Excerpt: "Climate change is accelerating, but there's a massive ray of hope: clean energy is booming, producing nearly 20% of the world's electricity!"
With clean energy on the rise, there is hope to reverse climate change. (photo: Avaaz)
A Massive Ray of Hope on Climate
07 September 12
limate change is accelerating, but there’s a massive ray of hope: clean energy is booming, producing nearly 20% of the world's electricity! Incredibly, the US and EU are threatening to stifle this breakthrough - but together we can stop them.
In the last decade the Chinese government has invested billions in solar, sending panel prices plummeting and making clean green tech almost as cheap as dirty fossil fuels. But the US and EU, who give billions in taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil and Coal, are about to drive solar prices back up by putting tariffs on China, and now China is threatening to retaliate. A full on trade war is brewing that could kill the crucial green energy revolution.
The EU and US are deciding right now. Most of the solar industry is against tariffs - and now massive public support could tip the balance. Sign the urgent petition to save solar – if we build a 500,000 strong petition, Avaaz will make a formal submission to the US International Trade Commission and EU trade Commissioner calling for talks not tariffs:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/a_ray_of_hope_on_climate/?bYIwnbb&v=17644
China has a poor human rights and environmental record, and its strategy of flooding the global market with subsidised goods could be found to be too aggressive. But the right response to this is not tariffs, it is investment. While China, the EU, and the US all funnel billions into Big Coal and Oil to destroy our planet, China is also providing huge loans and subsidies to the solar industry. And that's exactly what other governments have failed to do.
Following the bankruptcy of a handful of US and EU solar manufacturers, some lobbyists are pushing politicians to blame China, instead of their own insufficient and inappropriate subsidies. Some claim that domestic jobs are threatened by low cost Chinese panels, but the truth is the opposite - experts predict that tariffs could cost 60,000 jobs in the US alone. The vast majority of jobs in the solar sector outside of China are in installing and servicing panels, not manufacturing them, so cheaper panels now means more work, and more jobs. And less climate change.
The EU trade Commissioner initiated the investigation into tariffs today and the US ITC proceedings are about to kick off. Written statements to both must be submitted in days to be considered. We're in a race against the clock to green our economies and prevent catastrophic climate change, and Chinese success in green tech could be the perfect catalyst for the rest of the world to scale up the technology and sustainably bring down prices. Let's make sure the EU and the US don't kill our ray of hope:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/a_ray_of_hope_on_climate/?bYIwnbb&v=17644
In the world most of us everywhere want, our governments would incentivise clean energy, and not hand out our tax money to polluters making record profits from dirtying our land, air and water and destroying our planet. Today, we can save solar, and take one step closer to that future.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
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Comments
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what was it about the statement back in 1990 that we needed to reduce the emissions by 95% back then to stop human enhanced global warming, global warming has been happening since the last ice age by the way. Now everyone is screaming about reducing carbon emissions with a receding ice pack and methane billowing out from the arctic. It's a little late. Geo engineering is what is needed now!!! Spent 2 years coming up with my solution but get bashed from right wing for bringing it up, bashed from all dems for not going along with carbon credits, bashed for being against corn ethanol and now bashed because my solution involves geo engineering. Then when I talk about messing with hurricanes everyone thinks they know that it's out of the question. People should listen to the experts speak their minds of any concerns with the experts and take their concerns to more experts to double check the validity with.
Oh, and Obama's "experts" told you to paint your roof white, remember??
Not to say reducing carbon emissions shouldn't be done NOW!!! I'm just real real tired of it all right now.
Yes, millions are suffering from the effects of global warming, and yes, we should help them. But if we don't reduce greenhouse gas emissions drastically soon, the millions suffering will turn into billions, no matter how much help we give them. It is a losing battle to deal with the symptoms without tackling the cause. We must do both, BEFORE the symptoms go completely out of control.
What would be better: making the situation much better than it would have been a few decades from now, or having the situation get so out of hand that we are totally incapable of helping the billions who are suffering and dying? It's our choice. We are deciding right now which future we will have.
2/3rds of this clean energy is from hydro-electric generation.
Of course global warming has been happening since the ice age. The issue is that human industrial activity appears tlo have grossly accelerated it, with unpredictable but most likely very serious consequences.
By the way, this apparently isn't the first time humans have messed with the climaate. Eight thousand years ago we should, based on prior geological records, have seen a turn back toward glacial conditions--but we didn't. Perhaops not coincidentally, that was about the time agriculture (which also releases greenhouse gases) got started.
But don't conclude from this that the current warming is a good thing. Coming atop the earlier warming and at a faster pace, it's dangerous.
I for one do recommend that we stop flying, stop working so much and take a vacation for now on unneeded tasks. Live simply if you’re not working on the problem. Sell your car and buy a bike, get healthy. Quit buying things you don’t need made ½ way around the world and learn to make things for yourself. I don’t see this happening.
What I do know is the Earth‘s climate system is very very complicated, nobody knows everything and until the time comes that we control the weather we should be very weary about messing with it. We should also prepare for disaster because that’s what’s coming, as a society we are very negligible on this.
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