Climate Review no. 4

by Cool Davis Staff August 8, 2022

Community, Cool Davis, Inspiration

Welcome to the Cool Davis Climate Review, quotes and inspiration from a new-ish genre of books and videos … and more! Visit our Cool Solutions page for a list of climate documentaries in the Resources section at the bottom. Have a quote, summary, or link you would like to share with Cool Davis? Email newseditor@cooldavis.org

Your greatest hope

“Your greatest hope against climate change is standing beside you…Faced with the existential threat of climate change, we must draw on this essential core of human unity and come to understand that it will only be through working together that we will overcome.”

– Mary Robinson, former President of the Irish Republic,11/16/2017 COP23 Climate Justice Day, in Climate Home News. (http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/11/16/greatest-hope-climate-change-standing-beside)

Civilization wake up call

“Climate change isn’t an ‘issue’ to add to the list of things to worry about, next to health care and taxes. It is a civilization wake up call. A powerful message — spoken in the language of fires, floods, droughts and extinctions — telling us that we need an entirely new economic model and a new way of sharing this planet. Telling us we need to evolve.” — Naomi Klein

Inflation Reduction Act: Pros and cons

You can see the entire 755-page bill here.

“The bill would invest nearly $375bn over the decade in climate-fighting strategies, including investments in renewable energy production and tax rebates for consumers to buy new or used electric vehicles. … It’s broken down to include $60bn for a clean energy manufacturing tax credit and $30bn for a production tax credit for wind and solar, seen as ways to boost and support the industries that can help curb the country’s dependence on fossil fuels. The bill also gives tax credits for nuclear power and carbon capture technology that oil companies such as ExxonMobil have invested millions of dollars to advance. The bill would impose a new fee on excess methane emissions from oil and gas drilling while giving fossil fuel companies access to more leases on federal lands and waters. … For consumers, there are tax breaks as incentives to go green. One is a 10-year consumer tax credit for renewable energy investments in wind and solar. There are tax breaks for buying electric vehicles, including a $4,000 tax credit for purchase of used electric vehicles and $7,500 for new ones. … The bill would impose a new fee on excess methane emissions from oil and gas drilling while giving fossil fuel companies access to more leases on federal lands and waters. The biggest revenue-raiser in the bill is a new 15% minimum tax on corporations that earn more than $1bn in annual profits. The new corporate minimum tax would kick in after the 2022 tax year and raise more than $258bn over the decade. … In all, Democrats believe the strategy could put the country on a path to cut greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2030, and “would represent the single biggest climate investment in US history, by far”.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/08/biden-climate-spending-bill-inflation-reduction-act

“After careful study of the language of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, Climate Justice Alliance concludes that the harms of the bill as it is currently written outweigh its benefits. Climate Justice Alliance is opposing the reconciliation bill in its current form. We are calling on members of Congress to amend the bill to strengthen its environmental and climate justice provisions, take a stand against the expansion of fossil fuel production and the inclusion of geoengineering projects, and to reject any shady side deals that are being pushed by Senator Joe Manchin and the fossil fuel industry. Congress can’t miss the opportunity for bold action to support clean and effective climate solutions. We compiled the threats, weaknesses, missed opportunities and the strengths that are included in the Inflation Reduction Act: http://climatejusticealliance.org/ira.”

https://climatejusticealliance.org/the-inflation-reduction-act-is-not-a-climate-justice-bill

Trucking goes electric

After two years of drafting, a coalition of 17 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and the Canadian province of Quebec has released a roadmap to make 100 percent of truck and bus sales electric by 2050. … “[T]he time for bold action is now,” the plan says, highlighting ways that reducing vehicle emissions could benefit both the climate and human health. The 17 states that contributed to the roadmap — including California, Massachusetts, Hawaii, and Maine, among others — account for 49 percent of the country’s economy, 43 percent of its population, and 36 percent of its medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.

https://grist.org/beacon/100-electric-trucks-and-buses-by-2050/?