By Eric Freedman
The Obama administration’s recently proposed rule to reduce power plant emissions that contribute to climate change – or climate disruption – has provoked sharp criticisms from Republicans and utility companies as too expensive or unworkable or unnecessary. Meanwhile, some environmental groups say the EPA plan doesn’t go far enough.
Relying on executive authority under the Clean Air Act, the rule is aimed at carbon dioxide emissions from power plants that produce an estimated 40 percent of U.S. carbon pollution.
In a May 31 address, President Barack Obama said, “Earlier this month, hundreds of scientists declared that climate change is no longer a distant threat – it ‘has moved firmly into the present.’”
But of course, there are skeptics who deny that human-induced climate change is a crucial problem, not just in the United States but globally.
How do they explain climate disruption?
Well, at the recent Denver Chalk Art Festival in the city’s historic Larimer Square district, I saw this piece of art titled “Wrath of Rosie.” I don’t know what the sidewalk artist intended to depict, but to me it can be interpreted as one alternative, non-scientific, explanation of climate change.
Eric Freedman is Michigan State University’s director of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism