The Role of Government in Climate Change Mitigation
Aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas
From The Hill:
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry on Tuesday said he believed the private sector was more likely to find solutions to climate change than government.
“I was convinced, and I remain convinced, no government is going to solve this problem,” Kerry said in remarks at the Institute of International Finance’s 2021 Washington Policy Summit.
“The solution is going to come from the private sector, and what government needs to do is create the framework within which the private sector can do what it does best, which is allocate capital and innovate and begin to take the framework that’s been created. … We need to go after this as if we’re really at war.”
Well, let’s be real. Consumers have to demand low-carbon energy and eat less meat. The private sector needs to build products whose LCAs (lifecycle analyses) are eco-friendlier. And government needs to use taxation and subsidies to make all this more attractive. One can’t work without the other two.
The problem here in the U.S. is that our Congress is essentially owned by corporate entities, including, infamously, the fossil fuel industry. We’re still subsidizing oil exploration, a 100-year-old industry, that is the wealthiest in human history. Maybe that’s what Kerry meant by “no government is going to solve this problem.”
The little girl here makes an important point. Obviously all lives matter, but black lives didn’t matter for 350 years, and it’s time to turn that around.
A great deal of what progressives believe vis-a-vis their conservative counterparts. Do immigrants take away American jobs? Does the death penalty deter crime? Is late-term abortion “murder?”
Sometimes we progressives wonder if we have the wrong message to persuade others to come on board. Are we coming on too strong with ideas like Black Lives Matter? Should we back off a bit with some of our demands about environmentalism and social justice? It’s a hard call to make.
Arkansas’ governor has signed into law a measure that would allow doctors to refuse to treat someone because of moral or religious objections. From 
Freedom House
At left is a reference to the new voter suppression laws in Georgia making it a crime to bring water for people standing in line waiting to vote. Gotta love this guy.
Catching and releasing spiders is a policy that, IMO, all decent people have in common.
This is from a year ago, at the start of the pandemic, but it still cuts like a knife.
I’m happy, yet surprised to see this. Interest in hydrokinetics has fizzled over the last 5 – 6 years, largely as a result of the plummeting price of solar and wind. That said, in September 2021, interested parties will join in Plymouth, England to share ideas.
