Steve Kretzman at Oil Change International writes: Less PowerPoint. More Power:
After that paranoid, delusional babble in the Koch-sponsored Rose Garden last week, it has been truly impressive and relieving to witness the diversity and depth of support for the Paris Accord, and for strong climate action across the board. As many have observed, Trump has united and energized the global climate movement like never before.
Incredibly, but not surprisingly, we are told that climate science was not a factor in Trump’s decision. While this is obviously dismaying, it’s also quite revealing. For decades, climate policy fights have often boiled down to dueling spreadsheets and PowerPoints. Now, in an accidental moment of clarity, Trump has confirmed what an increasingly large section of the climate movement has been saying for a while now: don’t bring a spreadsheet to a knife fight.
These people in Washington now do not want to talk about carbon budgets, stranded assets, the percentage of fracked gas that is leaking, the economic viability of carbon-sucking unicorns, or a million other aspects of climate policy. Which is good, because few of us want to have those debates with them either. Don’t get me wrong, our people power will still be data-driven. We will model transparent, data-driven energy and climate policy, and we will make sure our power builds on that – rather than skipping the facts overall, as is the current fashion.
The question for us – as climate and democracy and justice advocates – is not primarily which policy path leads to how many degrees of warming using what assumptions under whose scenarios. The critical question right now is this: How do we build more political power, and how do we win? Less PowerPoint. More power.
It’s time, in short, to fight. There is no way to solve climate without confronting – and defeating – the fossil fuel industry. We are in a battle with oil, gas, and coal, and we’re going to have to win. There is no way to solve climate without having this battle, and the faster we can win, the faster we can get on with the important work of managing the decline of the industry, while taking care of communities and workers and even investors in the transition. [...]
What’s coming up on Sunday Kos …
- A brief burp in time, by DarkSyde
- Right-wingers scared of California single payer resurrect a health care lie debunked seven years ago, by Ian Reifowitz
- Loving Day: 50th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, by Denise Oliver Velez
- Trump really is making America angry and racist again, by Frank Vyan Walton
- Republicans betray their gray-haired base with Trumpcare, by Jon Perr
- Obamacare is in danger of laying the path for Trumpcare, by Egberto Willies
- We need a leader, and instead we have a carnival barker, by Mark E Andersen
- With apologies to Cole Porter on his birthday: You’re the Trump, by Sher Watts Spooner
- International Elections Digest: Labour surprises in United Kingdom as Tories lose their majority, by Elections
TOP COMMENTS • HIGH IMPACT STORIES • SUNDAY TALK
QUOTATION
“We live in a time of transition, an uneasy era which is likely to endure for the rest of this century. It will be a period of tensions, both within nations and between nations, of competition for scarce resources, of social, political, and economic stresses and strains. During this period we may be tempted to abandon some of the time-honored principles and commitments which have been proven during the difficult times of past generations. We must never yield to this temptation. Our American values are not luxuries, but necessities—not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself. Our common vision of a free and just society is our greatest source of cohesion at home and strength abroad, greater even than the bounty of our material blessings.”
~President Jimmy Carter, Farewell Address, January 14, 1981
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
At on this date in 2002—Mixed messages:
The Bush Administration announced that US intelligence and law enforcement agencies thwarted a "dirty bomb" attack on the US. However, I'm confused. President Bush said:
The defense department's resident hawk, Paul Wolfowitz, said:
He did indicate some knowledge of the Washington, D.C., area but I want to emphasize again it was not an actual plan.
So, not only does Bush not mention anything about a dirty bomb plot, but Wolfowitz actually stresses that there is no plan. So, at best we have someone, who perhaps consorted with known terrorist, that has "some knowledge" of the DC area. If he truly is a threat, then bravo. But given the known facts, does his capture really merit the victorious headlines today? […]
What gives? How can the US arrest someone from planning an attack when there is no actual plan? Just another attempt by the Bush Administration to divert attention from explosive hearings on Capitol Hill?
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