We can't make the same mistake twice with climate change
Subscriber only
"HEY you, let's fight” are astoundingly effective fighting words but the next best surely has to be "climate change”.
There's no doubt the switch to cleaner energy is needed.
But unfortunately the search for a solution is being buried under a Beijing-style smog born of political puritanism on both sides.
Start with the idea of: let's burn more coal.
It's great if you think breathing is overrated and enjoy broiling lobsters so much you want to try it out for yourself.
But let's not get overjoyed about the "niceties” of renewables. Like the small detail that wind turbines reportedly kill more than 1 million birds and bats in the US every year.
Or that in 2016 the Mojave Desert solar farm was found to be char-grilling and incinerating 6000 birds every year.
From a glass-half-full perspective though, this could be an answer to that "world hunger” thing. Why go to KFC when it comes to you?
And batteries are nice (and needed) but we rip the Earth apart to make them too.
Governments dropped the ball once when it came to cars, choosing carbon dioxide- producing catalytic converters and dropping further investment in lean-burn technology - which is cleaner but was further away from being ready.
But the converters were the quick, easy and politically correct environmental choice at the time. How's that looking now? Yes, let's change the world. But let's not make the same mistake twice.
