Note From McKay: 1.5C Is Terrifying But There Is Something We Haven’t Tried

By: Adam McKay

The hot, pissed off, oil-caked cat is now out of the bag. 

We will likely cross 1.5 degrees Celsius (or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of global warming beyond pre-industrial levels in the next 2-4 years. This is the temperature at which scientists have warned, for quite some time, serious destabilization may occur. While global temperatures are usually measured as the longer-term trend line rather than a single year’s temperature, 1.5C is a frightening threshold to cross.

Rather than feeling powerless, frustrated, and terrified at this moment it’s vitally important we take a beat to remember one very important thing:

IT’S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE THIS.

Collectively we’ve gotten very used to governments, media and industry across the world rarely, if ever solving problems. It seems in 2023 they exist primarily to make sure the financial markets remain robust and working people stay on mute.

And much how growing up with a gambling addict Dad makes a family normalize last second missed free throws meaning no lights or food for a month, we have gotten comfortable with ridiculous levels of corruption and incompetence from our elite institutions.

Word salads, incremental gestures, outright BS and most of all, pretending there is no problem, flood our day in day out public discourse.

So just a reminder that no, you’re not crazy, there ARE really obvious things we should and could be doing.

Here are six actual steps that any semi-functioning government not overrun by billions of dollars in dark and soft money would already be working on:

1. Declare a climate emergency.

Duh.

We’re in a climate emergency so declare it. And unleash executive powers, in the US,  that allow a government to start problem solving rather than whatever it’s doing right now. 

Biden’s failure to declare an emergency and give a landmark climate speech makes Neville Chamberlain look more decisive than The Rock in San Andreas. Shame on him and shame on a press corps that rarely if ever asks him about it.

2. Cover every structure possible in solar, wind power, battery storage and reflective paint to protect power grids, reduce carbon emissions and mitigate extreme heat.

How would we pay for this?

Hmm. If only there was a nearly 800 billion dollar annual budget out there for wars that aren’t happening.

Oh yeah! The Pentagon budget!

Use a chunk of it. Now. We’ve changed ploughshares to swords but now it’s time to change swords into solar arrays and wind farms. Our military has been without a clear mission for years. And the climate emergency is the mission of all missions.

3. Nationalize and transform oil companies into renewable energy companies.

We did it during the 2007 housing market collapse with banks that behaved horribly and collapsed. What the oil companies are doing not only endangers the world economy it will totally destroy it.

If this sounds drastic, remember that during World War 2 there were no factories making Panzer tanks for the Nazis in the US or the UK, even though I’m sure it would have been good “for the markets.”

4. Create a dozen multi-billion dollar research labs to scale up and perfect carbon removal.

We are already at half the carbon load of the permian extinction and we’ve done it in a small fraction of the time.

There’s no question we’re going to need to remove carbon from the atmosphere. And there are promising new technologies being developed that are only lacking funding and scale.

Is this THE answer? 

No. But it may help and we have to try.

5. Ruggedize the hell out of everything.

Fires, floods, mega droughts, tornadoes, food shortages, power outages and dangerous heat events are shifting into a new gear across the globe.

Let’s get ready with cooling centers, new weather alert systems, sea walls, expanded fire fighting capabilities, evacuation plans, etc.

This preparation will save countless lives.

6. Transform how we cultivate food and meat to reduce methane emissions.

The second biggest producer of greenhouse gases behind the burning of oil and gas?

Methane from the 100’s of millions of animals we cultivate for food on an industrial scale.

There are alternatives. Very tasty alternatives.

Transition farmers away from methane producing animals and towards carbon free proteins with huge subsidies and support from the Green Corps, a new branch of the military offering engineering and infrastructure emergency support.

“But I like a good steak!”

So do I. But I like not having my house burn down just a hair more.

This is just my list and just a start. If you think it’s terrible please, please make a better one. 

If lots of people start talking about “the plan” maybe Washington DC will stop looking at poll numbers and collecting checks at cocktail parties and work on one too.

Many will say “You have to be realistic. Work with the system as it is.”

And I would remind them we’ve been doing that for 40 years. And the results couldn’t be any worse.

It’s time to challenge the system to do something really radical; actually start solving problems.