March 7, 2021 – 1:30pmlolly tindol, Coordinator
Come join our virtual Climate Change Forum for March 7, 2021. Terry Tremwell, PhD, MBA, will present Michael Mann’s new book, The New Climate Wars. published January 2021. We will meet virtually at 1:30pm. The link will follow. Go to OMNICenter.org for more info on the zoom link. The OMNI Newsletter published closest to the presentation date will also have the link.
Presenter Terry Tremwell says: “In the tradition of his The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars (2012), Dr. Michael Mann published a book in January 2021 called, The New Climate War. In the new book, he asserts that the focus of the war has shifted from outright denial to inactivism and doomerism, two words that he uses to highlight the activity of companies that make money on fossil fuels to deflect attention from the damage done by their products and how we can still have a tremendous effect on how we limit the climate crisis.
From the website for the book: “A renowned climate scientist shows how fossil fuel companies have waged a thirty-year campaign to deflect blame and responsibility and delay action on climate change, and offers a battle plan for how we can save the planet.”
Dr. Mann prescribes a balanced approach between personal actions and the much more influential changes in laws and government action. From the final paragraph of The New Climate War: “It is all of the things we have talked about—behavioral change, incentivized by appropriate government policy, intergovernmental agreements, and technological innovation—that will lead us forward on climate. It is not any one of these things, but all of them working together, at this unique moment in history, that provides true reason for hope.” I will add some more recent statistics and figures to help stimulate discussion.
Continuing from the website: “Recycle. Fly less. Eat less meat. These are some of the ways that we’ve been told can slow climate change. But the inordinate emphasis on individual behavior is the result of a marketing campaign that has succeeded in placing the responsibility for fixing climate change squarely on the shoulders of individuals. Fossil fuel companies have followed the example of other industries deflecting blame (think “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”) or greenwashing (think of the beverage industry’s “Crying Indian” commercials of the 1970s). Meanwhile, they’ve blocked efforts to regulate or price carbon emissions, run PR campaigns aimed at discrediting viable alternatives, and have abdicated their responsibility in fixing the problem they’ve created. The result has been disastrous for our planet.
In The New Climate War, Mann argues that all is not lost. He draws the battle lines between the people and the polluters – fossil fuel companies, right-wing plutocrats, and petrostates. And he outlines a plan for forcing our governments and corporations to wake up and make real change, including:
- a common-sense, attainable approach to carbon pricing- and a revision of the well-intentioned but flawed currently proposed version of the Green New Deal;
- allowing renewable energy to compete fairly against fossil fuels
- debunking the false narratives and arguments that have worked their way into the climate debate and driven a wedge between even those who support climate change solutions
- combatting climate doomism and despair-mongering
With immensely powerful vested interests aligned in defense of the fossil fuel status quo, the societal tipping point won’t happen without the active participation of citizens everywhere aiding in the collective push forward. This book will reach, inform, and enable citizens everywhere to join this battle for our planet.”