Demand for fossil fuels must stop - Albuquerque Journal

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Scientists’ predictive models that forecast global climate disruption coupled with mega-drought here in the West are proving to be accurate, or, in too many cases, optimistic. Wildfires are rapidly consuming entire towns and thousands of square miles at a record pace, and darkening the skies with hazardous smoke in cities near and far.

Simultaneously, West Coast demands for electricity to cool homes and work places outpace the capabilities of largely fossil fuel-based energy production.

As predictable as this crisis are the oil and gas industry voices calling for “More fossil fuels!”

More fossil fuel-based energy leads only to more damage to our climate and environment. In turn, such damage leads to ever higher demands for electricity for air-conditioning.

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Only a fool or a profiteer advocates for more of the same radical practices of the carbon-based energy industry.

It is far past time to dump 20th century carbon-based energy that has brought us this disaster. Destructive practices have lined the pockets of the wealthy, but have degraded the lives of many in energy sacrifice zones. One need go no further than the Navajo Nation, the Four Corners at large, or the Permian Basin to see that truth.

Bringing wind, solar and other renewables online will take investments that demand time and patience, as well as money and know-how. Until we can make renewables a reality, the cold truth is that many will suffer the foolishness of fossil fuel advocates.

Surely, it would be just to make oil and gas pay to ease the suffering of those impacted.

The implementation of clean, sustainable, renewable energy needs to be coupled with a rigorous reduction in our collective appetite for energy-intensive luxury lifestyles. The ability of a few to afford indulgent, rapacious consumption is no longer an acceptable rationale for depriving others of their right to exist in a modicum of comfort in a clean, sustainable environment.

Coal, oil and natural gas use must stopped. Only a rapid shift to renewables, coupled with extraordinarily ethical choices regarding consumption, hold any hope for sustainability.

Jim Klukkert lives in Santa Fe.

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Demand for fossil fuels must stop - Albuquerque Journal
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