Climate Change: We Had Our Chance
Aug. 2nd, 2018 09:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mental_mouseLosing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change
(NYT, may be paywalled)
A couple of striking quotes from the end:
"Michael Glantz, a political scientist who was at the National Center for Atmospheric Research at the time, argued in 1979 that democratic societies are constitutionally incapable of dealing with the climate problem."
and
"When I asked John Sununu about his part in this history — whether he considered himself personally responsible for killing the best chance at an effective global-warming treaty — his response echoed Meyer-Abich. 'It couldn’t have happened,' he told me, 'because, frankly, the leaders in the world at that time were at a stage where they were all looking how to seem like they were supporting the policy without having to make hard commitments that would cost their nations serious resources.'
Funny thing, the rest of the article discussed how America did get alarmed, and started to move toward a response, only to be blocked and backstabbed by Exxon and the rest of the fossil-fuel industry. And also how the other democratic nations (and some others) did indeed take alarm, and move to action... only to be stymied by the American political representatives.
(NYT, may be paywalled)
A couple of striking quotes from the end:
"Michael Glantz, a political scientist who was at the National Center for Atmospheric Research at the time, argued in 1979 that democratic societies are constitutionally incapable of dealing with the climate problem."
and
"When I asked John Sununu about his part in this history — whether he considered himself personally responsible for killing the best chance at an effective global-warming treaty — his response echoed Meyer-Abich. 'It couldn’t have happened,' he told me, 'because, frankly, the leaders in the world at that time were at a stage where they were all looking how to seem like they were supporting the policy without having to make hard commitments that would cost their nations serious resources.'
Funny thing, the rest of the article discussed how America did get alarmed, and started to move toward a response, only to be blocked and backstabbed by Exxon and the rest of the fossil-fuel industry. And also how the other democratic nations (and some others) did indeed take alarm, and move to action... only to be stymied by the American political representatives.
