OPINION: Move toward net zero carbon is no climate panacea

In the very near future, in the name of combating climate change, you may not be able to buy a gas- or diesel-powered vehicle.

Spurred on by well-funded and politically powerful environmental organizations, the Biden administration and some other countries around the world are making massive commitments to rapidly decarbonize their economies. They, along with climate advocates in the United Nations, academia and the news media, are claiming that “settled science” demands a complete change in our society. That means moving our world to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 to avoid a theoretical human-caused worldwide climate disaster.

After the net zero emissions declaration, author John Murawski wrote: “In response last month, more than 1,600 scientists, among them two Nobel physics laureates, John Clauser and Ivar Giaever of Norway, signed a declaration stating that there is no climate emergency and that climate advocacy has devolved into mass hysteria. The skeptics say the radical transformation of entire societies is marching forth without a full debate, based on dubious scientific claims amplified by knee-jerk journalism.”

These scientists (skeptics) believe that we shouldn’t require people to rely on intermittent energy from wind and solar or force them to accept experimental technologies that may not work.

They also claim that this significant change in policy could dramatically raise energy costs and destroy millions of jobs, which would have huge negative social and economic effects on the world.

They believe that human activity has little effect on the Earth and that climate change is from natural variability in the normal cycles of the Earth that take centuries to play out.

They do not believe that extreme weather events are killing more humans than before. They have found cold weather kills eight times more humans than heat and weather-related deaths have fallen by 99% in the last century.

What you won’t see are articles or presentations from climate change skeptics. Individuals like Clauser and prominent climate skeptic Roger Pielke Jr. are being silenced, banned from online sites such as X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn for questioning the existence of a climate “crisis.” They believe that, because of their viewpoints, they are being ignored by government funding agencies, foundation grantmakers, academic journals and much of the media. Recently, the International Monetary Fund canceled a presentation by Clauser because of his views. Then a prominent academic journal retracted published research questioning climate change because of negative media coverage. Our freedom as a country is based on the free and open exchange of ideas. Rich and powerful sources are working hard to suppress this debate.

Then we learn that global coal demand reached an all-time high last year, almost all in China.

China is building a new coal-fired power plant every 14 days and they’re not moving away from petroleum products. The United Nations and the Biden administration are busy pushing their “net zero” by 2050, while the biggest polluters, China, India and unfriendly countries like Russia and Iran, are ignoring the mandate. We are putting our country at a distinct disadvantage, both economically and militarily, for a theory.

The Biden administration plans to reach its goal of “net zero” by converting our whole country to electric vehicles (EVs). The administration wants to stop all sales of gas and diesel engines by 2035. There are many points to ponder in this massive change:

The high cost of parts and production of EVs makes them considerably more expensive than gas- and diesel-powered automobiles.

It takes more oil to produce an EV than a standard automobile.

EV parts are mostly built in China.

Lithium is a major material in the building of EVs. Lithium is only found in one small area of the United States, but China has huge amounts. It takes massive amounts of water along with acids, organic solvents and extraction chemicals to extract and process the lithium. The process, called de-watering, badly contaminates the ground water and turns the surrounding area into a polluted desert.

Is this better than the carbon dioxide that burning gas and diesel produces? Some scientists consider carbon dioxide plant food.

China is not our friend. Its navy has recently been threatening our ships in the South China Sea. China has implied numerous times that Taiwan belongs to it and that it plans on taking it back. Taiwan produces more than 60% of the world’s semiconductors and more than 90% of the most advanced ones. The advanced chips are used in satellites, stealth jets and supercomputers, all of which are major components of our top-secret defense and security structure. We must not allow ourselves to become dependent on China for our critical transportation and computer technology.

Chili and Peru, which are mining for the rare earth minerals that are necessary for building our EVs, are having major problems with water pollution.

The British newspaper, The Guardian, in its article titled “Rare earth mining in China: the bleak social and environmental costs,” states: “Processing rare earths is a dirty business. Their ore is often laced with radioactive materials, such as thorium, and separating the wheat from the chaff requires huge amounts of carcinogenic toxins -- sulphates, ammonia and hydrochloric acid. Processing one ton of rare earths produces 2,000 tons of toxic waste; Baotou’s (China) rare earths enterprises produce 10 (million) tons of wastewater per year. They’re pumped into tailings dams.”

The article goes on to describe the utter devastation that mining for rare earth metals has brought to the people, animals and environment of this region of China.

As prominent climate dissenter Pielke said in testimony before the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, “Today, there is general agreement that our current media environment and political discourse are rife with misinformation. ... You are being misinformed.”

We must not let rich and powerful environmental groups, biased media and corrupt politicians determine the future of our country. These same factions are trying to tear out our four lower Snake River dams.

Dugger retired as a journeyman carpenter from Clearwater Paper. He lives in Lewiston.