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Close your eyes for a moment, and pretend there was a solution to all that ails you. Imagine you didn’t have to worry about politics, or yet another Facebook rant, or your health care disappearing into thin air. Imagine the environment was at long last on the path to being cleaned up, the water was sparkling, the cars electric. Imagine there was still progress, but it was the kind of progress we love here at The Good Men Project — progress towards openness and inclusiveness, where everyone is equal and anyone can marry who they want and you can be any kind of man you want, and the world is your oyster — not because you are elite or were born lucky (or “privileged” as some might say) — but because human rights for all humans matter.
If that sounds appealing, I’d urge you to read this post by Alex Steffen: Trump, Putin and the Pipelines to Nowhere. He says some pretty scary things about what is happening these days. He is, after all, a realist. But there is one very very optimistic piece of this.
There is a carbon bubble.
And here’s the thing about bubbles. They always pop.
A bubble, in economic terms, means that something is valuable now which won’t be valuable in the future. Alex Steffen believes that particular thing to be oil. Near catastrophic climate change is imminent, if not already happening. At the same time—we have the means to move away from oil and become zero-carbon societies. We have solar and wind technologies, electric cars, green buildings. Prices on those are plummeting. It’s all right there. What is stopping us from moving to a greener society?
The only thing stopping it is that there are a lot of people who will make a lot of money in the short term if the bubble continues to grow. And more importantly, if investor confidence believes that growth will continue for another decade or so.
This is why there are climate change deniers.
This is why there is a ban on climate research from the EPA.
This is why the Paris accord could be in jeopardy.
This is why pipelines are going through, despite protests by Native Americans and the fear of water contamination and violation of human rights.
This is why national park social media managers are tweeting out climate change data and becoming our new national heroes.
At any rate, read the article. See if you can envision whether popping the carbon bubble now can help create a world that is better, safer and stronger for generations to come.
I’m guessing you will.
Trump, Putin and the Pipelines to Nowhere
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