MONTHLY NEWSLETTER APRIL 2020
Woods Hole Research Center Don’t like big government? Act now to stop climate change. Dr. Philip B. Duffy President & Executive Director Among the many parallels between COVID-19 and climate change is that both are apt to bring us big government and loss of liberty.
Naomi Orkeskes and Eric Conway’s groundbreaking book Merchants of Doubt showed that opposition to “big government” is behind a lot of climate change denial in the US. Deniers cynically sow doubt about climate change (its reality, human origins, seriousness, and the feasibility of stopping it) because they fear that solutions will involve government interference in free markets, like subsidies for renewable energy, and intolerable restrictions on basic individual liberties, like having to drive an efficient car or use LED light bulbs. The effectiveness of this strategy, which is modeled on successful campaigns to limit government policies on tobacco, acid rain, and other perils, is a big part of why we haven’t had strong federal climate policies in the US.
Study: Drying Brazilian forests are climate harbinger
This approach is misguided on several levels. To begin with, climate change is the result of a market failure—polluters don’t pay the cost of disposing of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. In addition, fossil fuels are heavily subsidized in various ways, more than renewable energy is. The foundational solution to climate change—carbon pricing—actually corrects that market failure. It is also becoming clear that the economic harms from climate change itself will soon be worse than those from the policies needed to stop it.
Climate change is already creating sizable shifts in the forests of northeast Brazil’s Caatinga region, with much greater changes still to come, according to a new study led by WHRC scientist Dr. Andrea Castanho and published in Environmental Research Letters. Co-authored by WHRC scientists Drs. Michael Coe, Paulo Brando, Marcia Macedo, Alessandro Baccini and Wayne Walker, the finding has important implications for forests worldwide.
These previously inconceivable measures have been taken because the only alternative is calamity. If we continue to ignore climate change, we’re going to get to a similar place, where more and more restrictive measures will be needed
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But there is a bigger problem: one of the many lessons we can learn from coronavirus is that the longer we ignore a looming global threat, the more certain it becomes that the eventual solution will involve a massive dose of big government and loss of liberty. Many were horrified at China’s authoritarian response to the outbreak, but here in the U.S., we’ve seen measures that a couple of months ago would have been unimaginable — restrictions on travel and public gatherings, and now, most Americans being told to stay home except for special circumstances. Recently decried on the presidential campaign trail as socialism, we now have governmentfunded sick leave and family leave, even some amount of free health care.
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The study of Brazil’s Caatinga region, which is the world’s largest, seasonally dry tropical forest, combines an exhaustive compilation of field data, landmark biomass estimates from Drs. Baccini and Walker, and historical and future climate data to quantitatively link climate, plant physiognomy, and biomass. The study finds that from 2008–2017, more than 90% of the region shifted to a dryer climate space compared to the historical reference period of 1950–1979.
WHRC is an independent research organization where scientists study climate change and how to solve it, from the Amazon to the Arctic. Learn more at www.whrc.org.