Protecting our environment requires changing how our essential
resources are managed and how our energy needs are met. Political
decisions on our energy future should not be left to a cartel of
multinational companies that favor fossil fuels and other dirty energy
sources, or to Wall Street and the financial services industry that is
eager to cash in on our dwindling essential resources. While some
advocate putting a price on nature and profiting off of our remaining
natural resources, mechanisms like cap and trade are easy to
manipulate to maximize profits and have a poor track record of
actually reducing pollution. Rather than relying on hard to understand
schemes that have no political traction, we should fight for the
policies we really want. Let’s work to keep fossil fuels in the
ground and make an immediate shift to renewables and energy
efficiency. Climate Change and Fracking In an effort to protect our
access to safe food and clean drinking water, we must halt climate
change. This means radically changing the way we produce energy,
moving decisively towards a sustainable, renewable energy future.
Fracking, promoted by the oil and gas industry and even some national
environmental groups as a “bridge fuel,” will only prolong our
dependence on fossil fuels. The huge capital investment necessary to
develop wells and the infrastructure to support the industry will lock
us into using natural gas for decades to come. Don’t be fooled by
the industry line that gas has lower carbon emissions, because a
growing body of scientific studies has documented that producing and
distributing fracked gas releases vast amounts of methane — an even
more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. We must collectively
grow a mass movement to keep fossil fuels in the ground and hasten the
development of renewables. Food & Water Watch is developing
state-based policies that will jumpstart the transition to renewables
by organizing people to support these policies—even as the oil and
gas industry fights them. Other Forms of Extreme Energy: Incinerators
and Dirty Manure to Energy Projects Incinerators and manure to energy
projects are often touted as renewable or clean, but they are
associated with high levels of air pollution—and are placed mostly
in communities of color or other disadvantaged communities. Like other
dirty energy projects, they are not only unsustainable—they pose an
environmental justice issue and, in the case of manure to energy, rely
on an unsustainable factory farm model. Putting a Price on Nature When
an economist or banker looks out at an expanse of virgin forest or
free-flowing river, they don’t just see nature — they see
“natural capital.” To them, our natural resources should be
assigned a value – value that will flow into the pockets of those
who already have the most money. This idea is the cornerstone of the
“green economy” that corporations and even some major
environmental groups are promoting as a solution to our environmental
problems. This is no solution, and is in fact dangerous. Corporations
will simply add the cost of paying for pollution to what consumers pay
for energy or other products. And our environment will continue to
suffer. Market-based schemes are largely voluntary and unregulated.
They represent a drastic and ineffective departure from how we
prevented pollution by passing our nation’s environmental
laws—from the Clean Air Act to the Safe Drinking Water Act. The
federal laws passed in the 1970s helped clean our air and water during
the last decades of the 20th century. Let’s make sure real
environmental laws are strengthened, not weakened by letting the
“market” decide if we should have a clean and healthy future.