Monday, October 2, 2023

The Crucial Years

In which I clumsily tie one hand behind my back

"Despite Taylor Swift's and Beyonce's and Barbie's best efforts to cheer us up, this summer just past was dominated by two sets of truly dismal statistics. One came from climatologists: all of us (except the ones who died in floods, hurricanes, and fires) lived through the hottest stretch of weather any human society has ever known. The other came from pollsters: Donald Trump and Joe Biden are essentially tied in the presidential race.

            Neither trend shows signs of change as the leaves start to turn: September was even more anomalously hot than June, July, and August, and last week seemed most out of whack of all. And the latest Washington Post poll had Trump up 10. These two disasters are bearing down on us in real time, and fighting them simultaneously presents a real dilemma. We need to push the White House to take key action to stem the climate crisis, but we need to do it without damaging the chances to defeat Trump next November; it's like performing CPR without breaking a rib. Not easy, but possible..."

--Bill McKibben
https://open.substack.com/pub/billmckibben/p/in-which-i-clumsily-tie-one-hand?r=35ogp&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

1 comment:

  1. Hoping for an eleventh-hour save in both cases. The last thing that US climate action needs is four more years under Trump.

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