Velshi: Banning Russian oil & gas won’t solve the climate crisis until there’s an alternative to fossil fuels

Last year, Joe Biden marked his first Earth Day as President convening the leaders of the world’s greatest economies for a summit on global warming. Coincidentally, the world’s greatest economies are also the world's biggest culprits in the crime of the century: the continued and deliberate deterioration of planet earth. But one year later and Biden’s most crucial climate proposals are stalled in Congress and now the world’s attention is on the war in Ukraine. But in a way, this war has helped to jump-start the conversation about climate change. Because at the core of Vladimir Putin’s power is Mother Nature’s ultimate kryptonite: fossil fuel. Russia is one of the world’s top fossil fuel producers and exporters. America, the E.U. and all of NATO could stop buying gas & oil from Russia and it still wouldn’t move the needle on the climate crisis. Because, at the end of the day, the world will still generally use the same amount of fossil fuels. And if these countries are not getting it from Russia, they will get it somewhere else. Convincing the E.U. to cut off Russian gas and oil might hamper Russia's war efforts, but it will do nothing about climate until there is a practical energy alternative to fossil fuels.April 24, 2022