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- Local weather change hasn’t all the time been so polarizing and even right now comparatively few Individuals deny international warming is actual.
- Specialists say simply disprovable narratives in regards to the local weather retains circulating.
- These lies and distortions goal renewable power, economics and political polarization.
There was a time – a latest time – when concern about the environment was comparatively bipartisan, not a cultural flashpoint.
A Republican, President Richard Nixon, established the Environmental Safety Company in 1970. Within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, bipartisan majorities voted to strengthen the Clear Air Act and the Clear Water Act, led by a Republican – Rhode Island’s Sen. John Chafee.
These days are gone, and right now a variety of deceptive statements and outright lies in regards to the actuality of human-caused local weather change flow into broadly.
The sheer quantity of misinformation can distort perceptions of how many individuals do not imagine the science that reveals the Earth’s local weather is altering due to human exercise, mentioned Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist and professor at Texas Tech College.
“I name them ‘zombie arguments’ as a result of you possibly can clarify that they don’t seem to be true however they nonetheless go stumbling round as a result of they don’t seem to be about details however excuses,” she mentioned.
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In fact, a small variety of individuals truly imagine these lies, she mentioned. Surveys by the Yale Program on Local weather Change Communication in Connecticut have discovered 8% to 9% of Individuals are completely dismissive of local weather change, believing it’s both not taking place, not human-caused or not a risk. Many of those individuals additionally endorse conspiracy theories about international warming.
“They’re simply 8% of the inhabitants. A loud 8%, and really current on-line, however solely 8%. So I’d somewhat reply from the attitude of all people else,” mentioned Hayhoe, who can be an evangelical Christian whose most up-to-date guide is “Saving Us: A Local weather Scientist’s Case for Hope and Therapeutic in a Divided World.”
Listed here are a number of the most typical local weather myths and lies consultants say have been circulating this yr:
Mistaken: Summer season warmth waves present renewables cannot work
Energy grids in Texas, California and the Pacific Northwest all confronted excessive warmth occasions this summer time. Every energy system was pushed to the brink by the draw on electrical energy for air-con. And but none broke.
Nonetheless, a false narrative circulated saying that photo voltaic and wind power had made these energy grids – and particularly California’s – fragile and unable to cope with high demands.
In reality, the alternative is the case. Whereas renewable power does current challenges, particularly throughout warmth waves, this yr proved that cautious planning and inexperienced improvements can efficiently meet these challenges.
In California, battery storage and conservation allowed the state to keep away from energy outages throughout a 10-day September heatwave. Within the Northwest, battery storage and voluntary applications that rewarded prospects for decreasing demand stored the system operating.
Extra:‘A ‘Wow’ moment’: US renewable energy hit record 28% in April.
In Texas in July, a warmth wave triggered the Electrical Reliability Council of Texas to take emergency measures, together with urging residents to limit their use and paying energy operators as a lot as $5,000 per megawatt hour to maintain turbines operating. ERCOT mentioned two components affected its skill to satisfy hovering demand: low wind energy era and outages at coal- and pure gas-fed energy vegetation.
Blaming renewable power as the reason for energy crunches is unfair, mentioned David Doniger, senior strategic director within the Pure Assets Protection Council’s local weather and clear power program.
“Their reply is all the time ‘Persist with fossil gasoline as a result of renewables and effectivity can’t fill the necessity.’ That is the lie; these are the issue and never the options,” he mentioned.
“Among the largest lies as of late are centered on slowing the transition from fossil power to cleaner options by saying issues or shortcomings for renewables make it not possible.”
Vitality consultants say the proportion of U.S. energy that comes from renewables can go a lot greater than right now’s comparatively low numbers with out inflicting extreme stress on electrical programs. In April, data had been set when 28% of U.S. electrical energy got here from renewable assets.
They do acknowledge that decarbonizing the final 10% of the electrical grid will likely be difficult however say that is not a cause to keep away from decarbonizing the primary 90%.
Mistaken: Utilizing ESG standards is ‘woke’ capitalism
Making funding selections with environmental, social and governance components in thoughts has been round for many years.
