"Climate Change Is An Existential Threat" — Oh Really?

U.S. climate policy is like a confused mix of water and oil, and that's very bad news for the planet

It has become fashionable to call climate change an "existential threat." If indeed it is, then what?

U.S president Joe Biden has declared it as such. During his election bid, he promised voters that "there would be no more drilling, including offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period, ends, number one.”

Nonetheless, his administration recently held “the largest-ever auction of oil and gas drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico’s history, offering up more than 80m acres of the gulf’s seabed for fossil fuel extraction."

This action further erodes public confidence that political leaders will abide by promises to tackle the world's huge environmental problems. Worse still, it sends a horrible message to other world leaders — that America is not THAT serious about fighting climate change.

But at least the U.S. aims to stop financing new coal plants in other countries, except that "the new ban does not apply to projects the U.S. is already financing or otherwise providing support for. It also exempts new oil and gas projects if they are expected to advance national security or expand energy access."

Overall, it's as if the U.S. is telling the rest of the world "do as we say, not as we do."

One might object to such criticism because the U.S. cannot dramatically reduce production and consumption of fossil fuels without slowing its economy. That is true. But it's also true that, as a consequence, it accepts high risk of catastrophic climate change. In short, no change no gain. Forever-growth economics trumps ecology.

What makes current climate politics especially egregious is that virtually no one of influence is calling for reduced consumption of energy. Not even for curtailing its runaway growth. The U.S. Energy Information Agency projects an astounding 50% increase in world energy use by 2050. While the use of coal will likely stabilize, that of natural gas and petroleum will continue rising.

Why would a political leader call something an existential threat and then fail to do everything possible to defeat it? In this case, mobilize society to scale down consumption of energy while shifting away from fossil fuels.

For one thing, I doubt president Biden can envision a world without endless energy production and consumption. Ecological overshoot is a problem that’s likely beyond his world view. What’s obvious is that Biden, like virtually all political leaders today, is betting the house on fossil fuel alternatives. They’ll either save us or we’re doomed.

But it is clear by now that, on the immense scale needed to feed our energy addiction, so-called renewable energy will arrive too little and far too late, if ever.

It’s not like we haven’t been warned. The real existential threat to life on Earth is our civilization’s obsession with growth and refusal to scale down.