Well, they’re usually about taking more taxes, charging higher fees, limiting freedom and life choices, and forcing Other People to live a certain way
The democratic approach to confronting climate change
“Everybody talks about the weather,” the old quip goes, “but nobody does anything about it.” People, in other words, complain endlessly about realities beyond their control.
Today, we know that we do influence the weather and can do something about it. The decisions we each make every day, particularly how we use energy, influence whether the weather becomes more extreme.
Natural disasters, from floods and wildfires to tornadoes and deadly heat waves, dominate the evening news. Big disasters — those with damages of at least $1 billion — have increased 83 percent worldwide since the 1990s. Last year, there were 23, the third highest number since 1980. They caused 276 deaths and $115 billion in damages.
Well, yeah, things cost a fuckton more than they used to
One leader is the Climate Democracy Initiative, a Colorado-based nonprofit where I am an unpaid senior fellow. It argues that climate change is a governance problem as well as an environmental crisis, especially in small and rural communities with limited resources. They must deal with extreme weather while contending with uncertain federal help and fragmented government programs.
“Governance problem.” Color me shocked
“Our goal is flipping that script to put local voices first,” the initiative’s executive director, Natalie Montecino, explains. “People are contending with rapid environmental, economic, and political changes without the resources, representation, or institutional trust needed to respond. We work with communities to build the civic leadership and decision-making power to shape that response themselves, rather than wait on systems that too often leave them behind.”
And the climate cult nags are there to tell the Government how to crack down on the peasants
In other words, environmental stewardship and climate action become exercises in local democracy. Local action is necessary because while federal help is essential, it is not always reliable. Climate change is a forever crisis, but elected leaders and their priorities keep changing.
Are you getting the idea? I’ve been discussing this for 22 years, and one of the major things that switched me from a lower case believer to a Skeptic is the notion of Government controlling everything. That’s, at a minimum, lower case authoritarianism.
