Mr. McMurdie and Mr. Knutson,
Thank you for your replies to my column “Climate change is real, folks,” which was in fact supposed to be titled “Time for some change.” (It was changed after submission.) I always appreciate hearing back from people, even when they disagree.
You both wrote about the possibility of hindering the U.S. economy in the process of moving toward using greener energy sources in your letters. So let”s set the subject of climate change aside and talk economics.
My question for you both is: how is that economy working for y”all?
Maybe you both happen to be well off, but a poor economy still negatively affects the society the rich live in. So I”m asking, in one of the most developed countries in the world with one of the highest gaps in inequality in the world (followed only by the developed countries of Chile, Turkey and Mexico and notably higher in economic inequality than in the “undeveloped” countries of Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Ethiopia, according to The World Bank and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)), how is that economy working for you?
The economy that Knutson argues is “the greatest economic engine in world history,” I would argue, is not doing so well at providing for the people who work to keep it going. I am in no way an economist, but when the top 1 percent of earners in the U.S. has 40 percent of the country”s wealth, while the bottom 80 percent owns 7 percent of it, it sounds to me like there”s a knock in our great economic engine.
Remember that the capitalist economy you seek to protect is the same that failed the American people just six years ago, which was unarguably at the hands of the big banks that got too greedy. The banks were bailed out with $600 billion of our taxpayer dollars and then proceeded to spend a good portion of it on CEO bonuses. How quickly we forget the corrupt ways this economy keeps itself going at the expense of so many.
I repeat my point from my last column: big corporations will not tell the truth when it means a shift in what industries the economy relies upon. The corporations will tell you that without its industry, everything will fall apart.
What better way to rearrange the distribution of wealth in this country than to begin changing which industries we rely upon though? I couldn”t begin to think of a better solution.
The move toward greener energy isn”t a pipe dream. It”s quite possible and whether you think its necessary for the planet or not, I think it would be hard to argue that new industry would be a bad thing for this economy.
Mr. Knutson, who urged me to do a little research into the aspects of the “problem,” might also do well to research the emerging renewable energy industries and the ways that they can help boost an economy that is currently suffocating under the control of oil mongers such as the Koch brothers.
To start, let”s look at solar panels and windmills, which tap the energy of the sun and wind, which are both free. As those technologies increase in availability, manufacturing costs will be lowered as they don”t have to purchase energy that requires an ever-more expensive and soon-to-be exhausted resources. Secondly, as the demand for renewable energy increases, so too will the demand for its associated machinery, parts and expertise increase, which fuels job creation. Thirdly, renewable energy is typically more labor intensive than fossil fuel energy production, also increasing jobs. The list goes on.
My point is that a shift to greener energy solutions isn”t going to be what takes our economy down. What will kill our economy is staying on the same course because we”re afraid the profiting industries are right when they say we can”t do it without them.
I”m sure that when the abolishment of slavery was being considered in the 1860s, people argued that the economy would suffer then too. But just as with the inevitable transition to greener energy that I believe will eventually become absolutely necessary, the fear of a harmed economy is not enough of an excuse to push against it by itself.
I don”t think that anyone can argue that our current use of natural resources causes harm to the earth and in turn, harms the human race unless they are severely uneducated. Maybe you can argue that climate change isn”t becoming a reality, but you must understand that the planet can only take so much and at some point we will have to make some changes in our way of living. The beautiful thing about transitioning to greener energy solutions though is that it will help revitalize our economy, if that is what we are most concerned with here.
