The Policy Weapon Climate Activists Need

In this article published in The Nation, Gar Alperovitz, Joe Guinan, and Thomas M. Hanna, make the case for using quantitative easing as the knockout punch that shuts down the fossil fuel industry before the climate bubble pops. As window for acting on climate change, the government could use the same tool it used to save the economy from depression to save the climate from burning.

We’re running out of time on climate change. As Donald Trump and Big Oil’s other friends in Washington do their utmost to keep global temperatures climbing, our window for preserving civilization is closing fast. Yes, solar, wind, batteries, and energy efficiency are plummeting in cost and grabbing market share the world over, but this clean-energy transformation is not proceeding anywhere near fast enough to prevent catastrophic climate disruption. The science is clear on what’s most needed: We must leave the vast majority of Earth’s remaining reserves of oil, coal, and gas unburned and underground. But those reserves are the basis of the stock prices of some of the richest, most powerful companies in history. And those companies give every indication that they plan to keep burning them, science and humanity be damned.

Click here to read the full article.