Paul Scott
Nov 4 · 3 min read

What’s the matter with Naomi Klein?

I attended Naomi Klein’s recent lecture about her new book “On Fire: The Burning Case For A Green New Deal”. Klein, a leading voice on the climate crisis, focused chiefly on climate change, but, like other prominent eco-warriors addressing the problem, neglected to provide concrete actions toward a solution.

Many of these environmental leaders encourage followers to stage marches to demand our leaders take action. Ms. Klein likewise talked about “raising our voices”, or some vague encouragement about making our leaders do the right thing. She also talked about the corporate capitalist system and how it needed to change, but offered no way to change it. The truth is, as long as Citizens United remains on the books, and the enormous sums available to the oil industry are used to buy seats in Congress, change from D.C. is virtually impossible. If a change in the corporate capitalist boardrooms is desired, vote with your dollars. That gets results.

Millions of Americans are giving hundreds of billions to oil companies by filling up at the pump. So, which message are those oil companies going to listen to? A few thousand people marching with signs, or the billions of dollars people are paying them to provide gasoline? The only thing people are telling oil companies is to provide that gasoline at a cheaper price. To do that, the oil companies flout environmental laws, generating even more environmental destruction, and no one pays anything for that.

In the past decade, a change in both renewable energy generation and electric vehicle technology has created a new paradigm. In the past, if you needed a car, the only choice you had was internal combustion. You were forced to pollute the air and give money to the oil industry for the energy to power your car. But today, you can buy an electric car that doesn’t pollute at all, and the energy used to power it can be generated from sunlight falling on your roof, or on a utility-scale PV array in the desert.

From this point on, if you buy a new gas-burning car, you are choosing to generate pollution for many years to come, and you are choosing to pay whatever the oil companies demand you pay.

So, what is the solution? Attack the heart of the problem.

We need to kill the internal combustion industry entirely. Everything done with internal combustion engines can be done more efficiently with electric motors and with near zero external costs. The health, environmental, and military costs of oil are measured in the hundreds of billions each year. And when you throw in the damage to our political system from massive dark money funds the oil companies have, the benefits to killing this industry are clear.

All progressives should take the following actions:

First, stop buying new internal combustion vehicles. Second, make a plan to switch to an EV at the earliest opportunity. If you cannot afford a new EV, there are plenty of great used EVs, or just get a used hybrid, as long as it’s more efficient than your previous car.

When you do shop for a new car, be sure to tell the dealer you are looking for an EV that does what you need it to do, and at a price you can afford. Until that vehicle is available, you will hold off buying a new car. “No Plug — No Deal!” is your bottom line. We can call it “Greta’s Pledge” in honor of Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate warrior.

Reducing the sale of new gas-burning cars with the message that you will only buy a new EV is the fastest way to get the entire industry to switch to making only electric vehicles. Eliminating pollution from internal combustion engines reduces by a significant percentage the amount of climate change pollution generated. It also eliminates hundreds of billions of dollars that the oil industry uses to control Congress.

At this early stage, even a slight tug of the market in this direction has enormous leverage in turning the entire transportation industry electric. The same is happening in the renewable energy field. Our end goal is 100% clean energy powering 100% of our transportation. Those who make the transition now are the first responders in the climate wars. Please be one of them.

Paul Scott
Santa Monica