The following blog is a response to class discussions in ECON 3960 Full Spectrum Responses to Climate Change.
Personal changes are important in order to keep the reality of climate change present in our everyday lives and to live consistently with our values; however, individual actions cannot solve fossil fuel dominance.
We've discussed that we lack the political will to make progress. That is part of the challenge and we must work to build political will, but even more important is the act of working to build political power. How I look at doing that can be a discussion maybe for later.
No matter what, our actions now will require collective cooperation and need to be directed against the systems that produce cycles of dependency, what we might call the "path dependencies" of society. We should understand fossil fuel dominance to be a problem that functions on a global market and also has imperialist characteristics. That having been said, we can start wherever we have the most direct power to change-that is to say, locally and regionally, yet never forgetting the ultimate aim of abolishing the fossil fuel industry and the economic system that gave it so much power in the first place, capitalism.
Personal changes are important in order to keep the reality of climate change present in our everyday lives and to live consistently with our values; however, individual actions cannot solve fossil fuel dominance.
We've discussed that we lack the political will to make progress. That is part of the challenge and we must work to build political will, but even more important is the act of working to build political power. How I look at doing that can be a discussion maybe for later.
No matter what, our actions now will require collective cooperation and need to be directed against the systems that produce cycles of dependency, what we might call the "path dependencies" of society. We should understand fossil fuel dominance to be a problem that functions on a global market and also has imperialist characteristics. That having been said, we can start wherever we have the most direct power to change-that is to say, locally and regionally, yet never forgetting the ultimate aim of abolishing the fossil fuel industry and the economic system that gave it so much power in the first place, capitalism.
The following goals form the first phase. Phase I is what can probably be accomplished with our current political status. There is a lot more that could be done in later phases, but those depend on shifting political power.
PHASE I
1.) Outliers first. The worst polluters are industrial sources, shutting those down will have the most dramatic effect on emissions. Fortunately, the clean air coalitions are taking this approach and supporting those efforts and bills to the utmost will hopefully create some inroads there. Urban space is an outlier compared with rural space, yet rural space will definitely need to be addressed. I have thoughts about it that I won't go into here.
2.) New Path Dependencies. Demand solar sources for mass transit and charging stations for electric cars. The expansion of mass-transit and electric cars will continue to depend on coal-fired power sources until the sources to the grid change to clean sources. Also, demand re-designed cities that take pedestrian, cycling, and other human powered vehicles seriously and make it more attractive to move this way than by car. Provide alternative fuels for fossil fuel based engines. Continue the expansion of solar and smart-grids until homes, apartments, and commercial buildings are heated by solar instead of coal or natural gas. This also lays the groundwork "carrot" so that if and when a carbon tax or other "stick" is used to shut down fossil fuel sources forcibly and disincentives are in place that make fossil fuel expensive, the public has viable alternatives that don't devastate their economic means.
3. Internalize Social Costs. Socially internalize the economic costs disproportionately born by workers in the Fossil Fuel industry. This means advocating union jobs in alternative energy and not allowing contracts with cities or states to go forward without the right for workers to organize and have at least equivalent positions in alternative energy. Unions should be at the negotiating table when state contracts are drawn. There are lots more good ideas for internalizing social costs than can be presented here. Suffice it to say, caring about workers means gaining allies in the struggle instead of dividing the public interest.
4.) Build it Now. Participate in and/or support low-carbon community actions and experiments and press them to become more inclusive and egalitarian. Using public space for community efforts utilizes more or less open doors to more sustainable urban communities. Support economic equality actions like higher minimum wage, taxing the rich, accelerating the formation of worker owned co-operatives. Local is good, creating equality locally is better. Learning permaculture and egalitarian economics becomes the laboratory for future ways of living and new low and no carbon path dependencies. Societies with highly unequal economics produce highly unequal political power; therefore, building the economic power of communities of workers produces a material basis and freedom that compounds political power- including action against the fossil fuel industry.
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