Climate Change and Our World in the Next 25 Years  

By John M Repp (written November 4, 2024)

On September 26, 2024, hurricane Helene made landfall and then on October 9, 2024 hurricane Milton made landfall, both coming up from the Gulf of Mexico. They killed hundreds of people and destroyed many people’s lives and property. 2023 was the hottest year on record and the greenhouse gas percentages in our atmosphere is higher than at anytime humans have been alive on this planet.

Nature magazine is a peer-reviewed scientific journal, the oldest in the United States. Peer-reviewing is where many scientists read the article, discuss it and check for it errors. It is one of the best ways to try and find the truth. In a recent article in Nature, we find this quote: “the world economy is committed to an income reduction of 19% within the next 26 years”.

The growth of a nation’s economy is one of the highest goals of any nation’s government. Our government’s efforts to continue economic growth are going to be frustrated by climate change unless we make huge changes. We need to so much more than the recent efforts made by the Biden regime. Sadly, Trump and the Republican Party say climate change is “a hoax”, having accepted large bribes from the oil companies in order to take such a position.. Even more maddening, the U.S. Supreme Court has decided these bribes are legal!

Below is a graph of greenhouse gas emissions over the last 2000 years, showing what is called the “hockey stick”, the huge change in the last 200 years of the industrial age that was powered by the burning of coal, then oil and natural gas.

Humanity is facing a crisis that challenges the very existence of our world civilization. How can we slow down emissions of greenhouse gases, but maintain a decent life for people?

One valuable source for ideas is the book Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation (Penguin Books, 2021) edited by Paul Hawken. It follows another book Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming (2017) Drawdown is also a website. The scientific breakthrough announced in the 2012 book is that global warming will begin to level off after our emissions of greenhouse gases equals the uptake by the plants and rocks. This conclusion is not universally accepted however.

But today our greenhouse gas emissions are still increasing.

A powerful way to get control of the oil corporations that are, despite everything, continuing to drill , refine and sell oil products, lie about their responsibility for climate change, and donate billions to candidates like Trump who deny climate change is to nationalize them. After declaring a crisis, the Federal Government can buy controlling stock of the three largest oil companies for less than half a trillion dollars, according to Robert Pollin.

There have been many times in the past in America when nationalization has been used during a crisis. During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson nationalized the railroads, phone and telegraph companies, and radio stations. All were returned to private ownership after the war. FDR did the same during World War II, privatizing airplane manufacturers, the railroads, most of the oil companies, and even the largest retail outlet, Montgomery Ward. In 1970, President Nixon nationalized twenty of the nations railroads to create Amtrak. In 1987, Reagan and Congress nationalized hundreds of saving-and-loan companies to prevent a banking crisis.

Many more historical examples can be given. The method is not talked about much as it goes against the privatization dogma of our economic-political system. But nationalization is an established precedent when dealing with a national crisis. It is a powerful tool that must be used to deal with climate change, the most powerful global crisis in human history.