Pirate's Cove

Peter Fiekowsky, Founder and President of Healthy Climate Alliance, has Ideas, and provides a really big goal post shift

The Green New Deal Doesn’t Go Far Enough. Here’s Why (Op-Ed)

In early February, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) introduced the Green New Deal (GND), a sweeping resolution that addresses the dual challenges of income inequality and climate change, and the first government policy document aimed at curbing climate change as one of its goals.

This is significant. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released in October 2018 stated that there will have to be some removal of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere — the first and most vital step in restoring the climate — in order to avoid the very worst impacts of climate change (including massive die-offs of coral reefs, flooding, hurricanes, wildfires and widespread droughts).

Climate restoration is the principle of removing CO2 to get back to pre-Industrial Revolution levels, specifically below 300 parts per million (ppm), and restoring the world’s ecosystems, such as increasing ice in the Arctic. In spite of the IPCC warning, governments and mainstream nongovernmental organizations have not targeted climate restoration in any meaningful way to date.

Up till this point, the Cult of Climastrology positioned 350ppm as the save threshold. Hence we have a group named 350.org, one of the biggest of the CoC groups out there, if not the biggest. You have to go all the way back to around 1900 for CO2 to be around 300ppm. Is everyone willing to give up their modern lives to make this happen?

Anyhow, the point of the piece is

In line with the IPCC report, the GND set several 10-year targets that include keeping global temperatures less than 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels, meeting 100% of the country’s energy needs through renewable and zero-emissions energy sources, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. But the proposal also exceeds those goals by specifically calling for the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere and restoring natural ecosystems.

It’s promising that the GND includes the removal of some atmospheric CO2, but the resolution stopped short of setting a specific target. That’s a mistake. In order to restore a healthy climate, society should set a goal of reducing CO2 to levels less than 300 ppm by 2050. That means removing roughly a trillion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere (depending on how quickly emissions of the gas are reduced); a feasible goal, but one that will only be met if governments, scientists and private enterprise join forces.

So, it doesn’t go far enough in setting goals to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and destroy the economy. Has he considered that AOC refuses to demand a vote on the GND, got upset when they voted on it in the Senate, and has even said that it’s more of a roadmap and not meant to be voted on?

Oh, and say good by to sodas and other carbonated drinks

Companies tackling this challenge have developed technologies that can take CO2 directly from the air, and they’re improving in efficiency every year. In order to finance the removal of CO2, they usually convert it into commercial products, although, with one exception, they don’t have markets large enough to finance the removal of significant amounts of CO2. Moreover, when these companies insert captured CO2 into products such as fizzy drinks, enhanced oil recovery (EOR), and green fuels, the CO2 is released back into the atmosphere. To make a real impact on the climate, we must permanently sequester the carbon.

Anyhow, as the piece continues to the end, he’s not particularly happy with capitalism and wants more private money used, which would only come from massive taxation schemes, because Warmists sure don’t want to spend their own money, right?