Exploitative businessmen heated the world & are still heating it. We can do something today.

'Accepting $61 million in bribes...for passing...one of the worst anti-climate laws'

We're dealing with a lot of bad. Consider how planet-destroying laws are passed.

"Not Arrested: Charles Jones, former CEO of FirstEnergy

"Last month, Ohio’s former Speaker of the House Larry Householder was sentenced to 20 years in prison for accepting $61 million in bribes from the electric utility FirstEnergy in exchange for passing HB6, one of the worst anti-climate laws in the nation.

Charles Jones, FirstEnergy’s former CEO, was revealed to be the architect of the plan when lawyers for FirstEnergy said Jones and a colleague “devised and orchestrated FirstEnergy’s payments to public officials in exchange for favorable legislation and regulatory action.” Jones hasn’t been charged with any crimes."

— "Who gets arrested for climate crimes?: People protesting the climate crisis are getting arrested around the world while actual alleged climate criminals walk free." Emily Atkin and Arielle Samuelson. Heated. July 18, 2023.

Since 1960, oil and gas companies have had to pay a bond of $10,000 for each lease on federal lands. This security is "to help pay to plug wells or secure leaky ones if firms go out of business or abandon their wells." In 2023, the Bureau of Land Management, part of the Interior Department, proposed raising it to $150,000 — since it hadn't been increased in 63 years. Also, the minimum royalty rate (12.5%) hasn't been raised in a century; that's the rate the government is paid from these operations on federal lands. The proposed new rate is 16.67%.

Companies know this business isn't sustainable. "Climate change and the uninsurable future." Kurt Cobb, originally published by Resource Insights, resilience, July 16, 2023

'Doing something will always be better than nothing'

Because less bad is better than more bad.

"'I want to prepare my son,' said my brilliant, hilarious, artsy friend, who had somehow leapfrogged from mild climate concern straight to preppery and teaching his son to spearfish. I say this not to disparage but to highlight what absolutely cannot happen. ...we can change this. Be a hot stepper before a prepper.

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Worse than climate chaos not radicalizing people (it won’t) is climate chaos sending people directly to It’s-Too-Late Avenue. It’s not, and it never will be. Because 1.9 degrees will always be better than 2. Because doing something will always be better than nothing. And because we actually can’t prep our way out of this. Nor can you, bunker boys of New Zealand."

— "Together we can, today we start, tomorrow we dance!: Or, there's a step before ya prep." Sara Lazarovic. Minimum Viable Planet (Substack). July 16, 2023.

You can have conversations. A resource I came across: Post doom: Regenerative conversations, connections, and resources for moving beyond doom.

You can literally plant a garden. Every flower helps. From a few years ago, immediately pre-covid: "Why I Stopped Protesting and Started a Garden" John Halstead. February 5, 2020

December 2023

Biden, seeking reelection, apparently is trying to balance keeping oil prices low (as many seem to expect him to do) and doing something to mitigate climate change (as many others want him to do). These goals are incompatible.

Thus: "You won’t hear President Biden talking about it much, but a key record has been broken during his watch: The United States is producing more oil than any country ever has." — "U.S. oil production hit a record under Biden. He seldom mentions it." Evan Halper and Toluse Olorunnipa, Washington Post, Dec 31, 2023