[Reporter’s Reading] Is It a Disaster to Prevent or a Natural Phenomenon?

Two Books Addressing Humanity's Climate Change Response Strategies

'Global Green New Deal' Fossil Fuel Civilization Ending Soon... Transition to Renewable Energy Brings Major Political and Social Changes

'25 Environmental Myths That Harm the Environment' Excessive Beliefs About the Environment Actually Hinder Climate Change Response

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] Two books addressing climate change, the greatest threat to humanity's survival in the 21st century, have been published: 'Global Green New Deal' and '25 Environmental Myths That Harm the Environment.'

'Global Green New Deal' deals with concrete actions humanity must take, focusing on practical approaches, while '25 Environmental Myths That Harm the Environment' addresses climate change response from a philosophical perspective, in other words, an epistemological viewpoint.

'Global Green New Deal' is a book released after six years by futurist Jeremy Rifkin, famous for works like 'The End of Ownership' and 'The End of Work.' It was published in the United States last September.

Rifkin asserts that the fossil fuel civilization will end by 2028 at the latest. He emphasizes the need for a new energy revolution for humanity's sustainable future. He predicts that the transition to renewable energy will create new business and employment opportunities and bring significant political and social changes.

The Green New Deal takes its name from the New Deal policies mobilized by the 32nd President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt (1882?1945), to overcome the Great Depression in the 1930s. It implies an urgent emergency situation requiring a shift to green energy.

Rifkin predicts that major sectors of the economy are rapidly moving away from fossil fuels to solar and wind energy, and that $100 trillion (approximately 118 quadrillion KRW) in 'stranded assets' related to fossil fuels?such as pipelines, offshore platforms, and petrochemical plants?will be created. ('Stranded assets' are assets whose value drastically drops due to sudden changes in market or social environments, risking early write-offs or conversion to debt.)

Rifkin emphasizes that the Green New Deal will emerge as a key topic in this year's U.S. presidential election. Millennials (born after 1980) and Generation Z (born after 1990) respond sensitively to climate change, unlike older generations.

The Green New Deal is an unstoppable trend. The demands of this new generation are changing pension fund investment behaviors. Pension funds are withdrawing capital from fossil fuel sectors and investing in renewable energy fields. Rifkin defines this behavior as a form of socially responsible investing and explains that it forms a new social capitalism.

Milton Friedman (1912?2006), an American economist who led the Chicago School of neoliberal economics, opposed socially responsible investing, arguing that emphasizing it weakens the performance of capitalist markets. However, Friedman's era seems to have passed. Eighty-six percent of millennials are interested in socially responsible investing.

Rifkin's vision is concretized through tax reform. He states that $9.2 trillion is needed over 20 years to build Green New Deal infrastructure across the United States. To raise such enormous funds, he also suggests considering taxing the so-called super-rich more heavily.

Rifkin's invocation of the term New Deal, coined about 100 years ago, makes the transition to renewable energy seem like an urgent action to be taken immediately. However, '25 Environmental Myths That Harm the Environment' seems to put the brakes on, arguing that before action, we must correct errors in our perception. The book was published in the U.S. in October 2016, with the subtitle 'What Many Environmentalists Believe and Why They Are Wrong.'

The author, Daniel Botkin, has studied climate change since the 1960s when no one was concerned about global warming. However, he seems to feel that our values regarding the environment have at some point turned into a kind of dogma. For example, the belief that humans stand in opposition to the environment and therefore all human actions are absolutely evil is a major error and does not help in responding to climate change.

The book consists of 27 chapters. Excluding the introduction and conclusion, the 25 main chapters highlight misconceptions we have about the environment as chapter titles. Examples include 'Humans Are the Only Species to Affect the Global Environment,' 'Climate Change Will Cause Numerous Extinctions,' and 'The Earth's Climate Is Stable Without Human Intervention.' Conversely, Botkin argues that the Earth's climate has always been unstable and that climate change does not cause many extinctions.

Botkin fundamentally claims that extinction itself is the ultimate fate of all species, so extinction is natural, and the perception that extinction is unnatural and bad is mistaken. He seems cautious about the idea that humans are the sole cause of all extinctions.

Botkin's perspective on the post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh's (1853?1890) painting 'Wheatfield with Crows' is also interesting. He argues that if humans had not cultivated land for agriculture, the wheat fields would not exist and would have remained temperate forests, and van Gogh's masterpiece would not have been created.

Botkin emphasizes an ecological perspective. Nature surrounding humanity is influenced by humans but also influences humans. Therefore, climate change response should start with scientific research on the relationship between living beings, including humans, and the environment. He warns against excessive beliefs that arise from placing absolute value on the environment.