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Once upon a time, the American government was into scientific problem-solving in a big way. I'm thinking of the World War II years when that government invested upwards of $2 billion (no small sum then) to gather together the greatest available scientific minds to develop a war-ending weapon, the atomic bomb. The Manhattan Project, as it came to be called, would employ more than 120,000 people and create that devastating weapon that would obliterate two Japanese cities and, to this day, leaves our world up for grabs.
Still, on a planet where, from flooding to megadrought, melting ice to rising sea levels, everything seems increasingly up for grabs, I sometimes wonder why, more than three-quarters of a century later, the country that created the atomic bomb (and is still willing to invest trillions of dollars in "modernizing" its nuclear arsenal) can no longer imagine a Manhattan Project to mitigate the overheating of this planet? It's true that the United Nations regularly convenes top scientists at its Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to assess "the state of scientific, technical and socio-economic knowledge on climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for reducing the rate at which climate change is taking place." And they do produce increasingly horrifying reports on what a disaster the fossil-fuelization of our planet is proving to be.
Despite that, neither this country, nor any other (as far as I know), has been willing to invest big time to come up with breakthrough ways of mitigating climate change in a world where greenhouse gas emissions only continue to rise. Consider it a sorry tale indeed that there is no twenty-first-century Manhattan Project in this country or, for that matter, anywhere else on Earth.
Today, TomDispatch regular Michael Klare takes a tiny bit of genuine good news " the U.S. and China, the globe's two greatest carbon emitters, are again at least talking about climate change " and tries to imagine where those two governments could actually go if they truly decided to cooperate. All I would add to his thoughts is this: Isn't it time to establish a Manhattan-Shanghai Project to find new ways to save this planet rather than blowing it to smithereens or overheating it beyond repair? Tom
What If the U.S. and China Really Cooperated on Climate Change?
Imagining a Necessary Future
As President Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping arrived on the resort island of Bali, Indonesia, for their November 14th "summit," relations between their two countries were on a hair-raising downward spiral, with tensions over Taiwan nearing the boiling point. Diplomats hoped, at best, for a modest reduction in tensions, which, to the relief of many, did occur. No policy breakthroughs were expected, however, and none were achieved. In one vital area, though, there was at least a glimmer of hope: the planet's two largest greenhouse-gas emitters agreed to resume their languishing negotiations on joint efforts to overcome the climate crisis.
These talks have been an on-again, off-again proposition since President Barack Obama initiated them before the Paris climate summit of December 2015, at which delegates were to vote on a landmark measure to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (the maximum amount scientists believe this planet can absorb without catastrophic consequences). The U.S.-Chinese consultations continued after the adoption of the Paris climate accord, but were suspended in 2017 by that climate-change-denying president Donald Trump. They were relaunched by President Biden in 2021, only to be suspended again by an angry Chinese leadership in retaliation for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's August 2nd visit to Taiwan, viewed in Beijing as a show of support for pro-independence forces on that island. But thanks to Biden's intense lobbying in Bali, President Xi agreed to turn the interactive switch back on.
Behind that modest gesture there lies a far more momentous question: What if the two countries moved beyond simply talking and started working together to champion the radical lowering of global carbon emissions? What miracles might then be envisioned? To help find answers to that momentous question means revisiting the recent history of the U.S.-Chinese climate collaboration.
The Promise of Collaboration
In November 2014, based on extensive diplomatic groundwork, Presidents Obama and Xi met in Beijing and signed a statement pledging joint action to ensure the success of the forthcoming Paris summit. "The United States of America and the People's Republic of China have a critical role to play in combating global climate change," they affirmed. "The seriousness of the challenge calls upon the two sides to work constructively together for the common good."
Obama then ordered Secretary of State John Kerry to collaborate with Chinese officials in persuading other attendees at that summit " officially, the 21st Conference of the Parties of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP21 " to agree on a firm commitment to honor the 1.5-degree limit. That joint effort, many observers believe, was instrumental in persuading reluctant participants like India and Russia to sign the Paris climate agreement.
"With our historic joint announcement with China last year," Obama declared at that summit's concluding session, "we showed it was possible to bridge the old divides" that had stymied global progress for so long. That accomplishment encouraged dozens and dozens of other nations to set their own ambitious climate targets."
Obama also pointed out that any significant global progress along that path was dependent on continued cooperation between the two countries. "No nation, not even one as powerful as ours, can solve this challenge alone."
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