McKenzie Funk’s book, Windfall,
explores the question, “What are we doing about climate change?” Readers are introduced to ambitious
speculators who are eager to make enormous profits on new opportunities
resulting from a warming planet. They are
not investing in research for sharply reducing carbon emissions. They are obsessed with keeping the economic
growth monster on life support. Climate
change investment funds will soon become gold mines, creating a flood of new
billionaires. The future is rosy as hell.
Mining corporations are slobbering with anticipation as
Greenland’s ice melts, providing access to billions of dollars worth of zinc,
gold, diamonds, and uranium. A defunct
zinc mine, which operated from 1973 to 1990, provides a sneak preview of the
nightmares to come. The Black Angel mine
dumped its tailings into a nearby fjord.
The zinc and lead in the runoff was absorbed by the blue mussels, which
were eaten by fish, which were eaten by seals.
Investors won, the ecosystem lost.
Other entrepreneurs are anxious to turn the torrents of melt
water into hydropower, providing cheap energy for new server farms and aluminum
smelters. Meanwhile, the tourism
industry is raking in big money serving the growing swarms of disaster tourists.
As the Arctic ice melts, sea levels could rise as much as 20
feet (6 m). A number of low-lying
islands are already on death row — the Maldives, Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Marshall
Islands, Seychelles, Bahamas, and the Carteret Islands.
Islanders are pissed that faraway rich folks are destroying their
home. Bath time is also predicted for large
portions of Manila, Alexandria, Lagos, Karachi, Kolkata, Jakarta, Dakar, Rio,
Miami, Ho Chi Minh City, and a fifth of Bangladesh. There may be a billion climate refugees by
2050.
Five nations have shorelines on the icy Arctic Ocean: Canada,
Russia, Norway, Denmark (Greenland), and the United States (Alaska). Beneath the rapidly melting ice are billions
of dollars worth of oil, gas, and coal.
We would be wise to leave this energy in the ground but, of course, we
won’t. There will be abundant
testosterone-powered discussion over borderlines in the region, and this might
include blizzards of bombs and bullets.
Both Canada and Denmark claim ownership of Hans Island. Russia has planted a flag on the North Pole.
A melted Arctic will also provide a new shipping lane,
connecting the Atlantic and Pacific, providing a much shorter and much cheaper
alternative to the Panama Canal. Both
sides of the Northwest Passage are owned by Canada, but other nations, like the
U.S. and China, disagree that Canada owns the waterway. They prefer it to be an international route
of innocent passage, like Gibraltar. Funk
took a cruise on the Montreal, a frigate of the Royal Canadian Navy. They were engaged in Arctic war games, which
included an exercise that seized a naughty American ship.
The core driver of climate change is simple: “add carbon, get
heat.” As carbon emissions skyrocket, so
does the temperature of the atmosphere.
We can’t undo what has already been done, damage that will persist for
centuries, but it would be rather intelligent to quit throwing gasoline on the
fire. Unfortunately, the titans of capitalism
have a different plan. Renewable energy
cannot power our nightmare, and environmental activism has failed. Governments are careful to ignore the prickly
issue, because voters delight in living as wastefully as possible. Technology is our only hope.
Cutting emissions would blindside our way of life (and so
will not cutting emissions). But cleverly
adapting to climate change will greatly enrich the titans, temporarily. There’s growing interest in seawalls, storm
surge barriers, and floating cities.
Israelis are making big money selling snowmaking and desalinization
equipment. Biotech firms are working
like crazy to produce expensive drought resistant seeds. India is building a 2,100 mile (3,380 km)
fence along its border with Bangladesh, to block the flood of refugees that are
expected when rising seas submerge low-lying regions.
Others dream of making big money creating monopolies on the
supply of freshwater, which is diminishing as the torrents of melting ice rush
into the salty oceans. There are two
things that people will spend their remaining cash on, water and food. Crop yields are sure to drop in a warming
climate. This will lead to rising prices,
and create exciting opportunities for profiteering. A number of wealthy nations are ruthlessly
acquiring cropland in third world regions.
Funk visited Nathan Myhrvold, a Microsoft billionaire, who
now runs Intellectual Ventures. His plan
is to keep economic growth on life support by creating a virtual volcano called
StratoShield. Volcanoes spew ash into
the atmosphere, which reduces incoming solar heat, and cools off the
climate. StratoShield would spray 2 to 5
million metric tons of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere every year. This would make the sunlight one percent
dimmer, and enable life as we know it to continue, with reduced guilt, for a
bit longer (maybe) — hooray!
Funk also visited Alan Robock, who opposes the plan. Volcanic ash is not harmless. The goal of StratoShield is to block
heat. The catastrophic side effect is
that it’s like to severely alter rain patterns in the southern hemisphere,
spurring horrendous droughts, deluges, and storm systems. On the bright side, life in Microsoft
country, the Pacific Northwest, would remain fairly normal, and the sulfur
dioxide sunsets would be wonderfully colorful.
Funk didn’t mention that the geoengineering, if it actually
worked, would have to be done permanently.
Beneath the shield, ongoing emissions would continue to increase the
atmosphere’s carbon load. If the shield
was discontinued, and full sunlight resumed, the consequences would not be
pleasant.
Myhrvold’s former boss, Bill Gates, is running a foundation
that’s spending billions of dollars to eradicate disease. The mosquitoes of the world are nervous,
fearing near term extinction. The
foundation is dedicated to promoting the wellbeing of humankind. Oddly, it has spent nothing on research to
cut carbon emissions. Folks will be
spared from disease so they can enjoy drought and deluge. There is no brilliant win/win solution. The path to balance will be long and painful.
Funk finished his book in 2012, a very hot year for climate
juju all around the world. He had spent
six years hanging out with tycoons, “the smartest guys in the room.” All were obsessed with conjuring highly
complex ways of making even more money by keeping our insane civilization on
life support, for as long as possible, by any means necessary.
Climate change is a manmade disaster, and those most
responsible are the wealthy consumers of the north. Funk imagines that the poor folks of the
south will be hammered, while the primary perpetrators remain fairly
comfortable. It’s a wicked problem
because “we are not our own victims.” We
feel no obligation to reduce our emissions or consumption. We care little about misery in far away
places.
I am not convinced that the north will get off easy. Anyone who spends time studying the Earth
Crisis will eventually conclude that humans are remarkably clever, but
pathologically irrational. We’ve created
a reality far too complex for our tropical primate brains. We’ve created a culture that burns every
bridge it crosses. Funk reminds us that,
“We should remember that there is also genius in simplicity.” I agree.
Funk, McKenzie, Windfall
— The Booming Business of Global Warming, Penguin Press, New York,
2014.
2 comments:
Dirty Days
These are the dirty days
They come unbidden
None of us wanted them
We only wanted the best
For ourselves and our children
The dirt had been invisible
It looked like clouds of glory
Resting lightly on the land
Filled with promise for our labor
For our pure hearts
Our good intentions
Thom Hawkins
Hi Thom! Great! Thanks!
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