On Politics: War by Other Means 02

Our politics and society are on a crash course with climate change.

The results are probably going to be ugly.

It’s worse than you think. Climate Change is one of those “happens very slowly for decades then becomes a crisis all at once” kind of issues. We are entering the sudden “massive crisis” phase of the disaster and it’s going to be so much worse because we ignored it for so long.

In 2000, the year a Supreme Court dominated by Republican appointed judges awarded the Presidency to the man who it would later be proven to have lost in Florida, the level of CO2 in the atmosphere was at 360ppm. In the 20 years since then, that level has climbed by 60ppm to 420ppm. To put that into perspective.

From 1850–2000 CO2 levels increased from 280ppm to 360ppm, 80ppm in 150 years.

From 2000–2020 CO2 levels increased from 360ppm to 420ppm, 60ppm in 20 years.

Elections have consequences.

Letting Republicans set the climate agenda, letting them block every effort to do anything about climate change, letting them get away with pandering to the climate deniers in their base, letting them do nothing about climate change for the last 20 years also has consequences. This decade, the bill for Republican America’s refusal to admit the reality of CO2 driven Global Warming, is going to come due. When it does, it’s going to reshape our society and our politics.