Shalzed Meets U.S. Legal Advisor Margaret Taylor About Climate
Shalzed is a superhero who tried and failed to use his powers to achieve human rights. Now he speaks with individuals whose views he disagrees with, to persuade and understand. For his full bio, click here.
This week Shalzed meets Margaret Taylor, Legal Advisor to U.S. State Department. The International Court of Justice is preparing an advisory opinion about what legal obligations countries have to mitigate climate change or pay for climate damage that they cause. Nearly 100 countries presented an opinion, with Margaret representing the United States.
I never saw the need to spend $5 or more to get coffee from Starbucks, and so for sure I wouldn’t patronize their location at Amsterdam’s airport where they jack up prices even more. But evidently Margaret Taylor is a fan of fancy coffee, and the cold I’ve been suffering through made me feel like I could use at least a cup of tea. So I stepped right behind her, surprised there was no line. I was also surprised she was getting her beverage with the common folks and not waiting for her flight in some swanky lounge only people with no-limit credit cards or diplomatic passports know how to find.
“I’ll take a caramel macchiato- skim milk and easy on the drizzle. Hot, and use hazelnut syrup please,” she told the barista. A middle-aged woman wearing a white Christmas sweater under her Starbucks apron was taking the orders while three other employees made drinks.
“Too many special requests and you could miss your flight,” I said.
“I’ve got plenty of time,” Margaret mumbled, like she was annoyed at having been talked to by a stranger.
“What size?” the Starbucks woman asked.
“Oh, sorry. Grande,” Margaret said.
“And for you?” the barista asked me, thinking we were together.
“I’ll just take a cup of tea. You know, Earl Gray. The regular kind.”
“We’re separate,” Margaret told the barista, shaking her head.
“No, it’s my treat,” I said, holding out a credit card.
Now Margaret turned. “Shalzed?” she exclaimed when she saw me.
“Who else would pay for a caramel macchiato at an airport Starbucks?”
She put her hands on her hips. “What are you doing here?”
“Don’t worry, I’m not on your flight. I’m actually planning to stay in the Hague a bit longer. I find the proceedings at the Peace Palace quite interesting.”
The barista was giving us a funny look, probably worried we were exes that might start to fight. She gestured us towards the pick up window. A man holding a small child by the hand had come over and was waiting impatiently behind us.
I tapped to pay while Margaret tugged her Samsonite carry-on suitcase to the end of the counter. As soon as I finished paying she turned to face me.
“I was very moved by your remarks,” I told her before she could say anything. “I mean, calling the climate crisis one of the gravest challenges humanity has ever faced (page 39, Par. 2).”
“Thank you. As you must be aware, the Biden administration takes climate change very seriously. Now why don’t you go vent your frustration on dictators or tyrants and leave the U.S. State Department alone?”
“You know, I got the sense a large majority of the hundred or so countries testifying about climate change actually think the U.S. is the problem.”
“Earl Gary,” one of the other Starbucks workers said from the pickup counter. I grabbed the cup and took a sip. My nose was runny and the hot liquid felt good on my throat.
“And your caramel macchiato,” the barista said, placing another cup on the counter. Just as Margaret reached out to take it, one of the kids behind us exclaimed, “That’s a big plane!” He ran around me and straight towards the window behind a gate, where a double decker Emirates Airbus A380 was arriving. He bumped into Margaret, causing her arm to swing and knock the cup towards the edge of the counter. I extended my free hand towards the cup, but stopped about six inches away, letting it drop. It fell on the floor, splattering coffee all over.
“Dammit,” Margaret exclaimed. Some of the liquid splattered up onto her powder blue pantsuit.
“Mop!” one of the Starbucks women called.
The dad apologized while the kid ran all the way over to the window.
“It’s fine,” Margaret said in a frustrated voice, staring at her pants. The dad strode over to where his son was standing and made a show of looking angry for Margaret’s benefit. “Couldn’t you have caught the cup? I’d think with superpowers at least that you ought to be able to manage.”
“I sort of tried a little bit,” I told her, taking another casual sip of my tea. It was tough for me not to smile.
“You sort of tried? Would have hurt you that much to put your arm all the way out?” One of the Starbucks women came with a mop cart, and we stepped aside.
“Well, I figured trying would be good enough. After all, isn’t that what you told the ICJ about climate change? Countries are only obligated to try to lower their emissions, but there are no consequences if they don’t succeed. And according to the Paris agreement they don’t even have to make sure that the goals they set are enough to make a difference on climate, they only have to say they made any sort of effort to do anything at all (P. 42 par. 15-17).
