DOES RCP 8.5's DECAY SIGNAL CLIMATE DENIAL'S DEMISE?

CRITICISM OF RCP 8.5 HAS DEPRIVED

FOSSIL FUEL APOLOGISTS OF A FAVORITE TARGET

SELF - STYLED "CLIMATE ALARMIST" DAVID WALLACE-WELLS STEPPED BACK FROM EXISTENTIAL  BRINKSMANSHIP  IN A  TLS PODCAST  LAST WEEK:

"AMONG  THE CLIMATE LEFT  THERE HAS BEEN  FOR A GENERATION  OR SO, A REAL CONCERN THAT  FEAR MONGERING  WOULD BE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE …HAVING LIVED SOMEWHAT IN THAT WORLD FOR A FEW YEARS NOW… THE CLIMATE FUTURE LOOKS  A LOT MORE COMFORTABLE AND HABITABLE THAN IT DID JUST A FEW YEARS AGO…

NOT... EVERYBODY WHO WANTS TO GO TO A CLIMATE STRIKE OR HEAR GRETA SPEAK NEEDS TO SIGN UP FOR A MILITARY REVOLUTIONARY VANGUARD...

WE'RE  COUNTING  ON SOMEWHAT  SPECULATIVE … NEGATIVE  EMISSIONS TECHNOLOGIES, OR  CARBON  REMOVAL  TECHNOLOGIES IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE CENTURY, TO TAKE HUGE AMOUNTS OF  CARBON OUT OF THE ATMOSPHERE… I THINK WE WILL BE ABLE TO DO THAT… 

THERE IS NO CLIMATE DENIAL ANYMORE."

Wallace-Wells isn't alone on the climate left when it comes to carbon capture:

The Worker Must Have Emissions Cuts, but She Must Have CDR, Too

Some on the Left will be skeptical of this project, since carbon capture has been floated by fossil fuel companies as a way to maintain the coal- and gas-burning status quo. What I am proposing, however, is not a quick techno-fix to solve our climate problems without deep changes to our economy and society. Rather, climate repair is about acknowledging how much damage capitalism has done to our planet —... Demanding climate repair is the only just response to this hard truth.

Only Socialism Can Save the World

The nature of the problem already demands a socialist solution. As is always the question when it comes to climate change, we have to ask who is going to pay for this grand civilizational project… climate repair will require marshaling enormous resources and productive forces. We’ll need to build millions of DAC machines and millions of solar panels and wind turbines to power them. Without careful planning and regulation, this could be its own environmental disaster.

Socialists should follow the model of the Green New Deal and push for publicly owned and operated carbon removal infrastructure — a Tennessee Valley Authority or Works Progress Administration for climate repair. We could also seize fossil fuel firms and put them to work reversing the damage they’ve done.

 NOTE TO READERS ARRIVING VIA ATTP:

[Playing the ref. -W]

IS WILLARD'S EUPHEMISM FOR CANCELLING COMMENTS THAT CONTRADICT HIS, AS WHEN ONE REPLIES TO: 

"Russell, I invite you to drop But CAGW:

… Since it is the central square of the contrarian playbook, it might be hard.

So alternatively I invite you to drop the stick and move away from the horse."

WITH:

"Willard , that's not a contrarian stalking horse.

It's David Wallace-Wells pony, which he put down after  it  broke a leg stumbling into RCP 8.5

If the quote from his TLS  podcast pains you, please direct your indignation to the  editors :

letters@the-tls.co.uk

My apologies for playing the Editor. Now back to ClimateBall :