If we are not half-way to zero emissions in the next ten years, we are fucked. (Not doomed, of course, but fucked—important distinction.)
Half-way to 0 emissions means we must start NOW.
This is the most consequential election in human history due to THE #CLIMATECRISIS.
2/n
Everyone who follows me on Twitter knows this, of course.
But voters still don't.
We are failing.
3/n
We weren't going to release this yet, but I'm going to say here that our polling at @EndClimtSilence shows that voters don't even have a sense of what a safe level of global warming might be.
These 1.5 / 2 C distinctions are almost meaningless in public discourse.
4/n
I don't know what else to say right now, except to plea that if a politician or an activist says something like "we have 12 years to save the world," I beg of you, PLEASE don't jump down their throat!
Every single person alive today will be much better off, and our children might actually survive, if voters hear messages that might lead them to overestimate the danger we're in, even fear that we're doomed, *as part of the communication of an actual action plan*.
6/n
I just cannot fucking believe that in 2020 climate change is STILL on the bottom of the fucking list of pressing issues.
This is forcing me to rethink my activist strategy moving forward. Profoundly. I mean, what else is there to do? What's been happening so far is not working.
I'm excited to announce that I've restarted the @EndClimtSilence newsletter with a post on the main climate-communications opportunity I see in this difficult political moment: associating Trump's deep unpopularity with his support for coal, oil, and gas development.
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When we have focused on fossil fuels—in the Beyond Coal campaign, via divestment, in pipeline fights, or under #KeepItInTheGround—coal, oil, & gas have been called polluting, toxic, the greatest source of emissions, and profoundly unjust.
And they are all of those things!
2/n
But at the same time, fossil fuels have tended to retain their *cultural* associations with many things Americans like: industry, manufacturing, prosperity, modernity.
3/n
China's State Counsel has announced that provinces will be graded on their efforts to peak emissions before 2030.
"Authorities ranked as making unsatisfactory progress ... could be subject to disciplinary processes if issues aren’t rectified." 💥
🧵
In The Language of Climate Politics, I wrote about how this accountability was enacted in the 2021 "1+N Documents," China's whole-of government, whole-of-society policy to achieve net-zero emissions by 2060.
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This is the implementation of this provision in real time.
2/n
As happy as I am by that China (or any nation) might actually create a net-zero economy in time to halt warming at a relatively survivable level, I am also worried that the authoritarian country who controls key global supply chains seems likely to get there first.
3/n
@NoemaMag What is China's climate policy? Called the “1+N” framework, it's an all-of-government, all-of-society blueprint for the country’s decarbonization. Its foundational documents were enacted in 2021.
3/n
🚨Do NOT talk about solar geoengineering as a climate "solution."🚨
1/n
As people start to panic—and as others advance the next phase of the fossil-fuel agenda—we're now seeing a lot of talk about the need to research solar geoengineering (SG).
Fine. I actually agree that SG should be researched systematically.
2/n
But what that research needs to establish is precisely whether solar geoengineering is or is not a solution: if and how much it cools the planet and whether its dangers (or "trade-offs," if you're disingenuous) will allow for deployment or not.