Climate Change Sceptics: Visit Latvia, Climate Change Paradise
I like global warming, since I’m blessed by early birth and living as a beachfront trophy husband in Jurmala, Latvia. We used to have 3 meter snowdrifts in Riga as recently as 2009. I have photos of the ducks from the canals sitting atop the drifts in Riga’s old town half a meter above my head. Now we have nearly snowless winters and our climate resembles the UK and the Netherlands — at 57 degrees north latitude — 17 degrees, nearly 1200 miles, north of NY.
Summers are longer and much hotter than when I moved here in 2005. Swimming season begins in late May and I swam IN THE BALTIC two days ago. Two years ago I swam on October 7 — in a country invaded by the Germans in 1941 who met their first snow unleashed by General Winter on October 15.
I lived 16 years in alpine Italy and the glaciers I skied in Italy and Switzerland are less than half the size they were when I first skied them in 1987. The Morterasch Glacier in St Moritz has markers showing how much longer it used to be. It’s now nearly 2 kilometers shorter than in 1950. As in Greenland’s ice sheet, you can trace the shrinkage to industrial pollution, like measuring tree rings.
The Marmolada Glacier in the Dolomites, whose summit I hiked in 1978, used to be a great summer ski area, is also much smaller. Climate change has forced almost 200 Italian ski areas to close. Val d’Isère in the French Alps spent millions on a custom designed snowmaking software system that only very large ski resorts could afford. This is how climate change, like COVID, creates winner take all tournament markets; a sort of reverse anti trust enforcement that turns smaller market players into Darwin prize road kill through no fault of their own.
Who’s responsible? Start with the 20 companies that produce 1/3 of all greenhouse gas emissions. In descending order of atmospheric dirtiness: Saudi Aramco, Chevron, Gazprom, Exxon, National Iranian Oil Co., BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Coal India, Pemex, Petroleos de Venezuela, PetroChina, Peabody Energy, ConocoPhilips…….no need to list the rest. Investor-owned Chevron, Exxon, BP, and Shell alone account for 10% of global emissions. (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/09/revealed-20-firms-third-carbon-emissions). You may live in capitalism, but they get socialism, never held financially responsible for the environmental externalities they leave for the rest of us to pay for.
And as early as 1965 the US government and the companies knew that emissions from their production would change the earth’s climate:
In November 1965, the president, Lyndon Johnson, released a report authored by the Environmental Pollution Panel of the President’s Science Advisory Committee, which set out the likely impact of continued fossil fuel production on global heating…..In the same year, the president of the American Petroleum Institute told its annual gathering: “One of the most important predictions of the [president’s report] is that carbon dioxide is being added to the Earth’s atmosphere by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas at such a rate by the year 2000 the heat balance will be so modified as possibly to cause marked changes in climate beyond local or even national efforts.”
The remedy? An environmental performance bond they put up to mitigate the consequences of the climate change they knew 50 years ago they would cause. If temperatures and sea levels rise above the threshold safe for the rest of us, they lose the surety. Call it environmental loan collateral that’s senior to all dividends and bond interest. Want to make a fortune fracking? Frack away if you’re ready to pay the environmental risk premium to the rest of us.
It’s been done before. From bondbrokersinc.com:
Environmental Bonds
Environmental Bonds include performance and payment surety bonds when contaminated property is being remediated and similar surety bonds required for landfills, wetland mitigation, and other industries which may impact the environment. Bond Brokers, Inc. has unique expertise in writing environmental bonds for the following contractors:
- Asbestos & Lead Abatement
- Hazardous Waste
- Site Remediation
- Landfill Construction
https://suretybondauthority.com/environmental-surety-bond/ explains how to structure environmental surety bonds (I have no connection to this company):
“An Environmental Surety Bond is a unique guarantee that contractors will comply with federal regulations and environmental policies. It is designed to prevent environmental damage by covering construction projects and hazardous materials within the bond. Mitigating environmental risks for contractors can be tough because of the long-term liability, the collateral they require, and the length/period of some of the bonds.”
The bond covenants are already drafted and all we need to do is change “site remediation” to “planetary climate change remediation”.
A Brief World Tour of Shrinking Glaciers and Snowless Winters
All you need to trace industrial-sourced climate change is travel a bit. But you can’t do that with your useless US passport (https://readmedium.com/my-latvian-residence-card-is-now-worth-more-than-my-us-passport-a78572128e33) . If I want to travel, I need my Latvian residence card because COVID-ridden Americans are barred from so many science-governed countries.
When I lived in Los Angeles from 1979–86, wildfires were occasional background noise, not an emergency. In 1983 Mammoth Mountain got 1100+ of snow and drifts reached up to the roofs of ski chalets.
I’m very happy I used to live in California — but happier I now breathe perfectly clean Jurmala air instead of the toxic wildfire smog created by climate change.
Denying industrial-sourced climate change is like taking investment advice from Larry “Airtight” Kudlow. Not a good bet. If there were a global climate change trading market in locations, I’d short California, the US Gulf Coast and the overheated Languedoc and Bordeaux wine growing regions and go long the Baltics, Scandinavia and Cornwall for its future with French vintners now brushing up on their English.