Climate Change, Renewable Energy and Energy SecurityOne metric used by the UN as a measure of progress is the extent to which a nation is transitioning away from fossil fuels, which are destructive to the environment, and toward renewable energy sources. The reason for this is simple: this transition is required to avoid an existential threat to human life on planet earth. One instructive measure is the percentage of primary energy which a nation creates using renewable sources, and in this regard the US (around 10 per cent) lags behind both the rest of the world (over 13 per cent) and the OECD (over 15 per cent). More worrying than the above statistics is the fact that this matter, like many issues within the American Empire, is perverted by partisan politics, special interests, money and misinformation. We should also consider the extent to which established, verifiable climate science is accepted by the American people. According to a wide-ranging analysis by the Pew Research Center, belief in the extent to which human activity is responsible for climate change is split down predictably partisan lines. Eighty-four per cent of liberal Democrats surveyed believe human activity “contributes a great deal to climate change”, with 96 per cent agreeing that human activity “contributes at least some amount to climate change”. This compares to only 14 per cent of conservative Republicans who agree that human activity contributes “a great deal” to climate change, though 53 per cent believe it plays at least some role. Most strikingly, 45 per cent say humans play “not too much” or no role at all in climate change. Herein lies the issue: in most developed countries the science has been accepted and progress can be made on an apolitical, bipartisan basis, but not in the American Empire. Published annually since 2005, the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) is another excellent resource on this topic, characterized by the team behind it as “an independent monitoring tool for tracking countries’ climate protection performance. It increases transparency in national and international climate policy and enables comparison of individual countries’ climate protection efforts and progress.” The US is ranked in 52nd place globally, up from 61st in 2021 but still far behind most developed countries. The CCPI’s report on the US gives the nation a very low (i.e. very bad) rating on its greenhouse gas emissions. Its climate policy under Joe Biden has been rated “medium”. Republican opposition in Congress has been a significant obstacle to progress, but the Biden administration was also unable to pass significant climate-related legislation, the Build Back Better Act, due in large part to the intransigence of Joe Manchin, a senator from coal-reliant West Virginia. His opposition, while couched in terms of protecting local jobs, may have something to do with his ties to the coal industry. Once again, following the money leads us right back to the American oligarchy. The influence of the US fossil fuels lobby is staggering: the oil and gas industry spends more than $120 million per year to control, delay or block policy dedicated to combating climate change. In the same manner as Big Pharma and Big Healthcare, the Big Oil lobby has ensured compliance from tame politicians through generous campaign funding. This is best illustrated by examining the reaction to the Biden administration’s decision to try to tame climate change by pausing new oil and gas leases in 2021, which was quickly denounced by 29 lawmakers. The reason for this? They had received contributions totaling $13.4 million from oil and gas interests and $23.6 million from energy and natural resources interests. These lawmakers routinely regurgitate industry-commissioned research and label any legislative efforts in this area as leftist or economic suicide, with no mention of their ties to the industry. Make sure to pay close attention to Chapter 3: Society … Decay from within to learn more!
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