When it comes to the climate crisis, our political leaders have failed. For more than 30 years, they’ve held meetings, issued proclamations, and made pledges to adopt new laws to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Yet, carbon levels and temperatures have continued to rise while the world suffers trillions of dollars in damages from extreme weather.
The politicians’ failure is a result of their plans being dependent upon getting the agreement of the fossil fuels industry and its largest customers. Our leaders have no strategy for obtaining that agreement and time after time their plans fail. Something new must be tried.
Stopping global warming requires passing laws which force large fossil fuel burning businesses to stop their GHG emissions. Getting their prior consent isn’t necessary. Rather than negotiate with the industry and its customers, political leaders should build on the growing support for simply telling the big emitters to stop.
The costs the emitters foist on everyone else can no longer be tolerated. The emissions continue because they don’t want to incur the cost of stopping. It’s time for the whole world to tell them they must. With the right law, this can be achieved.
Comments