Recent Climate Change Protocol & Us
It seems as much as we speak out against excessive global warming and intense environmental impacts: nothing is being done. It hurts to know we can not go backwards or erase past and current damage. Yes, we can slow future climate change ramifications, but hindering our energy resources altogether is simply not attainable. It's frustrating. We want the little things to add up — our bamboo straws, reusable water bottles, conservation of water and electricity — but it comes down to power-plant emissions and industrial fossil-fuel outputs. This is something that almost all of us have no regulation over. It's unifying to depend on one another in worrisome times like these and looking to our political representatives to take action is a valuable stepping stone to a cleaner future. This summer has tugged our present climate change dilemma in contradictory directions. This has left many of us wondering where we stand as a planet. Let's uncover the most recent climate change political advancements (as well as setbacks thereof), address the role climate change plays on our mental health, and introduce action items we can all employ into our daily practices.
Depicted here is one of the most extensive and informative pie charts I have ever seen. I mean, seriously, if you have ever seen a better one please let me know because this is dope as hell. Anyways.
According to Climate Watch’s wonderful data visual, energy use in industry, buildings, and transport, take up nearly 75% of our global greenhouse gas output. So as much as we would like it to, the mitigation of our recycling and trash, our composting efforts, and our bamboo straws — are not making or breaking our environmental future. This reform lies in the hands of politicians and lawmakers.
So what do our recent climate politics look like in the United States?
In late June, the Supreme Court ruled the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did not have the jurisdiction to place restrictions on carbon emissions from current high energy producers (state industries, power plants, etc.). This reverses much of the standards set forth during President Obama's terms, in which he set out specific state-by-state carbon limits and emphasized our damaging dependence on coal-burning energy production. With this, he encouraged states to employ less environmentally harmful energy resources. The Court argued the EPA — and any other agency for that matter — does not have the power to adopt or enforce rules that would be "transformational to the economy" without Congress authorization. This statement contradicts nearly a century of economical action and regulation set forth by the EPA and hundreds of other governmental agencies. So why do they care now?
Justice Elena Kagan expressed her frustration with this decision, noting how "the Court does not have a clue about how to address climate change." She adds, “The stakes here are high. Yet the Court today prevents congressionally authorized agency action to curb power plants’ carbon dioxide emissions. The Court appoints itself—instead of Congress or the expert agency—the decision maker on climate policy. I cannot think of many things more frightening.”
This ruling introduces forthcoming restrictions on various other U.S agencies, where Congress has granted themselves a larger role in future agency and commission production. The EPA, and other environmentally-oriented government corporations, have an increasingly limited say in combating climate change as a nation. Our effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has been dramatically slowed down by this decision as there is no longer a restriction on carbon emissions for high energy-dependent industries and plants.
But not all of the recent political actions toward climate change have felt like we are taking 7 steps in the opposite direction.
President Biden has recently passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Why is inflation politics relevant for climate change purposes? This package introduces nearly $375 Billion in dedication to climate change protocols and fossil fuel reduction over the next decade. Approaches in ensuring the global rise in temperature remains under 1.5 degrees Celsius includes a variety of government regulation. From clean energy technology, funding industrial changes to electric and solar materials, depolluting and cleansing communities in which climate change disproportionately affects living, and enhanced tax fees on major methane emission corporations. It's end goal, if properly applied, would have United States carbon emissions reduced by about 40% by the year 2030. But of course, as Jonathon Foley, executive director of a climate solution non-profit, highlights —
"This is a marathon, not a sprint."
Bill Breakdown
Clean Energy - The bill would allocate $60 billion towards reinforcing fossil fuel alternatives, supporting clean energy manufacturers, incentives for wind and solar power technology, funding towards electric transportation, and renewable technology facilities. This would include granting money to retool current car factories for electric vehicles.
Affected Communities - The IRA is extending another $60 billion into lower-income communities' environmental disparities. This includes areas where pollution is increasingly hindering daily life, including access to clean water, sanitary schools and facilities, and those severely affected by drought conditions or depleted food production. Another $27 billion will be poured into a clean energy technology accelerator, which will largely reduce current emissions released as a result of harmful technology and support the switch to cleaner energy alternatives — most particularly in disadvantaged communities where access to fossil fuel reductive technology is not accessible.
Depolutive Policies - The bill is devoting $30 billion in the form of grants and loans to states' electric facilities to help them transition to cleaner forms of electricity. Another $20 billion in investments will be poured into supporting agricultural practices that drastically reduce carbon emissions where safer practices will be made the utmost priority. The bill will also commit $10 billion to homeowners and their switch to more energy-efficient processes, with government funded rebates.
