Last summer, walking from the beach to my apartment in Tel Aviv, I saw an older man approaching on the opposite sidewalk. I would not have given him a second glance if not for his shirt. Bright green, it had the outline of planet Earth and the words, “THERE IS NO PLANET B.”
In late February, President Obama vetoed a fourth addition to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which would add some 1,200 miles of pipeline to an existing portion that runs from Nebraska to the Gulf Coast. TransCanada, the company behind the proposal, received approval to construct the first leg of the Keystone Pipeline in 2008. The second and third legs were finished by July 2010 and Jan. 2014, respectively, and by the second month of 2014 Keystone was smoothly moving crude oil from Alberta to Texas.
In the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on the Keystone XL Pipeline, the U.S. State Department concluded, “approval or denial of any one crude oil transport project. . . is unlikely to significantly impact the rate of extraction in the oil sands or the continued demand for heavy crude oil at refineries in the United States.”
Yet, despite marginal environmental impact and exceedingly modest job creation, the Keystone XL proposal garnered extensive media attention and was vociferously denounced by environmental groups across the country. Keystone XL became a political cudgel for Republicans to undermine Obama’s relationship with his left-leaning constituency and, for some Democrats, one to reaffirm the Republican intractability concerning environmental sustainability. Framing climate change as a partisan issue creates unnecessary controversy over minimally substantive projects — such as an extension to Keystone XL — and makes environmental consciousness a political bellwether rather than a social imperative. Climate change is occurring: the Earth is experiencing universally rising temperatures, and human activity — namely, anthropogenic emission of greenhouse gases — is the cause. Use of fossil fuels and the industrial processes of extraction and refinement produce more than half of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
In a previous column, I wrote of the American tendency toward insular conversation and hyperbole, but perhaps more insidious is the proclivity — universally present, not just in Americans — to focus energy on short-term considerations, for reasons of convenience and a myopic “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” ethos. The U.S. government consistently underfunds sustainable energy research and development, and though we are second in the world in nominal clean energy investment (after China), said investment is equivalent to a mere 1.5 percent of total federal spending in 2014. Most American citizens do not consider global warming a pressing public policy concern.
There is hope, however. Enthusiasm for clean energy from investors is growing, and there has been a boom in solar power investment due to falling prices of photovoltaics (PVs, or solar panels) and unprecedentedly low oil prices in 2015. The current economic climate makes it financially beneficial to weigh divestment from large fossil fuel companies, especially considering evidence that most of the remaining fossil fuel reserves must remain in the ground if governments aim to cap the global temperature rise at two degrees Celsius. Coal is a particularly egregious contributor to global warming, producing almost 40 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.
Our University relies on substantive, regular shipments of “America’s dirtiest energy source,” fired in a plant on Grounds. According to the University of Virginia magazine, “To keep U.Va. warm for a week during a typical mid-winter cold spell, U.Va. facility workers first pile up more than 1.5 million pounds of coal, then pipe in some 25 million cubic feet of natural gas.” The University would do well to begin by reducing dependence on coal and increasing use of natural gas, which is cleaner, and can feasibly be used as a “bridge fuel” between carbon emissions-heavy fuels and renewable energy sources. The Environmental Information Agency already forecasts a marginal decrease in coal consumption in the United States over the next two years; this number could be further reduced if private shareholders and public institutions emulate the strategy of the Norwegian Norges Bank, which has divested from companies “involved in coal mining. . . [and] coal-fired power production.”
We need to recognize that there is no Planet B — so we must keep Planet A inhabitable. That means prioritizing the search for modes of sustainable living and supporting government action to that end. Opinion columnist Will Evans recently urged environmental activists to “set aside [their] megaphones” and establish open discourse about climate change to galvanize informed support for divestment from fossil fuel companies. I agree, yet a response to climate change is more a matter of practicality than of ethics. Climate change is dangerous and threatens our prosperity and our survival. To protect our interests it must be prevented, and in our current economic climate steps can be taken to do so, with minor inconvenience.
Tamar Ziff is a Viewpoint Writer.
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