Does Super Warmist and Grand High Poobah in the Cult of Climastrology Bill McKibben know that Kamala is Handsy Joe’s VP pick?
Will Kamala Harris Act Boldly on Climate Change?
We’re in the Kamala Harris era now, and so far, so good. Of the four people on the major-party Presidential tickets, she appears to be the most energetic and normal. I’ve never met Harris, but I did spend a number of days sitting next to her sister Maya when we both served on the 2016 Democratic platform-drafting committee. Maya Harris was tack-smart and tightly focussed, which appears to run in the family. Listening to Joe Biden speak, I feel a constant mild apprehension about what may emerge; Harris relaxes me.
Given the very real possibility that she’ll be at or near the pinnacle of our politics for somewhere between four and sixteen years, it’s worth asking how she will handle the gravest crisis that looms over our planet. That’s not the same as asking if she should be elected, because, on climate issues, a shrink-wrapped pallet of frozen Ore-Ida French fries would be a vast improvement on the incumbent. But it’s going to take an unflinching, unrelenting effort to transform America’s energy system and lead a similar process globally. Is she committed to that?
Her defenders point to a number of powerful statements that she made over the course of her Presidential primary campaign. She’d eliminate the filibuster to pass a Green New Deal. She’d tell the Department of Justice to investigate oil and gas companies. “When you take away that money because you take them to court and sue them, as I have done, it’s extraordinary how they will change behaviors,†Harris said. “Maybe this is the prosecutor in me. They have to be held accountable.†Harris has been particularly outspoken about environmental injustice: just six days before she got the V.P. nod, she joined Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to introduce the Climate Equity Act, which, as the Times explained, “would create a dedicated Office of Climate and Environmental Justice Accountability within the White House and require the federal government to rate the effect that every environmental legislation or regulation would have on low-income communities.â€
Anyhow, Bill finds that she has been just so-so. And he really doesn’t delve deep into whether Kamala would be good or bad for climate, or just “meh.” But, of course, she has to win in November, first. And, then, care enough to push Joe to Do Something.
Read: Say, Will President Kamala Harris Act Boldly On Climate Crisis (scam)? »
In the early days of the pandemic, many people urged that societies could not and should not return to business as usual afterwards. Coronavirus not only confronted us with danger, but showed what was possible. By forcing massive overnight change, it demonstrated that dramatic action could be taken when a crisis was urgent enough; that many people could agree to make sacrifices when truly necessary; and that governments could invest trillions when the future of their countries demanded it. But as the great pause has turned into a gradual reopening, there is little sign that these lessons have been learned.
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