Margaret gave me a glare. “I’m not talking about climate, right now I’m talking about my coffee.”
“So should I have put more effort into saving your coffee than we should devote to solving the gravest challenge facing the planet?”
Margaret turned to the Starbucks woman mopping. “I’m so sorry,” she said.
“It’s not your fault,” the woman replied. She emphasized ‘your’ to make clear she thought it was the fault of someone. I wasn’t sure if she had in mind me or the boy.
“The effort has to at least be good faith,” Margaret said, turning back to me. “Countries can’t do nothing.”
“Ah, yes,” I replied. “What an inspired response to the gravest threat faced by the planet.”
“And just so you know if anyone tried to make the Paris Accords any stricter, the whole thing would have fallen apart and we’d have nothing.”
“Would you like me to make you another one?” the barista at the order counter asked.
“Sure,” Margaret replied.
I took another sip of my tea, and maybe it went down a bit the wrong way because it made me cough. I did, right in the direction of Margaret. I didn’t bother to block it with my hand or my sleeve.
“That’s gross,” she said angrily. “I don’t need you getting me sick.”
I shrugged. “Even if you do get sick, it’s not my fault.”
“What do you mean, not your fault?” she demanded, putting her hands back on her hips. “Why did you even have to find me? You just coughed right at my face!”
“Well there are already germs everywhere,” I said, sort of enjoying the opportunity to tease.
“You’re the one coughing,” she said.
I did my best to look indignant. “But you said that the U.S. has no liability for climate change unless a disaster, like a flood or hurricane, can be proven to have been caused specifically by emissions from the United States. Contributing huge amounts of greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere doesn’t make the United States liable. As long as no one country’s emissions can be proven to have caused a specific climate disaster, no one is liable to pay damages for anything at all (pp. 49-50, par. 43-47.)”
She took a mini-bottle of hand sanitizer out of her pocket and rubbed it all over her fingers. “You’ve got to be the biggest jerk I’ve ever set eyes on,” she said.
“Well what did you expect, me to feel more responsibility for your personal health than you say the United States is obligated to take for the health of the entire planet?” I asked.
“The focus on reparations for climate harm is what’s killing everything,” Margaret said. “There will never be an agreement, and it makes the countries asking for it look like they don’t really care about climate, they’re just in it for the money. What we need is to focus on reducing emissions in the future.”
The dad returned, child in tow. “I’m sorry,” the little boy mumbled as they passed by, like the dad probably instructed him.
“Ready,” the starbucks woman called, looking at Margaret. Both she and the dad took their drinks off the counter. He apologized once more and headed away.
Margaret took out a credit card. “You don’t have to pay,” the barista told her.
“Thank you,” Margaret said both to the barista behind the counter and to the one who was finishing mopping up the floor. Then she turned to me. “Now I’m in a rush to catch my flight.”
“But I thought you said you have lots of time?” I told her.
“Maybe my flight will depart early. I hope so. Anything to get out of being in an airport with you.” She started in the direction of the United gates.
“Don’t forget your suitcase,” I told her.
She turned in a huff to grab its handle. “That might be the first useful thing you’ve ever said in your life.”
I was about to tell her that diplomats are the ones who talk all day without saying anything useful, but she was already walking away.
“You two don’t look right for each other,” The barista at the pickup counter said. “My mother used to always tell me, there are more fish in the sea.”
Now I sneezed, taking a tissue from my pocket just in time. “God bless you!” the Starbucks woman exclaimed.
“Thanks,” I said. I walked over to the big monitors hanging from the ceiling so she would think I was concerned about catching a flight. I wonder about the chances I just gave Margaret enough germs to get her sick. Who knows? But if I did, it serves her right.
Discussion:
1. As Shalzed mentioned, the Paris Climate Accords, which are the international agreement negotiated to combat climate change, only commit countries to weak, non-binding emissions reduction targets. Is this better than nothing, or do large emitters use compliance with the Paris Accords as a shield to avoid taking necessary but more expensive action?
2. Should countries that have contributed heavily to climate change be obligated to pay money to those who suffer its affects? Or is it too difficult to determine the extent natural disasters are exacerbated by climate change, and since all countries emit some greenhouse gasses is it too difficult to link cause and effect?