whateverthing.com

☰

Listen, Bill, you don't know me, but I used to be a big fan. That ended some time ago, of course, but it's still something I used to be.

I will admit that I haven't read your latest piece about your new approach to climate change, but I want to you know that some fascist idiots have been using it as justification to slag Harrison Ford.

Have some shame. You've earned it.

Sincerely,

Kevin.

PS: if you could toss a couple million dollars my way, I'd appreciate it.

Additional Context

This was originally posted on my Mastodon account. I was inspired to write it after seeing a quote in a Daily Beast article from WH spokesperson Taylor Rogers:

"Literally no one—not even Bill Gates—still believes that climate change is [a] catastrophic threat [...]"
— White House Spokesperson Taylor Rogers, quoted in The Daily Beast

As you might guess, I do in fact believe that climate change is a catastrophic threat. I think Bill Gates knows it is, too. When he said his piece about his shift in strategy, I don't think he was denying that climate change is real. I do feel that his overall stance is a capitulation, of sorts, but I hope that he is exactly as irked as I am to see his name used this way.

His assertion that some climate change funding has been misplaced rings true for me. Carbon Capture, for instance, is a myth - money dumped into it is only serving the purpose of making people feel that they're working to solve the problem with technology.

But it isn't a problem that can be solved with carbon capture technology. Not today's, and probably not even tomorrow's. Solving Climate Change with carbon capture is indistinguishable from planetary-scale terraforming, and doing that at intentional scale without unanticipated side effects is still very firmly in the realm of science fiction. We're terraforming accidentally, chaotically, by raising greenhouse gas levels, and it's screwing everything up.

A miracle fix that can achieve the necessary scale of effect is not coming soon enough. We need an effective ground game today to stave off the worst of what is coming.

We need to disincentivize the extraction and consumption of fossil fuels. That's it. That's the ballgame.

Easier said than done, of course, because we're talking about forcing companies and entire governments to intentionally increase their cost of doing business. Eating into their own profits is not something that those entities are famous for.

We need to identity and eliminate the invisible subsidies that let these entities artificially reduce their operational cost.

If they want to keep bringing it to market, they need to bear the full cost. As it stands, they're getting a free ride - for which our entire planet is already footing the bill.