Voting for Sustainability
What does sustainability mean? Does it mean different things in different situations? Is there a difference between economic sustainability and climate sustainability? Yes, and it is a rather dramatic difference.
When walking up a mountain have you ever attempted to run a bit? When I lived in Colorado, I signed up to run the 18-mile Quray to Telluride foot race over Imogene Pass. The first ten miles is uphill. I was in fairly good shape but hadn’t run any races so I didn’t know what pace would be one I could sustain. Some of the runners were pros and I ruled out trying to keep up with them. After a mile I found myself behind a stout gal with a ponytail. Since the pros were well up the mountain, I decided I would scale back my expectations and follow the swinging ponytail. Surely, I could handle her pace!
As you go up a mountain the air gets thinner and your pace is limited by how much oxygen your lungs can take in. Most people slow but my pace mistress did not. I tried to hang with her but, about 1000 feet from the summit, I had to walk. The pace I was trying to keep was unsustainable.
The only thing hurt was my pride. Later my self-esteem was buoyed when I discovered she was a top ranked mountain runner.
What is the economic price we pay if we choose unsustainable fiscal policy? When Donald Trump and the Republicans passed the tax break for the rich in 2017 the head of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, as well as most economists said the new tax code makes our economy unsustainable. Because of this and making it easy for corporations to bring profits back into the country nearly tax free, it gave us a temporary robust but unsustainable economy. It is unsustainable in the longer term because the lack of tax revenue must be made up by borrowing heavily. This is a tactic many populist leaders use to make themselves popular in the short term. Unfortunately their disregard of sound economic policy eventually brings their countries to their economic knees. Hugo Chavez and his policies are the most egregious example of what happens to a country when a government spends and borrows excessively. Venezuela is an economic basket case because its borrowing was unsustainable.
By irresponsibly borrowing heavily, the economy rises dramatically giving us, the common man, an economic sugar high. When the debt comes due then comes the sugar hangover of bankruptcy, hyper-inflation, and economic stagnation. Let’s hope we are not too far down the road. With professional leadership we can save our economy by balancing the budget.
Unsustainable energy behavior has much grimmer consequences. If you have read my last half dozen columns the scientist members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the AAAS, have laid out what is currently happening to our planet. Wildfires, heat surges, flooding, hurricanes, and ocean die-offs are all events on the rise now. As a tribute to the scientists who dedicated their lives to climate modelling, I would like to note current climate events vindicate their decades of work and warnings.
We, in the Midwest, are getting off easy. Yes, if you like winter sports, or your shoreline is eroding, or if your last crop was flattened by wind or flooded out you are suffering. We will suffer but people who live in areas already hot, or arid, or wet, or near the ocean like tropical islands or the megalopolises on the sea, are doomed if we do not transition away from fossil fuels. The humans who live in these areas will attempt to adapt in place but if we stick to fossil fuels to produce energy, they must eventually move or die. And our fate will be similar, just later.
There are reasons to be optimistic. First, as reported in previous columns, scientists and entrepreneurs have solutions in hand and new ones are coming out each week. Each month my science magazines have new articles laying out new solutions.
Second, on 13 OCT 2020 the world’s authority on energy, the International Energy Agency (IEA), outlined a path to clean energy success. Only a decade ago they were a drill baby drill organization, but they have had a “Come to Science” moment. They know the short-term sugar high of fossil fuels we enjoy today must end if we are to avoid a deadly climate hangover.
The IEA tells us aggressive clean energy policies by governments are essential to start us on the road to recovery.
Fourth, you and I have power. We are voting and we can select science competent politicians. Competent politicians create wise policy. By pulling us out of the Paris Climate Accord, by destroying our Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and by tragically ignoring science in the fight against COVID 19 Donald Trump has scientifically and economically, and in my opinion morally, whiffed three times. Is it not three strikes and you are out?
I am sure you know what sustainable means and respect it. Please vote for someone who understands sustainable like you.
References for further study:
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