However just lately it has been decried as “woke capitalism,” and a concerted effort has been waged to cease corporations from taking all three, referred to as ESG, into consideration after they make investments. That is very true on the subject of taking environmental danger administration.
Extra:GOP vs. ESG: Why Republicans are fighting ‘woke’ ESG investing
Previously yr, 18 states have both proposed or adopted guidelines limiting the flexibility of the state authorities and public retirement plans to do enterprise with entities discovered to “discriminate” in opposition to sure industries based mostly on environmental, social and governance standards, in response to JD Supra, a authorized information supply. For instance, Arizona’s State Board of Funding mentioned in August that ESG concerns couldn’t be thought of within the funding administration of its belongings.
“It’s a sinister lie that’s deeply counterproductive, not simply to the local weather but additionally to individuals’s pocketbooks and pensions,” mentioned Alicia Seiger, who teaches sustainability and power finance at Stanford College’s legislation and graduate colleges of enterprise in California.
Telling corporations they will’t think about all obtainable data to make strong long-term investments “is madness,” she mentioned. “That needs to be decided by the investor, not the political system.”
Mistaken: Believing in local weather change is just for the far left
Specialists have famous an effort by some to lump in local weather change with different liberal and progressive causes, equivalent to racial justice. The implication is that those that imagine international warming is a matter to be handled should additionally help a number of different goals which can be thought of “far left.”
This additionally comes amid a motion to stress businesses to view climate change as a hot-button political issue.
“Conspiracy theorists join local weather change to different lightning-rod points to generate emotional, irrational responses that drive on-line engagement,” mentioned David Di Martino, co-founder of triplecheck, a nonprofit that works to fight the unfold of misinformation, together with local weather misinformation.
However that place ignores the numerous conservatives who’re involved about international warming and are working to combat it. They embody the American Conservation Coalition, Conservatives for Clean Energy, Residents for Accountable Vitality Options and Congress’ Conservative Climate Caucus.
Mistaken: There’s no hope for fixing local weather change, so why attempt?
An more and more frequent message facilities round “doomerism,” the lie that it’s completely not possible to scale back greenhouse fuel emissions to near-zero with out devastating the financial system and considerably decreasing our lifestyle, so there is not any level in even making an attempt.
That is flawed as a result of the technology to decarbonize a lot of {the electrical} grid already exists. In the meantime, wind and photo voltaic, together with battery storage, are more and more cheaper than coal and pure fuel. Decarbonizing extra hard-to-reach areas, equivalent to metal and cement manufacturing and aviation gasoline, will take longer however are within the works.
An Oxford University study launched in September discovered a quick transition to decarbonized power programs is cheaper than a sluggish one or not transitioning in any respect. Reaching zero-carbon power programs is “attainable and worthwhile” and can save the world at the least $12 trillion in contrast with persevering with present ranges of fossil gasoline use, it discovered.
An extended-term lie has been that local weather change isn’t actual, however as shifting local weather patterns have made that argument tougher to make, it has moved to 1 that claims there are both no good options to fossil fuels or the options themselves trigger issues and are too costly.
“In different phrases, we’re caught with fossil fuels and there aren’t any good options, so burn child burn,” mentioned Jason Smerdon, a professor of local weather physics at Columbia College in New York.
These arguments are principally in assist of fossil gasoline producers who wish to hold creating wealth so long as they will.
“Local weather disinformation has all the time been about delaying any motion on international warming,” Smerdon mentioned. “They merely perpetuate the false assumption that we’ve got no alternative however the identical previous reliance on fossil fuels.”
Extra:We have the tools we need to fix climate change
If truth, the enterprise group is leaping in with each ft as a result of they see strong alternatives, mentioned Julio Friedmann, chief scientist at Carbon Direct, a carbon administration agency and former professor at Columbia College.
“We have now the expertise we’d like and we’ve got lots of the market-aligning insurance policies we’d like,” he mentioned.
It’s not a query of “Is that this even attainable?” however as an alternative “How rapidly can we do it?”
“It’s a basically completely different mindset,” Friedmann mentioned. “That’s why I’m bullish on our skill to spherical these corners and get the job finished.”
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