Pirate's Cove

I told you the LA Times was a on a big roll with the climate crisis scam. Here’s another (Yahoo piece here)

Op-Ed: Climate change is a big problem. Citizens must demand many small solutions

The world is on fire. The flames are hard to see, because we hide them so well. But you can hear them — in the whine of jet engines as planes streak across the sky, in the rumble of power plants as they send electricity surging over power lines, in the purr of your car engine as you drive to work.

Every person living in a well-off country contributes to the conflagration. When you and your neighbors turn on your lights at night, a coal- or gas-burning power plant somewhere will most likely increase its fuel use — just a smidgen — to supply the electricity.

Many people are trying to help, in their own ways — perhaps by buying a Prius or an electric car, recycling diligently, installing smart thermostats, eating less meat, maybe contributing money to an environmental group. These actions are important, but by themselves they are not enough. The world will not be saved by conscientious “green consumers” who decide, one family at a time, to drive less or install solar panels on the roof. The problem is just too big for that.

Instead, we all need to become “green citizens.” We need to focus, together, on a relatively small number of public policies that can, over time, bring about sweeping change.

Strange how this always comes to Government Authority, eh? Especially since most of these “green consumers” aren’t.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 passed by Congress will help by using tax subsidies to make clean energy more affordable, which should speed the construction of wind and solar farms, hasten the switch to electric cars and much more. But Congress did not clear away many of the obstacles that are slowing change. And a lot of those issues are under the control of state and local governments.

This means much of the work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will need to be done by local leaders, spurred on by their citizens. A prime example is the need to improve our building codes.

Buildings are one of the nation’s largest sources of carbon dioxide emissions. It will be impossible to meaningfully slow global climate change without cleaning up America’s buildings, and the way to do it is to subject them to new rules.

As if housing costs in California aren’t high enough already. And there’s’ lots and lots on government building codes

Too many Americans feel paralyzed by the climate crisis. It is a daunting problem, but the idea that we as citizens can do little about it reflects a poverty of imagination. If you’re tired of feeling helpless with a sense of impending doom, put on your marching shoes and make some political demands.

Yes, yes, let’s empower government with more dictatorial controls.