You first no you go first policy. It's not our fault that we're doing nothing, it's because they are doing nothing too.
this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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Yeah, this is a good example of how not to show leadership.
Unfortunately the Biden administration is stuck in the difficult position of negotiating a US climate policy which they have minimal control over. US action on climate will lag behind the rest of the world unless and until enough members of congress are elected who are willing to solve the problem. Unfortunately I don’t see that happening in the near future but we will see.
True there's a divided Congress and the supreme court that blocks major reform. Still the president through executive orders can do better starting by declaring the climate crisis a national emergency which will give him more powers. Banning fracking on public land, or reversing his decision on Alaska oil field. Even just asking EPA to enforce its rules on pollution and methane would really help. There's definitely a lack of commitment from the administration, is it guided by donors and lobbying or just a wait and see approach I don't know.
I agree and it was one of the biggest reasons I opposed his candidacy in the primaries. But still, these actions would only somewhat limit emissions and would be at high risk of being struck down by extremists in the courts. Real, meaningful action will need to come from congress. I hope our citizens keep that in mind as they vote in 2024 but people rarely seem to prioritize this issue as highly as they should.
Pointing fingers won't remove the carbon
Maybe I’m an idealist but if the UN can unite behind war, why do they have such a hard time uniting behind climate change?
If the UN (or some international group given the authority to punish climate offenses) would enact steep financial penalties for ecological offenses that scale based on the size of the corporation doing the damage, pollutiontion would go away overernight.
For example: If you ship goods on a giant container ship from China, you will pay penalties/fines that scale with the size of your corporation and the size of your carbon footprint.
We should figure out the math behind this: what amount would hurt their profits enough to cause them to stop shipping and move manufacturing to a more sensible location?