Earth Day 2023 and our fatal affinity for fossil fuels

The starting point for any discussion of Earth Day 2023 is the climate report released late last month by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Think about the IPCC members as the scientists in disaster movies who try to warn indifferent political officials about the doomsday natural disasters that predictably devastate the earth after their scientific advice is ignored.

Earth Day is a celebration for many people, but a party would be premature, according to the panel’s research. The report catalogs the dangerously elevated level of fossil fuel emissions that exist in the earth’s atmosphere. The study highlights the urgent need to reduce the carbon output and subsequent warming trend by 2035, which is only 12 years away. The panel of scientists warns, “The world is running out of time to avoid catastrophe.”

The comments on the IPCC study from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres include chilling statements, such as “Humanity is on thin ice — and that ice is melting.” And “The climate time bomb is ticking.” He added that the “IPCC report is a how-to guide to defuse the climate time bomb” and that “it will take a quantum leap in climate action” to avoid disaster. Discussing the scientific evidence, Ani Dasgupta, the president of the World Resources Institute, stated, “Our planet is already reeling from severe climate impacts, from scorching heat waves and disastrous storms to severe drought and water shortages.”

Fortunately, most Americans understand the alarming need to confront the crisis head-on — even if Republicans in Congress don’t. The public support for climate change action should not come as a surprise. Millions of people who watch news shows are treated to a heavy dose of weather disasters that reap personal and economic havoc over the length of breadth of our great nation. The crazy weather that has brought drought to the Western U.S., tornadoes to the Mid-South and flooding to the eastern part of the nation.

A new national survey by the Pew Research Center demonstrates that the public sees the connection between the climate emergency and fossil fuels. Seven out of every 10 people favor President Biden’s goal of net-neutral carbon emissions by 2050. About the same number of people believe that the government should prioritize the development of clean energy such as wind and solar power over fossil fuels like oil and coal. Almost all Democrats and most independents want a big change in the energy mix to fight climate change and meet the president’s climate benchmark. Less than half of the Republican identifiers in the body politic feel the way same.

The GOP theme song for the impending environmental doomsday is “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”

The GOP’s fatal affinity for fossil fuels is an insult to public opinion. Climate deniers, like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), seem to take pride in in their disregard of scientific facts and disdain for the looming environmental disaster. Greene recently tweeted that “if you believe that today’s ‘climate change’ is caused by too much carbon, you have been fooled.” A few years ago, she endorsed the notion that wildfires in the American west were caused by “Jewish space lasers.” Given the falsity of these statements, we should take her views on weather with many heavy grains of salt. 

Unfortunately, most Republicans and even a few Democrats feel the same way. They believe that the president’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 is extreme, but the IPCC analysis is that the world will suffer greatly if we don’t reach that standard by 2035.

Republican indifference and the avarice of the Big Oil companies have generated billions of dollars in federal subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. The oil companies, the ultimate welfare queens, are reaping record profits but they’re still on the government dole. Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act passed by Congress last year contains much-needed federal aid for the clean energy development, but that support is just a pittance compared to the money that Big Oil gets in federal aid.

While Americans want to focus more on development of clean energy, many Republicans want to reduce the small amount of money that we have started to spend on alternatives to fossil fuels to respond to the looming climate emergency. The Freedom Caucus, a powerful and influential group within the GOP majority in the House of Representatives, just released a plan to cut climate funding that was part of Biden’s aggressively forward-looking legislation. A better course of action for budget hawks would be to eliminate tax breaks for oil companies, which is the president’s proposal.

Earth Day is a chance to celebrate the world’s natural splendors or an opportunity to mourn its impending decline. But the anniversary must herald the urgency to act to preserve our natural legacy. We ignore the climate crisis at our own peril!

 Brad Bannon is a Democratic pollster, CEO of Bannon Communications Research and the host of his weekly “aggressively progressive” podcast, “Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon.” Follow him on Twitter: @BradBannon