.) This is all very interesting, but for me the most useful parts of the book are Chapters 5, 6, & 7.
Ways to put a price on carbon are the subject of Chapter 5. The intent of these is to level the playing field, which has long been tilted in favor of fossil fuels. The emissions from their plants, not only carbon dioxide but soot and various metals like mercury, are erratically regulated.
Chapter 6 examines the question of subsidies and the supposed shortcomings of renewable energy sources. As always, the fossil-fuel forces lean on their allies in Congress to preserve the financial support they get while blocking subsidies for renewable energy.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the [fossil fuel] industry receives about half a trillion dollars globally in explicit subsidies, such as in the form of assistance to the poor for the purchase of fossil-fuel-generated electricity, tax breaks for capital investment, and public financing of fossil-fuel infrastructure. It's a lot of money. But when implicit subsidies are included—that is to say, the health costs and damage born by citizens for the associated environmental pollution, including the damage done by climate change—the estimate rises to a whopping $5 trillion. These perks didn't arise by accident—the industry used its immense wealth and influence to obtain them. In the 2015-2016 election cycle alone, fossil fuel companies spent $354 million in campaign contributions and lobbying.1 – Pages 123-4 |
The shortcomings the Denialists claim for wind and solar are well-known. They include the fact that no solar or wind facility provides constant power, the old canard that cutting back on fossil fuels will destroy the economy, and the dreaded "wind turbine syndrome." About the last absurdity, also touted by Trump, Dr. Mann cites a Fox News commentator.
It should come as no surprise that Koch-affiliated interests, fossil-fuel groups, and the Murdoch media empire have sought to spread the myth of "wind turbine syndrome" far and wide. Consider the utterings of Fox Business Network's Eric Bolling: "Turbines are popping up all across America, as the demand for the usage of wind energy is increasing. But at what cost? Residents close to them have reported everything from headaches to vertigo to UFO crashes." Yes, you read that right; "UFO crashes," too! – Page 129 |
And Chapter 7 lays out what's wrong with the solutions proposed by fossil-fuel interests: natural gas as a bridge fuel, so-called clean coal, geoengineering — especially injecting sulfur aerosols into the stratosphere — and finally "adaptation" and "resilience," which are little more than slogans and implicitly play into the doomsaying explored in Chapter 8: the idea that the time for mitigation has passed. In this chapter Dr. Mann also rejects nuclear power as a solution. His basis for this appears to be his own life experience (he mentions Three Mile Island) and an opinion piece by Robert Jay Lifton and Naomi Oreskes.2 Neither is a nuclear scientist. While this does not preclude them being correct, it means their argument should be examined. I'll have more to say about this in a page linked below.
His final chapter is cautiously optimistic. He cites the growth of the youth movement for climate action such as Fridays for Future (founded by Greta Thunberg) and US Youth Climate Strike (cofounded by Alexandria Villaseñor) and the legal actions brought against fossil-fuel companies. Although all these are being relentlessly attacked, I agree with his optimism. Success is by no means a slam dunk; it will be a stiff fight, and much public education is needed. But I believe momentum is building.
Dr. Mann makes his case well. I disagree with him on nuclear power, and I think he comes down too hard on David Wallace-Wells for being a "doomist" in The Uninhabitable Earth.3 The figures could use some improvement. But these are minor defects, in my opinion partly due to the book being produced in some haste (this shows in the grammatical errors.) In general he is spot on. The book has a good index and is thoroughly documented: its endnotes number 784 in total. The climate wars continue, and I consider The New Climate War a must-read update on how to make progress for our side.
To contact Chris Winter, send email to this address.