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It looks like for Al Gore climate change is an opportunity to wage class war. And definitely an opportunity to score political points. Yes, oil drilling compan

It looks like for Al Gore climate change is an opportunity to wage class war. And definitely an opportunity to score political points. Yes, oil drilling companies made a lot of money from extracting and selling fossil fuels. Yes, those fossil fuels, once burned, created the mess we are in now. But we were the guys who burned them, we are equally culpable. Instead of appealing to moral outrage, a much simple and equitable solution would be to pass a carbon tax.

pstuart 3y ago
> It looks like for Al Gore climate change is an opportunity to wage class war. I believe the class war maneuvers are coming from the other side, in making climate change a "liberal issue"; therefore it is something to be dismissed and derided. And your answer is carbon tax? That's it? It may help a bit but doesn't address the core issue which is we need to stop using fossil fuels, which means actively investing in alternative energy production and management.
- credit_guy 3y ago
  But we are actively investing in green energy production. This year (2023) 85% of the new generation capacity is the US is solar, wind, batteries and nuclear, the remaining 15% coming from natural gas [1]. Virtually all the retired capacity was coal (60%) and natural gas (30%). In the US we are moving away from fossil fuels, and we'll get to net zero well ahead of the 2050 target date. What's Al Gore's problem then? It's easiest to score political points by stoking hate. "How can these guys murder the planet?", basically. Well, these guys are just engaging in a legal and profitable activity. If you don't want them to do that activity, make it illegal or unprofitable (by taxing it). Instead of that, he's trying to shame them out of doing it. Good luck with that. [1] https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=57340 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=57340
  - pstuart 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - dang 3y ago
      Could you please stop using HN for political and ideological battle? Your recent comments seem replete with this, and that's not the intended use of the site. In fact it destroys the intended use of the site, and we rely on users making a conscious effort to avoid this. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.
suction 3y ago
[dead]
GoToRO 3y ago
Same companies made an ad with a wind turbine on top of Eiffel Tower to mock wind energy. Same companies had direct access to real studies and knew the truth. Meanwhile people were lied constantly. So no, we are not equally culpable.

pstuart 3y ago

> It looks like for Al Gore climate change is an opportunity to wage class war. I believe the class war maneuvers are coming from the other side, in making climate change a "liberal issue"; therefore it is something to be dismissed and derided. And your answer is carbon tax? That's it? It may help a bit but doesn't address the core issue which is we need to stop using fossil fuels, which means actively investing in alternative energy production and management.

credit_guy 3y ago
But we are actively investing in green energy production. This year (2023) 85% of the new generation capacity is the US is solar, wind, batteries and nuclear, the remaining 15% coming from natural gas [1]. Virtually all the retired capacity was coal (60%) and natural gas (30%). In the US we are moving away from fossil fuels, and we'll get to net zero well ahead of the 2050 target date. What's Al Gore's problem then? It's easiest to score political points by stoking hate. "How can these guys murder the planet?", basically. Well, these guys are just engaging in a legal and profitable activity. If you don't want them to do that activity, make it illegal or unprofitable (by taxing it). Instead of that, he's trying to shame them out of doing it. Good luck with that. [1] https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=57340 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=57340
- pstuart 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - dang 3y ago
    Could you please stop using HN for political and ideological battle? Your recent comments seem replete with this, and that's not the intended use of the site. In fact it destroys the intended use of the site, and we rely on users making a conscious effort to avoid this. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.

suction 3y ago

[dead]

GoToRO 3y ago

Same companies made an ad with a wind turbine on top of Eiffel Tower to mock wind energy. Same companies had direct access to real studies and knew the truth. Meanwhile people were lied constantly. So no, we are not equally culpable.