One-by-one, the excuses for failing to act on climate change are disappearing.
Earlier this month, China proved that it's possible to quickly and dramatically reduce carbon emissions. According to an analysis by Greenpeace, our planet's largest greenhouse gas emitter reduced coal use by about 8 percent in a single year.
That reduction is roughly equivalent to all of the carbon dioxide emitted by the United Kingdom over that same period. And, it proves that lawmakers who say that China's pollution makes our climate action irrelevant are really just looking for excuses.
Another one of the Right's favorite excuses is that we can't get renewable energy up and running fast enough to replace fossil fuels, but that claim is also falling apart.
Just this week, the International Renewable Energy Agency announced that the number of people employed in that industry jumped by 18 percent from the previous year. That means that 1.2 million people found jobs in the renewable energy industry last year alone.
With that type of growth, it's clear that green energy could power our world much sooner than the fossil fuel industry would like us to believe. All of the claims keeping us from making the switch to clean energy are nothing but myths, and Big Oil is quickly running out of excuses.
The fact is, the only real reason that the fossil fuel industry – and their lackeys in Congress – oppose renewable energy is because of the threat to their mountain of profit. Because that is the only thing that matters to the corporate elite.
We have the technology to make the switch, the green energy industry can grow fast enough to handle it, and the world is making progress way faster than we are. In order to solve the climate crisis – the most important issue that we've ever faced – we must keep smashing these myths and strengthening our understanding of science.
-Thom
(What do you think? Tell us
here.)
