Climate Change and Capitalism: Guardian

Children witnessing climate disruptions express alarm about the future and question why governments fail to take action against the planet’s destruction. “Today’s children, as they become more politically aware, will be much more radical than their parents, simply because there will be no other choice for them,” suggests Phil McDuff for the Guardian. “Climate change is the result of our current economic and industrial system. [Green New Deal]-style proposals marry sweeping environmental policy changes with broader socialist reforms because the level of disruption required to keep us at a temperature anywhere below ‘absolutely catastrophic’ is fundamentally, on a deep structural level, incompatible with the status quo.” Societies have time to launch manageable programs to keep warming below 1.5 C. Policy tweaks and false promises like “clean coal” from powerful entrenched interests are not enough. McDuff compares government and industry efforts to convince the public to overlook the lack of progress on climate change as “gaslighting… where an abuser will deny reality in an attempt to get their victim to literally doubt their own sanity.” Governments have ignored scientific evidence on climate change for decades, and the consequences include horrific tornadoes in the United States, severe storms and flooding elsewhere. Every year of delay encourages more despair about a ruined planet and radical action from those who care. – YaleGlobal