Thread by @KHayhoe

"There should be some magical form of energy that has zero impacts and until we get there, we should just keep using fossil fuels." This is just the latest variant on climate denial zombie argument #4, "the cure is worse than the disease". theguardian.com/environment/20…

(Of course there's no free energy lunch: there is a very expensive one that will cost us human civilization as we know it, and a much more affordable on that will preserve human civilization but of course we need to keep working at making even more affordable than it is today.)

I've never met a climate denial argument that wasn't a variant of one of these five categories, all aimed at preventing action:
1/ It's not real
2/ It's not us
3/ It's not bad
4/ We can't fix it (and here's why)
5/ It's too late

There are significant improvements to be made in clean energy. It must be even more efficient & affordable; we must recycle batteries, turbine blades & panels; and we must prevent the massive human rights violations & local env pollution caused by mining. snopes.com/fact-check/ele…

However, fossil fuel extraction also causes enormous local pollution and creates systems of oppression and human rights violations. Here's one example, in Colombia. theguardian.com/environment/cl…

Here's another example; the health impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining in the US Appalachians include increased risks of cancer, chronic heart, lung & kidney disease, and more. science.org/doi/full/10.11…

A third example: the health impacts of fracking, which occurs primarily across Pennsylvania, Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas as well as Canada and China. ehn.org/health-impacts…

And a fourth and final example, the health impacts and environmental devastation of oil and gas extraction in the Niger Delta. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

As @DrBobBullard, father of environmental justice, says: "Fossil fuel use has brought us to the brink of climate catastrophe. Cleaning up our energy is the only way out. This is a huge technological & policy challenge but also an urgent justice challenge." linkedin.com/pulse/why-ener…

PS. And don't forget this. Air pollution from burning fossil fuels is responsible for over 8M premature deaths every year. seas.harvard.edu/news/2021/02/d…

And it increases risk of covid deaths as well. hsph.harvard.edu/c-change/subto…