this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2024
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I would personally define the word "significant" in such a way that excludes actors who do not take action which meaningfully prevents or lowers the risks of the upcoming climate apocalypse. Biden has not done this IMO. He has done some things which are okay for the environment, but just as many that worsen the situation. At the end of the day, both candidates are content to make policy which does not stop the world from boiling. It is counterproductive to pretend otherwise.
You're correct. Anyone spinning the "lesser of two evils" about climate change does not understand the risks. Inaction today will kill millions. Biden's half-measures are fundamentally inadequate, and as you said, pretending otherwise is delusion or malice.
Climate change is the most severe threat to the safety of everyone everywhere. To treat it with anything other than total urgency is to promote harm. If you cannot find it in you to call out the short fall of the Democratic party on this issue you are part of the problem.
Voting for the lesser of two evils can still be part of a strategy that acknowledges the inadequacy of mainstream political solutions. But it needs to be combined with other, more activist political activities.
I don't disagree but was responding to the use of the phrase "significant action"
As well as "night and day" when it's more like "midnight and sunset"
I agree. The phrasing of this “largest in history” narrative depends strongly on the fact that the US has done almost nothing to address climate change historically. This should be thoughtfully criticized but I worry this will discourage people into thinking that nothing can be done.
No one government can do enough. He's shifted the emissions trajectory of the US in a meaningful way. That's enough to earn my vote when the alternative is so much worse
That's simply not true. Biden doesn't give a shit. He'll be dead before the climate apocalypse occurs, and everyone he works with is paid by big oil to not go "too far" with environmental regulations. Sure he makes it look like he's making a difference, but the fossil fuel lobby has thus far been succesful in preventing any major countries from taking significant action on climate change.
Don't believe me? Here's how world governments are doing at regulating climate change:
You really think Biden, who is fundamentally the same ideology as all previous Democrat presidents, is going to do anything different? It's worth noting Biden was present at the Paris agreement and pushed for weaker language in the agreement to weasel out of the US needing to take any significant action.
To be clear, I think obviously people should vote for him given the alternative. But only because America is a profoundly broken country and that senile old coot is the best option available. I'm just deeply suspect of anyone who says that Biden is actually doing good on the climate, since it's obvious to me that he really isn't.
That graph is a highly misleading way to evaluate a single national leader because China sharply increased their coal burning at the same time the US and EU started to cut emissions.
Ah, another "they're both the same" argument that ignores reality. Trump is no friend to the environment and is actively seeking to destroy it for profit. "Drill, baby, drill" is something he shouts all the time. At least Biden has done something and acknowledges climate change.
Get out of here with your bad propaganda.
They are not the same, they are both wholly inadequate positions.
If we are on a sinking ship and one person says, ill kill everyone and take the lifeboat for myself and someone else says, no lest kill 95% of everyone so that those who live wont be cramped neither is good enough. Sometimes choices should be made as a spectrum, sometimes choices should be made as a binary choice.
If you can't see how dangerous both parties actions are on climate change you do not understand the danger. If you do understand then you are writing in malice.
I would say a better analogy is if you are on a boat in the middle of the ocean that springs a leak. One guy suggests you start bailing water using your cupped hands, which will buy you a few extra minutes before you sink. The other guy suggests you jump into the water because swimming is fun. Neither guy thinks it would be a good idea to patch the hole, even though you have a patch kit with you.
That captures the insanity of the political positions very well.
Not insane. Age-related cognitive issues notwithstanding, both candidates know what they're doing. It's impossible to make someone understand something when their livelihood depends on their not understanding it. In this analogy, both guys are paid by the sharks who made the hole in the first place to pretend the patch kit doesn't exist.
the us has never made more oil than under biden
Why are you bringing up Trump when my comment is about Biden not taking "significant action"? Trump is irrelevant to my comment.
All true. But the unfortunate political realities the Democrats are facing seem to be that voters just don't care enough so it's political suicide to take strong action against climate change.
If voters actually cared about climate change, then it would be a major part of the platform. But there's a huge swath of the population that only cares insofar as it doesn't inconvenience them, or who have been brainwashed into believing it's a "Leftist Conspiracy" while completely missing that the QAnon memes they got their "facts" from is literally a conspiracy.
We're fucked. Biden doesn't have the political strength to take any political risks. We're seeing the same in Canada, with Trudeau not having the political capital for anything that could lose ground to the Canadian Conservative Party (which is currently polling as over 99% likely to get a majority government if there's no change in the next 1½ years).
I don't know how we can de-radicalize the Christofascist Right, but we're fucked until we figure it out.
My problem with the these lessor of two evils party liners is that they have no exit strategy or long term vision. It’s the same thing every two years as things steadily worsen overall. Certainly no room in their worldview to respond to climate change effectively or efficiently.