The Good News Is the People, and Institutions, Push Responses to Climate Change
Anyone covering Louisiana’s battle for coastal survival, which includes its risks from climate change, will invariably come up against this criticism: “Hey, don’t you ever report good news?”
I get it. While honest reporting — especially over the last year — had to focus on the stream of new research and evidence proving our challenges are growing ever steeper, it made some readers feel punch-drunk. They wondered: Why bother?
Well, my bad. Because scattered between those many alarming headlines was an increase in positive news from state and local governments as well as market forces. To be clear, while voluntary contributions are critical to any measure of success going forward, ultimate success also cannot be accomplished without timely and forceful government action. Which is why the last four years of retreat driven by President Donald Trump have been so costly and must be quickly reversed.
And while the state’s coastal protection and restoration plan continues to march forward, that cannot find enduring success if the emissions-driven acceleration in sea levels is not addressed. Just as we can’t have coastal protection without wetlands restoration — we can’t have either of those long-term without reducing warming.
My vote for the most important good news last year for both crises were opinion polls showing the great majority of Americans now agree climate change is real, is being driven by us humans, and must be swiftly addressed. In June a Pew Research Center poll found two-thirds of Americans wanted government to do more on this threat, including regulations to reduce carbon emissions from power plants and cars, place a tax on carbon emissions produced by industry, plant trees to increase carbon sinks, and develop engineering solutions like carbon capture. Even a majority of Republicans said the issue was real and serious, and supported many of those measures.
Any of these changes will initially involve costs and adjustments to life routines that politicians won’t support unless their constituents approve. This change in attitude can be mined by climate activists to show policymakers their voters are behind them.
Read the rest of the article at The Times-Picayune.
