Thread by @Noahpinion

1/Here is a thread about climate change that's going to make a lot of people mad.

Basically, America, on its own, has a LOT power to stop climate change than almost anyone admits. bloomberg.com/view/articles/…

2/China now emits far more CO2 than the U.S. It emits almost as much as Europe and the U.S. combined.

3/In fact, even this huge disparity dramatically understates the degree to which China is in the driver's seat of climate change.

China, being still much poorer than us, has much more room to grow its economy. Hence, the emissions gap will only grow larger.

4/This leads to an uncomfortable but unavoidable fact: The battle to halt climate change will be won or lost in China.

America's power - and thus, the power of American politicians, activists, businesses, etc. - to save the planet from climate catastrophe is very marginal.

5/This is just a fact. But it's an uncomfortable one for a people like Americans who are used to thinking that the world lives or dies at their command.

Thus, I see many Americans desperately trying to preserve the illusion of control with respect to climate change.

6/The first way we Americans try to preserve the illusion of control is by bringing up moral arguments.

We note that we emitted more carbon than China throughout history, and that our per capita emissions are higher.

But of course the climate cares nothing for morality.

7/Another way we Americans try to preserve the illusion of control is by claiming that China is doing their part, China is reducing emissions, China has the problem under control, so we just need to focus on ourselves.

This is, sadly, bullshit.
unearthed.greenpeace.org/2018/05/30/chi…

8/A third way we Americans try to preserve the illusion of control is by claiming that America exports its emissions to China (by offshoring carbon-intensive industries).

But in fact, this accounts for only a small piece of the rise in China's CO2 emissions.

9/Of course, I screwed this whole thread up with a typo in the first tweet, which should have read "a LOT less power" instead of "a LOT power", but let's go on.

10/Another way we Americans try to preserve the illusion of control is by claiming that China will follow our lead on emissions - that if we cut emissions unilaterally, they'd follow suit.

Of course, we've ALREADY cut emissions. Nobody followed our lead.

11/Nor did China start slashing emissions after Kyoto, or after Paris.

The idea that we Americans rule the world via our moral leadership is just another illusion of control.

12/Yet another way we try to preserve the illusion of control is by making the false claim that "degrowth" in rich countries will solve the problem.

In fact, China already contributes far more to global growth than we do.

https://twitter.com/bopinion/status/1051242765173043200

13/And finally, the biggest and most important way we Americans try to preserve the illusion of control is by simple denialism.

Many Americans pretend that climate science is more uncertain than it really is, or that climate scientists are dishonest, etc.
nytimes.com/2017/04/28/opi…

14/It's all just an illusion.

America is NOT in the driver's seat when it comes to climate change, and it's time for us to acknowledge that horrible, gut-wrenching fact. Because it is a fact.

15/Does this mean America should abandon our efforts to fight climate change?

Of course not!!!

We should be taxing carbon, building green infrastructure, researching green energy technology, etc.!

16/BUT, on our own, this won't be nearly enough.

We need to do all we can to encourage China to decarbonize.

This includes sharing all of our green energy tech with China, and even trying to pay them to decarbonize.

17/It probably also includes other, less friendly and positive incentives.

18/But the horrible truth is, even all of these incentives probably have only a marginal ability to sway China's decisions.

Like it or not, the future of our planet is in the hands of some folks in Beijing.

(end)