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This is what comes of not seeing the real politics of climate change.
Stand back folks, I feel a thread coming on.
politico.com/story/2017/09/…
Stand back folks, I feel a thread coming on.
politico.com/story/2017/09/…
2. Here is the most important thing to know about American climate *politics* in 2017: It's not about action vs inaction.
3. When we're discussing POLICY, of course we need to act, and act boldly and quickly; time is short.
thenearlynow.com/the-last-decad…
thenearlynow.com/the-last-decad…
4. But climate POLITICS is almost completely removed (in the U.S.) from climate policy.
This is by design.
This is by design.
5. Climate politics here isn't even about science, tho the need to act is established by findings 99% of climate scientists now agree with.
6. And not only is the politics of climate not about science, the core conflict of that politics has nothing to do with science vs. "doubt."
7. What American climate politics centers on is predatory delay, and the civic sabotage powerful interests designed + funded to enable it.
8. Climate denialism, Fox anti-environmentalism, Koch radicalization of Tea Party, etc etc have been a massive, intentional act of sabotage.
9. The target of that sabotage is our Republic's civic process—our ability to debate issues, agree on facts, negotiate policy responses.
10. Sabotage is needed, because if civics worked at all in 2017, the planetary crisis we face would be a central concern of our civilization
11. If we had even a half-working civic sphere, climate change would be the most important issue in America, day after day. Because it is.
12. CC threatens us more than Nazis did in WW II; responding will define the US economy; how we act will measure the justice of our nation.
13. Climate change is the great practical and moral question of every generation now alive, and will be for decades. That is a plain truth.
14. You know who knows this full well?
Those who've created a movement designed entirely to prevent citizens from engaging with that truth.
Those who've created a movement designed entirely to prevent citizens from engaging with that truth.
15. These interests (mostly investors in fossil fuels/dirty industries) have seen for decades that Americans engaging with that truth...
16. ...in the civic sphere will inevitably mean widespread change—change that will cut into the massive profits (and subsidies) they reap.
17. They've also understood that they will, in the end, lose. There is a 0% chance that we will live in a fossil fuel economy in 50 years.
18. But they don't have to win forever, they just have to lose slowly. If they can delay action (by delaying engagement) they get $billions.
19. This Carbon Lobby, and their successful efforts to sabotage America's civic machinery ARE climate politics. They are the issue.
If Dems want to be the party of climate, they need to make the Carbon Lobby the enemy of the American people (which is easy 'cause it is).
21. Not argue with denialist dupes and lackeys, not discuss what tiny progress might be made despite sabotage, not hand-wave on Earth Day...
22. ...not quietly bemoan that sabotage has happened, but make the fact it has happened—and why—a central, driving issue in our politics.
23. Only two choices: put the Carbon Lobby's attack on America at the core of our politics, or watch the US be destroyed by planetary chaos.
24. But not only is it needed politics, it's *good* politics.
The people we're fighting are almost clownishly evil.
The people we're fighting are almost clownishly evil.
25. There has never been a less sympathetic bunch, with less sympathetic goals, that the owners of these industries.
26. American climate politics is about whether Americans will accept this small group of powerful people sabotaging democracy, or not.
27. We must reject the frame that climate politics is about a divided nation trying to make future decisions based on uncertain science.
28. It's not. It's about a small group using their wealth to manufacture opposition to needed, immediate action based on clear science.
29. Climate denialism itself is a disinformation product. It was designed. We have the paper trail.
30. No amount of refuting denialism will lead to us winning, because we lose just by agreeing to have the argument.
31. When we foreground the supposed debate on science and the cultural divide on action, we background the real story: predatory delay.
32. Predatory delay—the knowing choice to worsen a planetary crisis thru delay in order to get even wealthier while they can—is the story.
33. Predatory delay is the very heart of the story, the pulse that drives every other aspect of the crisis we face—and we barely discuss it.
34. Because we barely discuss it—and because most media coverage of climate is abysmal—many Americans don't even know it's happening.
35. If we want to win with enuf time to stave off global catastrophe, Dems can't avoid making this not just a central fight, but a loud one.
