Alright y'all, let's do this. I'll start bluntly. It EXASPERATES me when folks contend that the climate isn’t impacted by humans. Come on. The combined activity of 7.9 billion people on a planet is going to have some level of impact. Arguing otherwise is nonsense.

Years ago, I heard T Boone Pickens asked if he "believed" in climate change. He nailed it. He said (paraphrased from memory), "of course humans impact the climate. That's obvious. We just need to figure out to what extent we can do something about it."

Now, here's a problem. Many activists have ulterior motives, using trendy topics to push an agenda. If you use climate activism to push anti-capitalist, anti-animal ag, etc. agendas, I've got no time for you. You're doing the climate a disservice with your dishonesty.

Now, I'm speaking to my rural and ag people: if you bow out of the climate convo and deny it's a thing, you just let the agenda-driven activists control the narrative and you're worse off than if you had engaged. Let's engage and do it honestly. We've got something to sell.

I'm a Christian, but no matter your position on Earth's origin, we should agree on basic principles:

1. We have a resilient planet.
2. Resilience doesn't mean impervious to harm.
3. It's the height of human arrogance to think we don't owe it some level of stewardship & care.

So let's talk #3. My man @Tye_KC already predicted this segment. An "externality" is a cost or benefit that affects a third party without their involvement. (example: secondhand smoke). Similarly, every single human activity has an environmental impact, some small and some large.

We can't fully eliminate human environmental impacts, but we CAN deal with it honestly. We can make good public policy decisions that figure out how/when to minimize impacts and what's the best net positive for society.

See this related thread for some of my thoughts on having an intelligent policy conversation about fossil fuels (which isn't as much fun as shameless political antics): https://twitter.com/jamesdecker2006/status/1382792627343351813?s=20

Back to externalities. Activists want to do things like eliminate livestock as food source and replace with lab-grown meat or replace fossil fuels with renewable energy.

DO Y'ALL THINK THOSE LABORATORIES AND WIND TURBINES AND SOLAR PANELS DON'T HAVE ENVIRONMENTAL EXTERNALITIES?