On Corporations
It is rejuvenating to see the U.S government taking action toward climate change that they claimed they would decades ago. And as excited as we may be to experience these changes firsthand, we have to consider where all this money is coming from in the first place. It’s important to note the way larger corporations are feeling towards these (very large and very costly) solutions, and how they are impacted, too.
The IRA introduces a revenue reduction for corporations making more than $1 billion annually: a 15% minimum tax. This forces businesses that might have been cheating their way out of the 21% corporate tax rate to finally pay up. This 15% minimum tax will be put into place following the 2022 tax year and is planned to allocate over $258 million over the next decade — money that will be turned over to support the IRA’s climate-oriented goals. In addition to this, there will now be a 1% excise tax on stock buybacks, which is estimated to rack up $74 billion within the next decade. Many corporate businesses were furious over these new requirements, calling it a "terrible policy" that will impede national growth and make America "poorer." On the contrary, Wall Street Analysts argue that this new legislation "won’t dramatically affect company earnings or their future investments." In fact, by forcing the top corporations to pay their share of taxes, this could reduce inflationary pressure in our current economy, benefiting them, too. In my opinion, it's about time the ones at the top do their part to support our current and future infrastructure in a way that does not solely benefit them.
Us
When we think about the way climate disparities and global warming affects us, we commonly look at the way our external environment harms us physically. Dirty and diseased water, lack of biodiversity and chemically overwhelmed produce, rising temperatures, and natural disasters all impede our way of living. But understanding the psychological toll these events have on us is crucial to advancing our support of climate change reform and the way we go about living 'greener.' In fact, the American Psychological Association (APA) found in February of 2021 that 48% of young adults aged 18-34 experienced stress over the changing climate in their everyday lives and 68% of young adults felt anxiety over the current environmental state. This is impeding the way we view our current life and warping our outlook on what our future has to offer us — for our kids, grandchildren, and the many generations to come — we worry about what their life will look like as a result of our reckless behavior.
There are several attitudes you may have towards climate change and related defects, and each feeling you hold is valued, recognized, and shared worldwide. This is a challenge being confronted by every organism living on this planet. Remember that. This is a shared experience and we are allowed to deal with it in our own way.
That being said — use your feelings. Channel them in a productive way that will lessen the burden you are carrying on your shoulders. If this means rallying for climate reform or starting an organization devoted to supporting affected wildlife and their current habitats — go for it. If this means volunteering to clean up your local parks or lakes, do that, too. And if this means that your lifestyle will do a complete 180 to ensure your mark is less substantial, and living cleaner will make you feel cleaner, have right at it. Don’t write these feelings off as destructive or unnecessary, they are there for a reason, and a calling for you to help where help is needed.
However, to ensure that these feelings do not engulf our entire work outlook, relationships with friends and family, and the relationships we hold with ourselves, talk to those closest to you. Chances are they are right there with you, and are in need someone to discuss these tragedies with, too. There is true strength in asking our friends for help.
To learn more about the way you can go about dealing with what experts have recently coined as 'eco-anxiety' you can read my full blog post on this here. As mentioned previously, the small steps taken to live an environmentally friendly life are just that — small. It’s great to take strides in decreasing our carbon footprint, whether that be reducing meat intake, going plastic free, utilizing solar panels, and many other valuable gestures. Indeed, climate awareness has substantially increased, particularly through social media platforms which allow diverse communities to come together over shared economic and societal concerns. We are more informed than ever on the way our human behavior has impacted every and any geographical region. Social media is being utilized as a pivotal platform in creating and organizing fundraisers for political and cultural reform. Some foundations dedicated to these causes include the Clean Air Task Force, Evergreen Collaborative, and the Climate Emergency Fund. These organizations aim to influence and unify political leaders’ environmental agendas with our own while encouraging current and future activists to continue to highlight the current climate disparities. Some of these groups are even geared to a specific environmental cause — such as Carbon180, a non-profit devoted to decreasing our incorporation of carbon into everyday technology and machinery, and Rainforest Foundation US, dedicated to preserving Central America’s rainforests and indigenous communities' homes. It is amazing how far the media has reached and united people over a shared desire for cultural and environmental reform. Anyone can learn more and even support climate-oriented causes with the click of a button. There is even a website through the Global Footprint Network that allows us to calculate what our individual carbon imprint has been throughout our life.
I hope many of your questions pertaining to the current political climate agenda have been answered and you are walking away with more confidence than worry about the future we have as a global community.
