The Age of Green Economics

In the run-up to the December 2007 Bali talks, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that we have entered a new historical era: "We have witnessed three economic transformations in the past century. First came the Industrial Revolution, then the technology revolution, then our modern era of globalization. We stand at the threshold of another great change: the age of green economics." According to Ki-moon, capitalism can solve the crisis it has created by investing in alternative energy, thereby generating huge profits and millions of jobs. "Handled correctly, our fight against global warming could set the stage for an eco-friendly transformation of the global economy -- one that spurs growth and development rather than crimps it, as many nations fear."

A Dry Las Vegas?

A new computer modelling study conducted at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography suggests that one of the West's biggest boomtowns may go bust in a little more than a decade. The study concludes "that human demand, natural forces like evaporation, and human-induced climate change are creating a net deficit of nearly 1 million acre-feet of water per year from the Colorado River system that includes Lake Mead and Lake Powell. " As a result, Lake Mead, the source of 90 percent of Las Vegas' water, stands a 50/50 chance of going dry by 2021.

Mixed Green Consciousness

According to a December 2007 GfK Roper poll, three quarters of Americans plan to reduce their household energy consumption and recycle more in 2008. Two thirds planned to reduce their use of household chemicals. One third reported feelings of guilt about not making more environmentally responsible lifestyle choices. The results show the depth to which the politics of green consumerism have penetrated popular consciousness in the last few years.

At the same time, an October 2007 poll conducted by the same company shows that most Americans recognize that environmental problems require large-scale responses by society as a whole. Three quarters of respondents supported efforts by local governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by subsidizing alternative energy sources, passing stringent efficiency regulations, and zoning to reduce sprawl, even if doing so would mean higher property taxes, utility bills, fuel prices, and housing costs.

Bush Monkeys with Science

On the same day that the US delegation in Bali called for dropping numerical targets for cuts in greenhouse gases by rich nations, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (COGR) issued a report stating that the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) routinely edited policy documents and scientific reports to cast doubt on the reality of global warming. In the COGR report's words, "the Bush Administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policymakers and the public about the dangers of global warming" (i). Republicans claim that the COGR is just a partisan dog pack. After all, it is chaired by Los Angeles Democrat, Rep. Henry Waxman. But the committee's claims have been corroborated by an extensive report published by the independent watchdog group, the Government Accountability Project.

During the first Bush term, the White House CEQ was headed by Philip Cooney, who had spent the previous 15 years as a lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute (API). An API brief entitled “Global Climate Science Communications Action Plan,” likely authored in part by Clooney, states that "Victory will be achieved when … average citizens 'understand' uncertainties in climate science; … recognition of uncertainties becomes part of the 'conventional wisdom'" (122).

Under Cooney, the CEQ vetted all media requests for interviews with scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, steering reporters to people who would question whether global warming was in fact happening and if so whether it was caused by human activities. After Hurricane Katrina, there was a concerted White House effort "to direct media inquiries to scientists who did not think climate change was linked to increased hurricane intensity" (7).

On several occasions, staffers at CEQ and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) exercised advance censorship of the congressional testimony of government scientists, systematically weakening and even removing statements about the human causes and potential effects of global warming. In the case of Dr. Julie Gerberding, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they eliminated two entire sections entitled “Climate Change is a Public Health Concern” and “Climate Change Vulnerability.”

CEQ staffers also extensively edited key government documents, like the Climate Change Science Program's Strategic Plan and its report to Congress, Our Changing Planet. CEQ staffers eliminated an entire chapter on climate change from the EPA's 2002 report, Latest Findings on National Air Quality. The next year, when EPA employees objected angrily to CEQ changes to the Report on the Environment, agency head Christine Todd Whitman simply withdrew the section on global warming altogether.

The COGR's investigation only reveals the tip of the iceberg when it comes to manipulation of climate science. In a survey of 1600 climate researchers conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists, almost half of respondents reported experiencing some form of political interference with their work during the Bush presidency. One of the nastier examples is a revival of McCarthyite tactics by Joe Barton, chairman of the House of Representatives committee on energy and commerce. After a Wall Street Journal report singled out three top climate scientists and questioned their work, Barton used the investigative powers of his committee to demand copies of everything they had ever published, all their raw data, and information on their sources of funding.

Finally, the Bush Administration has monkeyed with the science of many more issues than global warming. Others include abortion, contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, drug use, stem cell research, and evolution. As early as 2003, the COGR reported a pattern of "misleading statements by the President, inaccurate responses to Congress, altered web sites, suppressed agency reports, erroneous international communications, and the gagging of scientists. The subjects involved span a broad range, but they share a common attribute: the beneficiaries of the scientific distortions are important supporters of the President, including social conservatives and powerful industry groups."

Green and Gated

The United Arab Emirates has announced plans for Masdar City, a high-tech, zero-emissions, zero-waste subdivision near Abu Dhabi International Airport. This solar-powered, car-free, walled city will allow about 50,000 wealthy residents to live the enviro-capitalist dream of a zero-impact life. The project is projected to cost $22 billion.

Money for War, Not for Warming

According to a new study by the Institute for Policy Studies, "For the 2008 fiscal year, the government budgeted $647.51 billion for military security. It budgeted $7.37 billion to slow climate change." In other words, "For every dollar allocated for stabilizing the climate, the government will spend $88 on achieving security by military force." This is actually an improvement. For the last five years, the ratio has averaged 97 to 1.

Biofuels Make Warming Worse

The New York Times reports that two studies published in Science show that "almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these 'green' fuels are taken into account...." Biofuels sound good on paper, since plants absorb CO2 as they grow, offsetting what is released when the fuel is burned. But the land use changes associated with biofuel production heavily outweigh this marginal benefit. As rain forests and other wild plant communities are destroyed to allow for production of fuel crops, they release their stored carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Even when existing farmland is used to grow plants for fuel, food production is simply displaced into new areas. "The clearance of grassland releases 93 times the amount of greenhouse gas that would be saved by the fuel made annually on that land."

The Road to Hell

Local governments across the US have enthusiastically taken up the fight against global warming, committing themselves to reducing CO2 emissions significantly in the next few decades. But they're quickly finding that it's easier to make commitments than to fulfill them. "Constraints on budgets, legal restrictions by states, and people’s unwillingness to change sometimes put brakes on [their] ambitious plans...."

It's the Economy, Stupid

Paul Monbiot points out that economic growth "could be 32 times a big an environmental issue as population." Sometime in the next century, world population is expected to stabilize at around 10 billion, or about 50% higher than its current level. The world economy, on the other hand, will grow by 1600% larger if it grows at just 3% per year. "By 2115, the cumulative total rises to 3,200%, by 2138 to 6,400%. As resources are finite, this is of course impossible, but it is not hard to see that rising economic activity - not human numbers - is the immediate and overwhelming threat." Monbiot notes that we rarely hear anyone complain that "people like us are breeding too fast" and to suggest "that population growth is largely responsible for the ecological crisis is to blame the poor for the excesses of the rich."