For too many years, governments and corporations alike urged us puny citizens to do our part without bothering to do theirs
This essay is excerpted from Arno Kopecky’s forthcoming book on humanity’s engagement with the crisis of our times. The Environmentalist’s Dilemma (ECW Press)arrives in bookstores this October; pre-orders are available here.
Efforts are being blocked by the fossil fuel industry—probably the most powerful set of interests on earth.
For years, it was assumed the world wouldn't start seriously tackling climate change until we were directly confronted with its horrors—thereby revealing how truly reckless humans are.
A key point in the text is the need for one or more political organizations that have the organizing capacity to go beyond unions in fostering an understanding of the need for CLASS Solidarity! - Gene McGuckin
A wealth tax would raise badly-needed revenue. More importantly, it could reduce the fortunes—and power—of billionaires
In 2008, just after the election of Barack Obama, the two of us were trying to peddle an idea for a book decrying the rise of billionaires. A New York publisher told us he loved our proposal but it came too late. With Obama’s election, he said, the super-rich would soon be hit by steep taxes that would start depleting their fortunes. Their day in the sun was done.
New pipelines could help Canada export more tar sands, boosting the bottom lines of Alberta’s oil producers. But experts warn that Canada is charting a ‘path to climate crisis.’
Wall Street analysts are advising their clients to invest in Canadian tar sands companies on the expectation that the highly controversial Line 3 and Trans Mountain Expansion pipelines overcome Indigenous-led public opposition and reach completion.
The industry has been pushing through policies devoting billions of dollars to the technology, and much more is likely to come with legislation pending before Congress.
Over the last year, energy companies, electrical utilities and other industrial sectors have been quietly pushing through a suite of policies to support a technology that stands to yield tens of billions of dollars for corporate polluters, but may do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Ace researchers dropped two blockbuster reports on us last week. The first — from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC — hit on Monday with a worldwide thunderclap.
