The Lever - There's A Climate Bomb In The Debt Deal

Over the weekend, President Biden and GOP leaders negotiated a proposed bill to raise the debt ceiling. Buried in the new bill that freezes spending is a provision brushing aside climate science and granting Sen. Joe Manchin’s wish to expedite the construction of a giant fossil fuel pipeline during the climate crisis.

Experts say the pipeline would produce emissions equivalent to 26 coal plants or 19 million passenger cars at a moment when scientists insist that we must stop such fossil fuel development in order to avert the worst effects of climate change.

As at least one lawmaker says he will try to remove the pipeline provisions from the bill, we have an important guest column today on the climate crisis and what we need to do about it from friend of The Lever Adam McKay, director and co-writer with David Sirota of the hit film Don’t Look Up. As McKay notes, “there are really obvious things we should and could be doing” to fight climate change — and he spells them out in today’s story below.

Also:

• Lever Time Premium: On this week’s bonus podcast episode, exclusively for The Lever’s supporting subscribers, David Sirota sits down with political theorist Adolph Reed Jr. to discuss his new book No Politics But Class Politics. To get access to Lever Time Premium and listen in, click here.
• Movies vs. Capitalism: On the latest episode of the Movies vs. Capitalism podcast, Rivka and Frank are joined by David Sirota to break down the series finale of HBO’s Succession. Click here to hear the episode — and be sure to subscribe!

Rock the boat.

Adam McKay joins climate change protestors in Los Angeles in 2022. (AP Photo / Damian Dovarganes)

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The hot, pissed off, oil-caked cat is now out of the bag.

We will likely cross 1.5 degrees Celsius (or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of global warming beyond pre-industrial levels in the next two to four years. This is the temperature at which scientists have warned, for quite some time, serious destabilization may occur. While global temperatures are usually measured as the longer-term trend line rather than a single year’s temperature, 1.5C is a frightening threshold to cross.

Rather than feeling powerless, frustrated, and terrified at this moment, it’s vitally important we take a beat to remember one very important thing:

It's not supposed to be like this.

Collectively, we’ve gotten very used to governments, media, and industry across the world rarely, if ever, solving problems. It seems in 2023 they exist primarily to make sure the financial markets remain robust and working people stay on mute.

And much how growing up with a gambling-addict dad makes a family normalize last-second missed free throws meaning no lights or food for a month, we have gotten comfortable with ridiculous levels of corruption and incompetence from our elite institutions.

Word salads, incremental gestures, outright BS, and most of all, pretending there is no problem, flood our day-in-day-out public discourse.

So just a reminder that no, you’re not crazy, there are really obvious things we should and could be doing.

Here are six actual steps that any semi-functioning government would be working on if it they were not overrun by billions of dollars in dark and soft money:

1. Declare A Climate Emergency.

Duh.

We’re in a climate emergency, so declare it. And unleash executive powers, in the U.S., that allow a government to start problem solving rather than whatever it’s doing right now.

Biden’s failure to declare an emergency and give a landmark climate speech makes Neville Chamberlain look more decisive than The Rock in San Andreas. Shame on him, and shame on a press corps that rarely if ever asks him about it.

2. Climate-Proof Our Infrastructure

We should cover every structure possible in solar, wind power, battery storage, and reflective paint to protect power grids, reduce carbon emissions, and mitigate extreme heat.

How would we pay for this?

Hmm. If only there was a nearly $800 billion annual budget out there for wars that aren’t happening.

Oh yeah! The Pentagon budget!

Use a chunk of it. Now. We’ve changed plowshares to swords, but now it’s time to change swords into solar arrays and wind farms. Our military has been without a clear mission for years. And the climate emergency is the mission of all missions.

3. Nationalize And Transform Fossil Fuel Companies Into Renewable Energy Companies.

We did it during the 2007 housing market collapse with banks that behaved horribly and collapsed. What the oil companies are doing not only endangers the world economy, it will totally destroy it.

If this sounds drastic, remember that during World War II, there were no factories making Panzer tanks for the Nazis in the U.S. or the U.K., even though I’m sure it would have been good “for the markets.”

4. Invest In Carbon Removal Technology

We should create a dozen multi-billion dollar research labs to scale up and perfect carbon removal.

We are already at half the carbon load of the permian extinction, and we’ve done it in a small fraction of the time.

There’s no question we’re going to need to remove carbon from the atmosphere. And there are promising new technologies being developed that are only lacking funding and scale.

Is this the answer?

No. But it may help and we have to try.

5. Ruggedize The Hell Out Of Everything.

Fires, floods, mega droughts, tornadoes, food shortages, power outages, and dangerous heat events are shifting into a new gear across the globe.

Let’s get ready with cooling centers, new weather alert systems, sea walls, expanded fire fighting capabilities, evacuation plans, etc.

This preparation will save countless lives.

6. Transform How We Cultivate Food And Meat To Reduce Methane Emissions.

The second biggest producer of greenhouse gasses behind the burning of oil and gas?

Methane from the hundreds of millions of animals we cultivate for food on an industrial scale.

There are alternatives. Very tasty alternatives.

Transition farmers away from methane-producing animals and towards carbon-free proteins with huge subsidies and support from the government agencies offering engineering and infrastructure emergency support.

“But I like a good steak!”

So do I. But I like not having my house burn down just a hair more.

This is just my list and just a start. If you think it’s terrible, please, please make a better one.

If lots of people start talking about “the plan,” maybe Washington D.C. will stop looking at poll numbers and collecting checks at cocktail parties and work on one, too.

Many will say, “You have to be realistic. Work with the system as it is.”

I would remind them we’ve been doing that for 40 years. And the results couldn’t be any worse.

It’s time to challenge the system to do something really radical: actually start solving problems.