PUTNEY — For the last century or so, we Americans have been taught that we can live better lives by relying on a fossil fuel economy. We were sold a bill of goods, but it turned out to be a lie - and now rapid changes in the climate are, in a very real way, hitting us back with the actual truth.
The truth is, we have all become addicted to the mined fuel commodities known as oil, gas, and coal. This has been a kind of open secret in public discourse, and the companies that deal in these fuels continue trying to hide the truth from us.
They will never stop willingly. It's a dangerous predicament, surprisingly analogous to asking the heroin distributor to please stop selling that harmful stuff. It can't work without major political action: Laws need to be written and enforced.
Drug gangs simply use guns, street terror, and just plain desperation to keep their piece of the drug profits. In comparison, fossil fuel companies' profitable exploits have historically been funded by government subsidies and military support.
Then they pour a huge chunk of their profits into public relations, lobbying, and advertising - an arsenal of misinformation - used to suppress solar power and other sustainable technologies and promote an enormous set of lies.
So goes the story of how our economy, our whole society, became dependent on the fossil fuels they sell. After more than a century of being subject to Big Fossil Fuel's enormous set of lies, our population is now dependent upon a massively unsustainable lifestyle, one based on the appealing idea of "limitless individual freedom" of burning cheap gas, oil, and coal.
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By the new millennium, the U.S. and other wealthier countries had gotten stuck in a deadly trap.
Our dependence, and the day-to-day climate denial that goes along with it, has suddenly become the biggest existential challenge of human history. Climate scientists have shown unquestionably what rapid changes must occur in how we live. How we grow food, heat our homes, travel, and produce power all must be radically altered to shrink carbon emissions.
"Must"?
We can count on the skeptics to sow doubt about the science. Will they continue to question the increasing heat waves, forest fires, and mega-storms? Doubt feeds the climate denial, even when the evidence of human-fueled "natural" disasters has become a daily news event.
Even worse, now denial is clogging our own lungs and flooding our own basements.
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The first step toward healing ourselves and our planet is simply admitting that we are all a part of the problem. It's the same first step as in recovery from drug addiction, but so far this is not going well at all.
Next will come the many steps to transform the whole economy so that people no longer will need the stuff called fossil fuels.
The sustainable, appropriate technology for achieving these complex changes has been coming along great. We already have the advanced solar, wind, battery, and other technologies we need in order to convert from the fossil fuel economy.
So, why aren't our leaders - except the most progressive ones - willing to take us to this new, greener future?
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So much for the demand side. Imagine if regulations could be put into place internationally to squeeze the supply side of our huge fossil fuel economy.
In other words, in a world based on free-market capitalism, is it even possible to rein in the oil companies' continued exploration and extraction of the oil, gas, and coal that we know we need to quit?
We do actually have the ability to save life on our troubled planet. We need a strong enough movement to overtake the power and money, and doubt and denial sown by the enemy.
What we are sorely lacking is the political will (and individual will) to do it - starting now, before it's too late.
Gino Palmeri of Putney runs a small organic orchard, works as a bus driver, and serves on his local Conservation Commission. This piece comes to us via VtDigger, where it was originally published.
This Voices Viewpoint was submitted to The Commons.