The reason our society hasn’t solved global warming isn’t that environmentalists are advocating for the wrong policies, as Joshua S. Goldstein and Steven Pinker claim. It’s that special interests like the fossil fuel industry are distorting the science, buying elections, and rushing Congress and state legislatures with lobbyists.
As we learned this year, Exxon knew that climate change was happening as early as 1977, but spent millions over the following decades to hide the truth and oppose sensible climate policies.
And in Massachusetts, utility companies are standing in the way of common-sense proposals to expand solar and offshore wind.
Someday, we may see fossil fuel companies and the utilities get serious about fighting climate change. But I'm not holding my breath. Until then, we'll keep building the grassroots support it takes to stand up to the special interests and win real solutions to global warming.