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Author Topic: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️  (Read 117190 times)

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AGelbert

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Re: 🚩 Global Climate Chaos ☠️
« Reply #1680 on: March 18, 2019, 02:13:45 pm »
THE POLITICS OF THE GREEN NEW DEAL: PART 2 ON CAPITAL

March 16, 2019/62 Comments/in Green New Deal /by Ed Walker 👍

Posts in this series Part 1 on Labor

In Part 1 I discuss some of the ways the working class will be affected by disruptions brought on by climate change, and some of the ways the Green New Deal proposes to ease those burdens. Climate change will also hurt capital and capitalists. It’s not possible to outline all the potential damage and disruption so I’ll just lay out some of the obvious problems.

Real estate investments are in danger. Some of that impact will be borne by small landholders, owners of vacation homes on Galveston Bay or condos on the beach in Naples FL, for example. But much of it will be borne by larger holders, such as owners of apartment complexes near the coasts, marinas, and commercial property near the coast, and the owner of Mar-a-Lago. Rising sea levels will also affect the infrastructure of cities on the coast, such as Miami, which is already planning to spend $100M on flood protection.

The coasts aren’t the only areas facing weather problems. Wind storms are becoming more serious; recently extraordinary winds blew the roof off a warehouse near Dallas. Here’s a Wikipedia page documenting tornadoes in the US in 2019. It shows we have already had 3 intense tornadoes, including the two that struck Alabama recently. We can expect more.

Wildfires are a terrifying danger in drought-stricken areas. PG&E, the California utility giant, filed bankruptcy January 29, 2019 to deal with its liability for damage from wildfires it caused. The Los Angeles Times wrote:

Quote
PG&E said a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, which allows the company to continue operating while it comes up with a plan to pay its debts, was the only way to deal with billions of dollars in potential liabilities from a series of deadly wildfires, many of which were sparked by the company’s power grid infrastructure.

Financial pressure has been mounting on PG&E since October 2017, when a series of wildfires ravaged Northern California, killing 44 people. State investigators determined that PG&E’s equipment sparked or contributed to more than a dozen of those fires, which killed 22 people. The company’s crisis only grew with the November 2018 Camp fire, which killed 86 people and destroyed most of the town of Paradise.

PG&E said a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, which allows the company to continue operating while it comes up with a plan to pay its debts, was the only way to deal with billions of dollars in potential liabilities from a series of deadly wildfires, many of which were sparked by the company’s power grid infrastructure.

Financial pressure has been mounting on PG&E since October 2017, when a series of wildfires ravaged Northern California, killing 44 people. State investigators determined that PG&E’s equipment sparked or contributed to more than a dozen of those fires, which killed 22 people. The company’s crisis only grew with the November 2018 Camp fire, which killed 86 people and destroyed most of the town of Paradise.

PG&E arranged a $5.5bn interim loan from a consortium of banks but creditors objected and then the Bankruptcy Judge stated serious concerns. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Judge noted that PG&E was under criminal probation after a criminal conviction on six counts arising from the deadly San Bruno fire. The federal District Court in that case imposed a public safety regime on PG&E, and the later fires might be deemed to be the result of violations of parole, in which case the supervising court could replace management. That would be a breach of the financing loan. The Bankruptcy Judge also noted the strong possibility of more wildfires in 2019, saying that more damages could tip PG&E into default. Either default would give the bank lenders control of the company in Chapter 11 and the creditors objected to that possibility. The costs of this bankruptcy are horrendous, and will be borne at least in part by people forced to be customers of PG&E because it’s a monopoly. Some shareholders have suffered losses in stock value, and more may be lost. The stock is down $50 since September 2017 to about $20. It’s an ugly story and it’s going to be repeated.

Climate change will also damage the 🐉🦕🦖 oil and gas industry 👍😀. A number of huge petrochemical plants and refineries are located in hurricane territory. Here’s a detailed map; see for yourself. Last year refineries on the gulf coast of Texas were hit by Hurricane Harvey. Harvey weakened to a Category 3 hurricane before making landfall, and the damage was mostly from flooding. The loss of capacity caused spikes in gasoline prices for consumers. Some of the losses to refineries will be covered by insurance. But insurance companies are just for spreading risk, not eating it, and that implies a rise in the cost of insurance. Here’s an excellent article by Bradley Hope and Nicole Friedman in the Wall Street Journal from October 2018, focused on the impact on reinsurance companies. Here’s a taste related to studies predicting increased likelihood of hurricanes in the Persian Gulf:

Quote
“Climate change makes the historical record of extreme weather an unreliable indicator of the current risk,” says Stephen Pacala, a board member at Hamilton Insurance Group Ltd. and a Princeton professor, who wasn’t involved in the study. “So, what’s the insurance industry to do? No hurricane has ever threatened the massive unarmored oil and gas infrastructure in the Persian Gulf.”

So what dose the Green New Deal offer to capital?

Section 2.1 (I think; whoever made up this numbering system is a traitor to clarity) calls for

… building resiliency against climate change-related disasters, such as extreme weather, including by leveraging funding and providing investments for community-defined projects and strategies …

The emphasis on community planning is notable. Section 2.2 calls for rebuilding infrastructure. Section 2.4 calls for upgrading the power grid. Section 2.5 calls for rebuilding existing buildings to improve durability among other things. Section 4.1 requires insuring sufficient capital for entities, including businesses, working on the goals of the Green New Deal. Section 4.4 calls for educating workers so they can handle the new work that will need to be done. Section 4.11 calls “… enacting and enforcing trade rules, procurement standards, and border adjustments with strong labor and environmental protections ….” Section 4.14 calls for strict enforcement of anti-trust and other laws to encourage competition and discourage monopoly.

