Senator Joe Manchin, the Democratic Senator from West Virginia, seems to have single-handedly torpedoed the aggressive climate actions hoped for during the Biden administration. It is no secret that Manchin is one of largest recipients of funds from the coal and fossil fuel lobbies. “In the three months prior to this news, Manchin raised $405,210 from the fossil fuel industry, including $77,000 from fossil fuel company PACs and more than $330,000 from fossil fuel executives and employees, according to Sludge’s review of just-released contributions data. The fossil fuel money constitutes more than 25% of Manchin’s fundraising for the quarter.”1
It is true that West Virginia is a major coal producer and there is certainly the issue of jobs that will have to be taken into consideration as the United States makes the transition away from fossil fuels. However, it’s really one of those things where its, “pay me now or pay me later,” because there will come a time when there is no longer a choice. Unfortunately, the price for ‘later’ is going to be a lot higher than the price that would be paid today. Joe Manchin is making a pact with the devil for short term profits and political expediency at the expense of climatic impacts that will have long term consequences.
The five major takeaways from the latest climate report from the United Nations are2:
- Human influence has unequivocally warmed the planet
Observed increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since 1750 can be directly tied to human activity, largely the burning of coal, oil and other fossil fuels as the world became industrialized. Those emissions have increased greatly over time and continue today, as the world grows even warmer. And the impacts are being felt in every region of the world.
- Climate science is getting more and more precise
There is much more observational data — temperature measurements and other data from instruments on land, in the oceans and in space — that reduce uncertainty as to what is occurring. The improvement is especially noticeable in some less affluent parts of the world that historically had little capacity for collecting climate data.
Computer models that simulate the climate have also greatly improved, and there is more computer power to run these simulations faster so that they can be repeated over and over. These improvements, plus the ability to plug more and better data into the models, give scientists more confidence that their models are correctly forecasting future climate.
- We are locked into 30 years of worsening climate impacts no matter what the world does
The world has already warmed about 1.1 degree Celsius (about 2 degrees Fahrenheit) since the 19th century. The report concludes that humans have put so much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that this warming will continue at least until the middle of the century, even if nations take immediate steps today to sharply cut emissions.
That means some of the noticeable effects the world is seeing now — like extreme droughts, severe heat waves and catastrophic downpours and flooding — will continue to worsen for at least the next 30 years.
Some other impacts will continue for far longer. The enormous ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica will continue to melt at least through the end of the century. Global sea level will continue to rise for at least 2,000 years.
- Climate changes are happening rapidly
But the report also found that changes are happening more quickly now than even in the much more recent past. The rate of sea level rise has roughly doubled since 2006. Each of the past four decades have been successively warmer than the previous one. Heat waves on land have become significantly hotter since 1950 and marine heat waves — bursts of extreme heat in the ocean that can kill marine life — have doubled in frequency in the past four decades.
- There is still a window in which humans can alter the climate path
Under most of the scenarios discussed in the report, warming will continue well beyond 2040, through the remainder of the century. In the worst cases, where the world does little to reduce emissions, temperatures by 2100 could be 3 to 6 degrees Celsius (5.5 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. That would have catastrophic consequences.
But the report shows that aggressive, rapid and widespread emissions cuts, beginning now, could limit the warming beyond 2050. In the most optimistic scenario, reaching “net zero” emissions could even bring warming back slightly under 1.5 degrees Celsius in the second half of the century.
Such a scenario would be a mammoth and expensive undertaking for the world. It would also require a level of political will that most governments have so far been unable to muster.
The unfortunate reality is that as long as many politicians are more interested in prostituting themselves for profits or because of a lack of political courage, aggressive and necessary action on climate change will continue to be elusive and all of us will pay a price. Joe Manchin may honestly believe he is fighting for a few hundred or a few thousand jobs in West Virginia, but all of the rest of us will pay the price for his intransigence.
The climate is like an ocean liner – it can’t just turn on a dime no matter how aggressively you steer or rev the engines. If you want to know what happens if you don’t pay close attention to what is out in front of you, just ask the people on the Titanic! Thanks, Joe!
I’m reminded of sophmore high school biology where the critters in the petri dish thrive at first, then exhaust their food in the auger, and then wither away. People it seems, despite the wonderful gift of our brain (or the curse of) – no different.