Have you heard the new catchphrase for climate change? It’s “we need a new Greatest Generation.” Punchy, eh?
The simple and rather genius idea is that since battling climate change will call for a mobilization similar to the one required for the Allies to win WWII, a “new Greatest Generation” will be required.
Bill Nye the Science Guy has been calling for a new greatest generation ( and rather unfairly, I think, tapping the millennials to be “it”).
Naomi Klein has made a similar call to action – even topping Nye by saying the new greatest generation will have to be even greater than the greatest!
In case anyone is keeping score, I’ve used that catchphrase too. I’ve tweeted it many times, and back in September wrote a diary that started to tackle what, exactly, that new greatest generation would look like – and how it would be functionally implemented. Since then, I’ve been thinking a lot about the issue.
Since Tom Brokaw coined the phrase “greatest generation” and wrote a book by that name back in 1998, we’ve been exposed to plenty of WWII in pop culture. Americans have been marinating in WWII nostalgia, and thrilling to tales of WWII heroism and derring-do, since “Band of Brothers” first aired in 2001. Via movies like “Atonement,” “Letters from Iwojima,” The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” “Defiance,” “Into the Storm” and “Inglorious Basterds,” we have acquired a notion of a greatest generation characterized by heroism, hard work, patriotism, glory, honor, and badass strength.
If we begin with the premise that the greatest generation really was pretty great, I think we can take it as a given that we aren’t going to be able to somehow magic up a new crop of people like that by sheer force of will. It doesn’t work that way. Millennials are just like the rest of us – they have their strengths and their weaknesses, but they aren’t inherently “great.” (And we’re going to need more than just the poor millennials, too.)
When someone like Nye or Klein (or moi) calls for that new greatest generation to tackle climate change, we’re making the assumption that since America did it before, there must be a recipe we can follow to do it again.
And there’s the rub. Omitted (so far) from the discussion are any practical considerations of HOW the greatest generation came to be that way – how they came to do the things they did. So far, those of us calling for a new greatest generation are either unaware of, or eliding, some important details.
The bottom line is that the original greatest generation didn’t just pop up, fully formed, ready to join the war effort. Private industry didn’t “compete in the marketplace to find business-friendly solutions and develop competitive technology.” Nor did regular Americans just wake up one morning and collectively decide to limit the amount of meat they ate, buy war bonds, and plant a garden in the front lawn.
Republicans, I am sorry to say that if you sense The Fell Hand of Big Government in any workable strategy to combat climate change, you are correct.
There is, in fact, a recipe – and that recipe calls for several gallons of government action, a dozen (or so) public works programs, a pound or two of regulations, and a generous dollop of public information. Back in WWII, the government was instrumental in moving the dial of public opinion, and governmental programs were vital to putting together the machinery that accomplished the herculean tasks required by the war effort – both here and abroad.
Amanda Marcotte wrote an interesting piece about Rand Paul today on salon.com, and included in it is a very sensible take on what Republicans mean by “big” and “small” government. Here’s the meat of it:
That’s because “small government” is and always will be a cover story for the real principle at stake, which is halting government activities aimed at ameliorating injustice and inequality. If you listen carefully to any Republican who is not Rand Paul, you’ll see that the concept of “big government” only encompasses two ideas: Regulations on business that protect workers or the environment and social spending. (emphasis mine)
Since I am an unabashed progressive and enthusiastic supporter of “big government” programs when correctly set up and administrated, the idea that we’ll need government programs and pressure to achieve anything meaningful on climate change makes sense to me. In fact, we must insist on it!
Given where we are right now, in the warmest year on record and with a fossil fuel status quo being vigorously promoted and protected by a major political party, it would seem to be the most insane of pipe dreams to hope that concerted, concentrated, focused action on climate change is going to arise on its own from some implausible alliance of millennial revolutionaries and eager beaver corporations just dying to go green – whatever the current hopeful Twitter memes about business friendly solutions and millennial movers and shakers might suggest.
And that means we are up for a fight. Most Republicans are still not on board with the science of climate change. They are not on board with what they cast as “big government.” They are amped up and ready for a fight – any fight – with progressives. President Sanders and Vice President O’Malley – or President Clinton and Vice President Warren – will have a fight on their hands from Day One. It won’t be easy, but it has to happen.
We can help by first getting the Democrats elected to the White House – then continue by taking the fight to the states, to turn the dial back to Democrat in the House and Senate. In the meantime, here’s a list of things the next president needs to get started on pronto. I’ll be expanding on each bullet point in the days to come, and would love your feedback, fabulous ideas, and constructive criticism in the comments! Thanks for reading!
- Appoint a Climate Czar and draft the mobilization plan
- Set up a media and marketing office to aggressively promote the urgency of climate change, influence citizen opinion, and muster action
- Fund and fast-track R&D programs for renewables, carbon capture, and other technologies
- Institute tax incentives for an increased suite of emissions-limiting home upgrades
- Immediately implement an executive order to protect the oceans
- Set up a jobs program putting people to work shoring up infrastructure, planting trees, expanding wetlands, etc.
- Set up a rationing program for fossil fuels and luxury consumer goods
- Implement and enforce an aggressive cap and trade program
- Provide government subsidies for industries that will need to be phased out or slimmed down – and draft a plan to deal with their displaced workers
- Institute a network of local Community Climate Corps
- Consider leveraging sanctions on nations that are not working toward their emissions goals
- What else….?