US Vice President Kamala Harris, in Seattle, says the clock ‘is banging’ on climate change
Kamala Harris lands in Seattle for climate speech, fundraiser
Much of the speech is a discussion of how the Inflation Reduction Act has kick-started the building of decarbonizaiton infrastructure in the US.
IMO it's already too late. Too many idiots don't believe in even basic science, too many corporations don't give a shit and would happily trade a million years off of the life of the planet if it meant a hundred bucks in the CEOs pocket today. We're doomed and I primarily blame boomers.
Too late for what? Because we're not doomed, or anything like it, if we actually act. And Kamala Harris provided the tiebreaking vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which is a major piece of decarbonization legislation:
To be fair it's not too late as long as humanity is still around. It's gonna hit harder and harder the longer we wait to act. It's starting to move and in the right direction, albeit too slowly. But being a doomer and not acting will only make it worse. It's gonna be hell the next decades but we still have a chance.
Lol, what can we actually do in this situation? I mean, for real, what can we do? I doubt pressing our representatives will help, and everything one could do on its own (like stop using cars, going vegan, etc) has little to no effect.
We can't stop factories from working, can't force the creation of a decent public transportation system so people can stop relying on cars, and we can't close all coal-based powerplants and replace them with solar/eolic powerplants. All of these could help a lot against climate change, but one would need to rely on the government, or use violent methods; either of them I personally consider unfeasible.
If there is something we can do, we'll absolutely do it, but I don't see much to do aside being a doomer.
That clock is running several decades slow
They can’t pass any legislation, so the new strategy is to try to tout the supposed economic and environmental benefits of biden admins policies. Which is cool, except, it won’t work for a variety of reasons. You can’t go around saying, “Look how good the economy is” while half of everyone is fucking living on the edge of homelessness and suffering. You can’t claim to be doing good for the environment while approving more O&G leases on federal land than even fucking TRUMP, or while forcing pipelines through indigenous lands. You can’t claim to be supporting human rights while expanding the concentration camps at the border.
If they want to win, they need to do something that materially effects the majority of people. The majority of what they’ve done has done nothing noticeable for the majority of the country, and going around claiming it is the best thing since sliced bread is not only not true, but will degrade trust heavily and likely result in a Republican victory.
They passed legislation last year, using Kamala Harris as the tiebreaking vote in the Senate.
It's making a difference for a lot of people already, in the form of jobs and support for household decarbonization.
I know they passed that. That’s what I’m referring to, that isn’t having a material effect on the vast majority of Americans. Poor Americans (which is the majority) don’t have the money to afford electric cars or solar panels, they can’t even afford to eat 3 meals a day going by the most recent data.
What material benefits have the lower classes of the country received from the IRA? I’d be interested in seeing, because as someone who interacts with the working class on a daily basis, I have yet to even meet one blue collar worker who knows anything about the IRA before I tell them.
Good policy is known by all because it uplifts all. There was no one after the passage of the NLRA that said, “what is that?” Because the policy was crafted by and for the working class, addressing the issues they had directly.
Feels apt
Im pretty sure the clock has already passed the turning point. Going to take years of reversing course to undo the damage.
That's no surprise. It was always going to be a multi-decade process to decarbonize the world economy. What's important is that it looks to be finally starting, which is why Kamala Harris spent a lot of time talking about what the Inflation Reduction act.