I’d say that’s a fairly strong plan for decent businesses under the Green New Deal. True, it doesn’t give capital a free hand to make the overarching decisions, and it doesn’t give capital all the money, and it has other provisions that hem in capital, but it sure doesn’t sound like the socialist dystopia the 🐉🦕🦖 Republicans are shrieking about.

https://www.emptywheel.net/2019/03/16/the-politics-of-the-green-new-deal-part-2-on-capital/

Agelbert NOTE: The above series of, (two, so far) articles makes crystal clear that the Green New Deal is NOT some "irrational pie in the sky" energy and social justice reform proposition. Nevertheless, CAPITALISTS in general, and Fossil Fuelers in particular, still alternate between mocking dismissal and wailing, moaning and shrieking about the "violation" of the Laws of Thermodynamics while, of course 😉, remaining silent as death about the ENERGY WELFARE QUEEN POLLUTER GOVERNMENT HAND OUTS, that are the ONLY REASON those energy "industry" crooks and liars continue to be "profitable".



The fossil fueler propaganda baloney about the "violation" of the Laws of Thermodynamics that a 100% Renewable Energy powered economy represents, and is therefore "impossible", has been debunked over and over again by scientists who actually understand Thermodynamics and are NOT being paid by the polluter energy "industries" to bad mouth Renewable Energy infrastructure.

Amory Lovins is physicist. He has been a scientist for the Rocky Mountain Institute for over 30 years. He forced the math on fluid mechanics formulas in engineering courses to be corrected when he proved they were wrong with instruments he invented and used. This was decades ago. He is an EXPERT in maximizing the efficiency of energy using devices.

Since then he has been on the forefront of patiently explaining to all who would listen objectively that the status quo energy system is so ruinously wasteful that we could reduce our energy use by 80% by switching to 100% Renewable Energy, that is mostly NOT CENTRALIZED, as is now the case for Fossil Fuel and Nuclear powered DIRTY energy, but harvested and distributed near the point of use. Amory Lovins has, with peer reviewed studies and published papers, made the case that human civilization can operate, at the standard of living we know have (which is nothing to brag about outside of first world countries, but he 👨‍🔬 has proposed solutions there as well. ;D), with 20% of the energy we NOW USE.

Below you can see a graphic from Amory Lovins clearly displaying the ruinously wasteful, and therefore stupidly biosphere damaging, electrical grid energy system based on coal fired power plants:


As you can see, the Laws of Thermodynamics do NOT need to be "violated" to massively reduce the energy use in our civilization, even without ANY reduction in the amount of electricity we use in the home. THe Fossil Fuelers KNOW THIS. They also KNOW that, if the inefficiencies are taken out of the present system, as Amory Lovins is not just proposing, but actually making it happen in many places all over the world as I write this (go to the Rocky Mountain Institute web site if you do not believe me!), the CONSUMPTION, along with the DEMAND (see: DEMAND DESTRUCTION )for the fossil fuel polluting PRODUCT will plummet. They do not want taht. They want us all to believe the BULLSHIT that the system we have is "efficient" and the "best there is" and "we are alla gonna die" if we get rid of fossil fuels, nuclear power (and subsides for those profit over planet "loyal servants").

It is, I admit, a clever pitch. Most people are unaware that the level of waste in our energy system is BY DESIGN. More WASTE means more USE OF THE PRODUCT, get it? If you don't, you do not understand the Fossil Fuel Ideology. Any Fossil Fueler=CAPITALIST understands that the more product you sell at a (guaranteed by corrupted Government Welfare Queen subsidies ) profit, the more money you have to further corrupt the government to strangle Renewable Energy competitors in a Fascist Utopia Captive Market Pipeline Dream.



You are being lied to. The current system is a biosphere destroying system. We need it like a dog needs ticks. We CAN MASSIVELY lower our carbon footprint, bankrupt the polluters and make great strides towards improved SOCIAL JUSTICE.

Finally, please look at this graphic I prepared some years ago. After that, look at the map referenced in the article. we CAN switch to FAR MORE that 100% Renewable Energy.


I only clicked on the Geothermal power plants but on the map linked in the article, you can unclick everything but coal and you can see that far too much of our grid electricity still comes from coal. This is stupid and unnecessary.


WE can go to 150% EASILY. We can use that extra energy to start sucking that excess CO2 out of the atmosphere. NO, we don't need to build a lot of gadgets to do that! All we need to do is grow Azolla and/or Lemna minor (duckweed) in vast desert areas on the earth. It could take 50 years or more to get back to 350 PPM of CO2, depending on how fast we scaled the building (with Renewable Energy powered equipment) of 3' deep huge ponds tended with Renewable Energy water pumps and fertilized with pig feces (there are a lot more pigs than there are people on this planet!). Planting trees will help but it is too slow compared with the aquatic plants I just referenced in the ability to exctract CO2 from the atmosphere. For energy we need to go 150% Renewable. For CO2 removal we need millions of acres of fast growing fresh water aquatic plant growing ponds all over the planet, NOT Carbon Sequestering SCAMS like this one shown below:

Carbon Capture Technofix Scam by Big Oil

REAL WORLD solutions EXIST. The Green New Deal is just the first step. The Zero Hour platform is the framework of ACTION on Energy, Climate Change and SOCIAL JUSTICE that must be followed if we are to survive. THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE, no matter what the nutball fossil fuelers and nuke pukes claim.

Zero Hour Just 🦅 Transition

Zero Hour Platform and attacks on them by the Hydrocarbon Hellspawn 🦕🦖

« Last Edit: March 20, 2019, 06:29:03 pm by AGelbert »
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

 

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