Print PageClimate debate and policy proposals in the United States have yet to grasp the gravity and magnitude of the challenges posed by global warming. The spatial and temporal scale of the processes linking greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to climate change is unprecedented in human experience, challenging our abilities to comprehend, let alone act. Proper understanding the scale of global warming leads to an unequivocal starting point for all discussions: we must leave as much fossil fuel in the ground as possible, for as long as possible. How can this best be accomplished, and why has progress been so slow in the US?
Results/Conclusions
The built environment mediates economic production, exchange, and consumption in ways that both presuppose and reinforce high rates of GHG emissions, especially in the US. A comprehensive reconfiguration of the built environment is therefore imperative. The obstacles and opposition to this are best understood in terms of the devaluation of fixed capital. Fortuitously, these investments are threatened with devaluation whether or not we act to stabilize atmospheric GHG concentrations. There is therefore no reason not to be proactive and to craft policies with the goal of completely redesigning and rebuilding our built environment over the next 20-50 years.
