Yesterday we got an appeal for funds from Sierra Club (went into the waste basket) which included a small note book with bookmarks, first aid checklist, and pocket calendar along with some to-do lists and marketing. Some of it was very preachy—“bring your own mug and dishware for food eaten at the office,” “carpool, bike or take transit to work” “use non-toxic cleaning products and brighten your work space with plants” “buy ENERGY STAR certified light bulbs and fixtures,” and “print on the back side of old documents for faxes, scrap paper of drafts.” The last one gave me a little chuckle since my grandmother was way ahead of her time and always saved letters and advertisements and used the back side for her carbon copies when writing business letters. I used a lot of them in my research about farm families.
Being good to the environment is being good to ourselves, but when an article headline is “12 ways to halt climate change” that’s just ignorant and giving people “feel good” bad advice. Climate change couldn’t be halted by any or all of these rules.
1. Grow a garden. Organic. Plant a tree. Think of the millions of people who might have space for a flower pot in a window in their city apartment building. There are many advantages to having fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables, but saving the planet won’t be the result.
2. Speak truth to power. Demand clean energy like wind and solar from your energy supplier. Really? Does the writer believe there is no cost to the environment to produce solar panels or wind mills and store the energy for no-wind and sunless days? According to PBS which I consider a liberal source, we currently have about 17% in renewables, a fraction of that 100% activists were demanding a year ago. Nuclear power plants are closing and they were up to about 19% of the total.
3. Stop using incandescent bulbs and use more efficient ones. You’ll have to buy American to make any difference.
4. Look for Energy Star label in buying new appliances. Wash clothes in cold water; or dry on clothesline (many areas are regulated against this).
5. Insulate walls, attic, windows. New windows are making our home more comfortable and efficient, but it won’t save the world.
6. Lower your thermostat.
7. Power at the poll. Vote.
8. Reduce, reuse, recycle. This is a feel good, virtue signaling act. Asia and China are no longer taking our trash and we’re not building any recycling plants that I’m aware of because there’s no market—our labor is too high. And since Covid carry-outs, I’ve never seen so much trash on pick up day.
9. Plan trips and commute. People have been doing this for 40 years.
10. Ready for 100. Sierra club marketing plans for 100% renewable energy which I think the protestors last year demanded by 2030—less than a decade. Remember, we’re at 17%.
11. Pep talk—change the world—but it’s about climate solutions and protecting the planet, not about HALT Climate Change.
12. Join Sierra Club.
The antidote for Sierra Club: read Michael Shellenbarger’s apology for being an alarmist about climate change. “ On Behalf Of Environmentalists, I Apologize For The Climate Scare.” He has a book, Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All and also articles, but the left really attacks him because he’s left the alarmist plantation. https://wattsupwiththat.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Schellenberger-Apology.pdf
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/?sh=311df21db1b8
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