Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to Time Magazine, the struggle to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius has been all but unsuccessful – but governments still have to keep spending money.
Have we just blown away the best, last chance to deal with climate change?
VIA JUSTIN WORLAND December 30, 2021 7:00 AM EST
In mid-2020, after the pandemic had subsided, I wrote in a TIME cover story that the stars align to make 2020 and 2021 “the last, best chance” to keep the world from experiencing the worst effects of climate change. Temperatures have risen by more than 1.1°C since the Industrial Revolution, and the COVID-19 pandemic has unexpectedly opened new avenues for rethinking the global economy to help the world avoid 1.5°C temperature rise, long seen as a marker of when the planet will begin to experience the catastrophic and irreversible effects of climate change.
Now, 18 months later, the world seems ready to blow it up. Governments around the globe have not spent big on the green economic recovery. Political leaders from the world’s largest economies have made lofty promises of eliminating their carbon footprint but have failed to offer concrete policies to get there. And President Joe Biden’s ambitions for bold climate legislation have been thwarted in Congress.
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The Biden administration has described its strategy as The “all government” approach, which means that every agency and official needs to consider how their work can help solve the problem. However, despite a flurry of new rules and regulations aimed at emissions, The administration has pivoted much of its agenda into a major piece of legislation called Building Better Back.
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Without it, or something of equal size, the goal is still an empty promise. “It is impossible to get from here to there without these investments,” says John Podesta., a former adviser to Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who is now working on climate issues, on the role of the Build Back Better bill in meeting Biden’s goal.
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Read more: https://time.com/6130470/climate-change-2021-build-back-better/
Of course, we all still have a chance to redeem ourselves. No matter how dire the crisis, there must always be a way back for climate sinners.
Leaders of the climate movement seem to consciously walk a narrow line between motivated fear and lethargic despair. Anyone who crosses the line received praise from fellow climate activists. In my opinion, none of them show any concern for the real suffering they inflict on their trusted followers.
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