I have shied away from writing a piece referencing the movie, Don’t Look Up, because so many climate and environment writers have already been doing so. However, the recently-released report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) pulled it out of me.
For decades the IPCC, a leading body of scientists from nearly 200 countries, has been urging world governments to take actions that would hold the level of warming below the catastrophic-effects level. Over and over again world leaders have failed to do so. With each climate assessment report, the IPCC scientists have become stronger and stronger in voicing the seriousness of the crisis and urging real action to avoid disaster -- they’ve largely been ignored. They must sorely relate to the lead characters in Don’t Look Up who try over and over again, unsuccessfully, to get the U.S. government to take action to divert the comet hurtling toward Earth.
This last time, the IPCC report was completely overshadowed by increased gasoline prices resulting from the various shocks related to COVID and Putin’s nightmare assault on the Ukraine. As we head toward midterm elections in the U.S., the price at the pump is higher than we’ve seen in a long time. Biden’s approval rating is at its lowest, and I am quite sure he’s being advised by political strategists and pundits to do everything possible to bring gas prices down as much and as fast as possible. I’ve been inside a number of elections and I know first-hand this midterm pressure.
One of the more subtle, genius, points made in Don’t Look Up, was how President Janie Orlean, played by Meryl Streep, initially keeps refusing to tell people the truth about the comet because her team is concerned that pointing out the crisis may hurt their party’s chances in the upcoming midterm elections. It’s the “how can we do anything about it if we’re not in power” argument. I understand the seduction of that argument; I also know it’s a death knell for effective action.
Biden’s response to higher gas prices has been to open up oil reserves, meet with other, non-Russian petro-dictators to see if we can get more of their oil, and urge the U.S. oil industry to increase drilling. It’s worth noting, and beyond frustrating, that the Biden administration issued more than 3,500 new permits to drill on federal lands in its first year. That’s 34 percent more than the Trump administration did in year one.
All this at exactly the same time the most credible scientific body in the world is shouting about the dire need to reduce fossil fuel consumption. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, “Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic madness.” Meanwhile Big Oil continues to make record profits while heavily subsidized by U.S. tax dollars or increasingly, our national debt.
This insane approach reminds me of the twist in the movie when Orlean’s administration gets convinced by tech billionaire and huge campaign donor Peter Isherwell, not to blast the comet out into space but to capture it so they can mine it for precious metals.
Watching that thread in the movie leaves a person shaking their heads at the insanity but we are doing the same thing by meeting the current crisis through increasing oil production.
Another brilliant move by the writers and directors of Don’t Look Up, is that it really isn’t clear if Orlean is a Democrat or Republican. That’s so spot on because at this point both parties are utterly invested in status quo Capitalism and special-interest campaign money. Neither is even coming close to the depth of system change required to avoid driving off the climate cliff. Rationalizing that serious action has to wait until after the midterm elections is basically saying, “We are going to increase pumping poison into the planet so that we can stay in power and continue not to do enough about stopping the pumping of poison into the planet.”
Confucius noted that humans are often so busy doing the urgent we fail to do the important. That’s a powerful lens through which to consider our own personal choices and actions. It’s an existentially-necessary lens through which to assess political and governance decisions.
This is certainly a time to be telling all those seeking our vote and our support that we will no longer accept incrementalism and political jockeying over genuine, game-changing, appropriate-to-this-moment action and system redesign. Here are a few ideas I’d love to see the Biden team exploring:
· Immediately cut subsidies to fossil fuel industries and reinvest that money in helping people pay for ultra-efficient and electric vehicles.
· Consider a buy-back program for older, high-polluting vehicles as has been done with gun buy-back programs.
· Ensure that nearly all of the money in the recently passed infrastructure package goes into low-carbon infrastructure suitable to a livable world.
· Get honest about the fact that we are going to have to transition millions of people out of fundamentally destructive industries like fossil fuel extraction and industrial meat production and into new industries helping repair the mess those industries have made.
The only real solution to high gasoline prices and fossil-fuel related wars is to get off the stuff. That is what these times are calling for. Period. That is the opportunity before us. Taking action to protect life on this miraculous jewel of a planet is not a political decision; it is a spiritual and moral one.
Look
Great, great movie satirically(?) summing up the utter insanity that the insatiable lust for money and power that intentionally blinds nearly everyone, top to bottom to the reality to the truth of the catastrophic future we are already, in my opinion, inextricably locked into.
However, now that I’ve shamelessly articulated my prophecy of doom, I’m here to applaud your own expressions of hope and solutions. As always you’re perspectives and passion are cause for even a cynical skeptic like me to pause and reconsider my rote, hopeless prognostications. In this kind of scenario, all you can initially hope for is exactly that, to force by your words and actions to plant a seed of hope. For me, you have always had a unique ability to do that. I’m certain I’m not alone.
Thank you for all that you do.
Ron