The New York Times weighs in yet again with We’re-Wearing-A-Blindfold coverage of climate change and what to do about it.
James Hansen isn't speaking for Democrats, presumably, but still, he is articulating the position they take when they say we need to work against climate change. And this is a political prescription, whether he's being political or not. It's is why the Democrats fail: “It’s very hard to see us fixing the climate,” Dr. [James] Hansen said, “until we fix our democracy.”
No.
This isn't political. it isn't about democracy except insofar as our democracy permits us to act for ourselves, as we like, and not put it up for a vote.
The prescription is plain to see, proven, and scalable at levels from individual to enterprise: saving energy saves money; saving money is measurable and competitive; competitiveness is the essence of effective performance in capitalism. It requires no "fix" to democracy for one person or one hundred million people to decide, on their own, for their own reasons, to make improvements.
Businesses that decline to spend more wisely on energy decline to compete effectively. There has been a national stampede in the markets and in technology towards better energy use, lower carbon outputs, and improved return on energy investments.
The Times' negligent coverage of the real change on the ground reflects the paper's chronic failure to look where the solutions are emerging. The Democrats ongoing failure to capitalize on this reflects their stance of moralizing a hopeful solution instead of loudly and politically branding themselves as supporting the real one.
Congress has failed and will fail to be part of a solution, and if that still surprises anyone, they can't have been paying attention to the past 40 years of US history. More sanctimony about it from the media isn't a prescription. In fact, it's complicity in the problem.
One word needs to be removed forever from the discussion: sacrifice. As long as the Right insists that conservation equals sacrifice they will appeal to the selfishness of their voters. As long as the Left anoints itself with nobility in making what they say is sacrifice, they will miss the point. Conserving energy isn't sacrifice. It's smart. It's even selfish. It's inexcusable that the Democrats still don't see it: they're the Party of Business. They're the ruthless competitive capitalists. They don't need the other side to agree with them. They need to win.
And this is how The New York Times achieves inexcusable irresponsibility. If a Prophet of Doom was “right”, then the smart thing to do is give up and hunker down. That’s that’s how climate change becomes irreversible, worse, and accelerated. That’s how democracy fails.