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Miguel Parreno's avatar

They may not be the problem but at this juncture I think they're far from the solution because of the ossified leadership in the party that is just a continuation of the old guard of incremental change when drastic action will need to be taken to fix this and maybe it's past the point of no return.

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michaelflutist's avatar

That "ossified leadership" passed and signed the Inflation Reduction Act and had more planned if the fucking voters hadn't sabotaged everything.

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sacman701's avatar

Any drastic action on climate would be incredibly unpopular and would just result in a red wave in the next election. It's either incremental change or nothing for the foreseeable future.

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michaelflutist's avatar

Because the idiotic/successfully misled American voters keep electing saboteurs like Reagan, the Bushes and Trump, drastic action will be necessary to save worldwide civilization. The alternative will be collapse, and I agree that that's likely, if that's what you mean to say.

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Toiler On the Sea's avatar

Yes unfortunately the sweetspot time for incremental change was 25 years ago and we elected Bush twice . Although honestly I think a lot of the climate proposals you see from the late 90s/early 2000s had some significant issues that would've in some ways made emissions worse than the status quo via unintended consequences (e.g. climate proposals from that period called for MASSIVE investments/subsidies for biofuels for cars)

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michaelflutist's avatar

The sweet spot time was the 1980s. Had Carter been re-elected, he could have continued to concentrate on conservation and solar energy. But the Supreme Court's selection of G.W. Bush may have been the death knell for any sort of effective relatively mild climate transition policy.

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Henrik's avatar

Ooh yeah even more massive biofuels would have been a disaster.

Honestly, hybridization out of a тАЬpeak oilтАЭ/efficiency argument would have been the way to go, and battery tech would have been much better for electrification by present day

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Toiler On the Sea's avatar

Yes bumping the fuel standards up to what would require essentially all vehicles to be at least hybrid would've been the way, but boy back in say 2002 with oil so low, I don't see how you could've ever gotten the political winds to blown those sails.

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Kildere53's avatar

As someone who lives in the North and experiences winter, snow, and cold temperatures every year, it is frankly appalling how many people here whine and complain about the cold and the snow. And I have increasingly come to the conclusion over the past couple of years that this irrational fear and/or hatred of cold weather is a HUGE reason why there is so little enthusiasm on the part of the electorate to take any action against climate change.

I hate to say it, but the average uninformed voter hears that the climate is warming, and thinks to themselves, "Sounds good to me! No more icy roads or shoveling snow!".

If Democrats really want the electorate to get behind them in terms of dealing with climate change, we have to instill in the American people an appreciation of winter, and snow, and cold weather. Because that appreciation is sadly lacking in way too many people.

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Toiler On the Sea's avatar

People hate MN/Dakota cold, but they love the seasons, and climate change is killing the change of seasons (really the change I've noticed in just the past decade has been really depressing)

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michaelflutist's avatar

What it amounts to is that most Americans are ignorant or stupid.

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Zero Cool's avatar

I donтАЩt know about drastic but there have been for years now new breaking developments in science to combat climate change and global warming. This particularly includes technology. Same goes with emphasizing sustainable design and development of buildings so they can not only withstand climate change but also translate into cost saving incentives for homeowners.

That said, Democrats running on just simply adapting isnтАЩt going to help them win elections. The party has already been losing in the messaging battle in the LA fires. Thank god Newsom isnтАЩt running for re-election as Governor of California or heтАЩd have serious problems.

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michaelflutist's avatar

How have they been losing on messaging in regard to the L.A. fires?

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Zero Cool's avatar

They are losing because of conflicting information being spread around and are not doing an effective enough job combating that.

For starters, the timing was immediately off when LA Mayor Karen Bass was coming back from a trip in Ghana and didnтАЩt even respond to reporters questions about the fires and her тАЬabsence.тАЭ Then there was information spread out by those in not in government like former Mayoral Candidate Rick Caruso who have been talking about lack of water in fire hydrants and not cleaning up brushes in the hills to prevent fires from spreading. Him and others threw out information right there and havenтАЩt let up.

Then thereтАЩs also the City of LA Government which isnтАЩt even in complete sync with Mayor Bass on this issue.

ItтАЩs a mess.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2025/01/08/theres-no-water-coming-out-of-the-fire-hydrants-billionaire-caruso-becomes-top-la-fires-critic/

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michaelflutist's avatar

I see. So this is local to L.A. Because Newsom has seemed from afar to have done his best in this situation. Yeah, it sounds like Bass has fumbled.

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Zero Cool's avatar

I donтАЩt blame Newsom for this situation with the LA fires but on the other hand, as a statesman in this situation heтАЩs not exactly impressed me. If Governor Jerry Brown was still around, he would have a no BS attitude and would pay more close attention to detail.

Bass isnтАЩt aloof but she didnтАЩt seem to be proactive early on in addressing the fire hazard problem in LA County. There are also reports that the fires were started in part because of acts of arson.

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