Stephen Vicinanza
Climate change and politics. There isn’t a way to cancel climate change, resolve it, or mitigate its forward motion. The effects on society are going to be large, and whether we like it or not, we will be forced to accept it.
How that acceptance will be dressed is up to the young, not the middle-aged or older portions of the world society. The United States is seeing a strong reaction to climate change throughout the Gen Z and Gen X populations.
The most telling political fallout is not the protests, which are happening every day. It is the daily social media content, where influencers, such as Greta Thunburg and others are fighting every day to make people more aware of climate change.
The media has dropped the climate crisis in favor of more sensational and sometimes nonsensical reporting in politics. But the Biden administration has named John Kerry as the special envoy on climate. Kerry’s activist past has been a prominent feature in the fight against climate change. He has pulled in political heavyweights such as Hillary Clinton to help in this effort.
Still, it is not enough. The legislatures in many states are enacting legislation that will limit the regulation of fossil fuels, and make sure Greenwashing is not a litigable offense or crime. In the Kansas and Iowa legislatures, preemptive bills are being debated that will effectively tie the hands of Environmental groups from seeking damages from companies that say they are green, humane, or making investments in green initiatives, but are not actually doing what they claim.
Our response politically and socially is going to have deep consequences in fewer years than first thought by experts. We ignored the warnings and many are now desperate to find a way out of the extreme weather events and climate-related disasters.
Sometimes the urgency gets lost in the science. This is coming to everyone’s neighborhood, and pushing it out 6 years until 2030, or 26 years until 2050 is extremely misleading. There is no time to waste any longer. Mitigation must happen now, not in 6 years. The crisis is now, right now, and the legislatures that are blocking environmental, Social, and Governance organizations, to reduce compliance and protect themselves from litigation.. To somehow create a means to send a message of green, humane, and empathy for the climate, while not doing anything of substance in the real world, when it is desperately needed now.
