Why Science Can’t Be Silent

Critical-thinking public and a
passionate science community.

We didn’t know what the presidential election would bring when we started planning the science issue. 

We did know that climate change was not getting the rapid response we thought it merited from political leaders of every party. And we noticed more outspoken scientists challenging the convenient magical thinking of energy corporations and unfazed politicians. 

It made us consider the powerful alliance of a critical-thinking public and a passionate science community advocating for the common good.

That was then. Now Donald Trump is in the White House, and the leaders from the fossil fuel industry pepper his team of advisers and Cabinet. The White House website’s “Climate Change” page has been replaced with an “America First Energy Plan” page. Trump has frozen grants and contracts at the EPA. There are gag orders and media blackouts.

Read the Yes! Magazine story - “Why Science Can’t Be Silent.”

The Next Big Climate-Change Battle Starts in India

Some climate activists worry that Donald Trump’s presidential election will be the death knell for the global environment. That’s almost certainly untrue. Whatever Trump’s attitude toward climate science and energy policy, two big outside factors will be much more important -- technological progress and policy in developing nations.

First, the good news. Renewable energy technology is already unstoppable. No longer does solar power depend on government subsidies for survival -- it’s increasingly beating fossil fuels on pure raw economics. A new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance lays out the numbers. Solar is getting so cheap, so fast, that it will quickly come to represent the lion’s share of new electric-power generation:

Read Noah Smith’s story on Bloomberg View - ”The Next Big Climate-Change Battle Starts in India.”

 

Climate Change in the Trumpocene Age

Heading into the 'Trumpocene Age'.

In the year since the Paris climate agreement was concluded, the world’s efforts to limit global warming to 2º Celsius above pre-industrial levels seemed to gain momentum.


Enough signatory countries took the necessary steps to formalize the agreement to ensure that it entered into force on November 4. Meanwhile, in October, the international community reached a separate aviation-related climate accord, which covers an area that the Paris agreement did not address; and agreed to amend the 1989 Montreal Protocol to phase out hydrofluorocarbons – a potent greenhouse gas.

But, following the United States’ presidential election, many observers fear that international efforts to combat climate change – such as the Paris accord and the Sustainable Development Goals (specifically, SDG 13) – could be derailed. During his campaign, President-elect Donald Trump – who in 2012 took to Twitter to declare that climate change is a Chinese-created hoax – said that he would walk away from the Paris agreement. But, in a post-election interview with the New York Times, Trump said that he had an “open mind” about the Paris agreement, implying that he is now backing away from his previous statements.

Read the story on Project Syndicate by the former editor-in-chief of the Danish daily Politiken, Bo Lidegaard - “Climate Change in the Trumpocene Age.”

Learning from the Neoliberals

"Our movement must be more powerful
 than ever to push Hillary into the
 climate leadership that the earth
 demands - Chloe Maxman.

With the presidential election less than three months away, how are our nominees doing on climate change? Donald Trump rarely mentions climate. When he does, he mocks it. Hillary Clinton? She’s excited to say that she believes in climate change, while condoning fracking and lauding the deeply flawed Paris agreement. Still, we know that we need Hillary, and we must do everything we can to elect her. Most importantly—our movement must be more powerful than ever to push Hillary into the climate leadership that the earth demands.

How can the climate movement develop the political power to fight effectively?

To glean a few answers, I looked to what I regard as one of the most successful examples of social change in the modern era: the neoliberal coup. Between 1975 and 2008, an ideological movement called “neoliberalism” evolved from fringe theory into the dominant economic paradigm of our age, with great help from the Republican Party, and then, the Democrats as well.

Read The Nation story - “What the Climate Movement Can Learn from the Neoliberal Coup.”