CFE agenda 121415 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

SKEPTICISM AND OPTIMISM Meanwhile, somewhere in the Eastern Hemisphere - he wouldn't say where, but not Indonesia, which his Skype handle says - Chris Lang runs a website that lays waste to the arguments of environ- mentalists and their love of standing forests. It's just unrealistic, he says. Lang also is highly crit- ical of U.N. policies that allow industrialized coun- tries to continue to burn fossil fuels at will as long as they pay a tropical country enough money to preserve a stretch of rain forest capable of absorb- ing all that pollution. It is, at best, a zero -sum gain, Lang says, before becom- ing cynical, or realistic - depending on your per- spective. (For his out- spokenness and online prominence, Lang says he fears for his life, hence his secretiveness.) "The idea that forests are worth more standing than they are being cut , down to grow palm oil (Indonesia), drill for oil (Ecuador) or dig for gold (Peru) is not working," Lang said during a Skype interview. "You can al- ways make more money cutting down the trees. And with a carbon trading system, you are not burn- ing any less fossil fuels." The answer, Lang says, is not even a topic of dis- cussion in Paris. It is not just about reducing carbon emissions, he argues. It should be about keeping coal, oil and gas in the ground, period. Then invest heavily in renew- able forms of energy, such as wind, solar, hydroe- lectric, even nuclear. "They talk about reduc- ing emissions, but they never talk about stopping the extraction of oil and coal," Lang said. "That's a complicated political dis - cussion. Is Saudi Arabia going to stop drilling for oil? Is West Virginia going to stop digging coal? No. Not without really difficult discussions about what's really needed." Knox, who studied and taught climate policy for 20 years at American University before moving to Wake Forest, takes this all in. He's heard all the arguments, all the skepti- cism, all the doomsday talk. Still, he remains optimistic about Paris and what comes next. "This wailing and gnashing of teeth follows a familiar pattern," Knox said. "In the 1970s, when Congress adopted major pollution regulations for the first time, Detroit (automakers) cried that they would be forced out of business. They said meeting the new pollution standards was impossible. "But then the laws passed, the regulations were adopted, and it turned out, it was possible. And possible to do it far more cheaply than they imagined, which turned out to be bettef for the economy. Look, if we get halfway there in Paris (with emissions reduction targets), that's a pretty good start. That's some- thing to build on later." Paris is not the end of the global battle to fight climate change, Knox said. It's an important pivot point with all nations finally on board. More progress will come. More solutions, too. He's seen it before. Time and again. Justin Catanoso is director of journalism at Wake Forest University. His reporting is sponsored by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting in Washington and the Center for Energy Environment and Sustainability at Wake Forest. He will cover the Paris summit; his reporting can be followed at www.justincatanoso.com.