Bad Green Deal

“Green New Deal” is a great slogan. Unfortunately, the campaign ignores inconvenient facts.

We are beyond the limits to growth of non-renewable fossil fuels and of “renewable” resources such as forests, fish, soil, fresh water and food. Find details about overconsumption, overpopulation and overshoot at peakchoice.org. 

Using unprecedented levels of energy does not mean there are equally sized alternatives to power the American Way of Life (AWOL).  I have used solar panels since 1990; they are great but not as concentrated. It takes fossil fuels and mineral ores to make, move and install them. Claims we could have 100 percent of current consumption without fossil fuels don’t describe how to heat cold cities during a “polar vortex.”

We will live radically differently on the resource downslope, but the end of economic growth doesn’t poll well in Democratic Party focus groups. Greenwashing and wishful thinking are popular but unable to sustain social safety nets.

Democratic politicians profess concern for climate while promoting highway expansions, urbanization and industrial clearcutting.

As the fracking bubble subsides (due to geology) we will enter the new world of permanent energy rationing, which will collapse the exponential growth economy and fuel scapegoating of whom to blame.

We are damned if we drill because of toxic pollution and climate chaos.

We are damned if we don’t because fossil fuels power food supplies, keep cities warm in the winter, and run electric power grids. 

Mark Robinowitz

Eugene