To be clear: there’s a night-and-day difference between Biden and Trump, with the former having actually taking significant action, and being likely to take more if reelected. Trump will look to maximize both extraction and consumption of fossil fuels in a way that Biden simply didn’t and won’t.
I would personally define the word “significant” in such a way that excludes actors who do not take action which meaningfully prevents or lowers the risks of the upcoming climate apocalypse. Biden has not done this IMO. He has done some things which are okay for the environment, but just as many that worsen the situation. At the end of the day, both candidates are content to make policy which does not stop the world from boiling. It is counterproductive to pretend otherwise.
All true. But the unfortunate political realities the Democrats are facing seem to be that voters just don’t care enough so it’s political suicide to take strong action against compare change.
If voters actually cared about climate change, then it would be a major part of the platform. But there’s a huge swath of the population that only cares insofar as it doesn’t inconvenience them, or who have been brainwashed into believing it’s a “Leftist Conspiracy” while completely missing that the QAnon memes they got their “facts” from is literally a conspiracy.
We’re fucked. Biden doesn’t have the political strength to take any political risks. We’re seeing the same in Canada, with Trudeau not having the political capital for anything that could lose ground to the Canadian Conservative Party (which is currently polling as over 99% likely to get a majority government if there’s no change in the next 1½ years).
I don’t know how we can de-radicalize the Christofascist Right, but we’re fucked until we figure it out.
My problem with the these lessor of two evils party liners is that they have no exit strategy or long term vision. It’s the same thing every two years as things steadily worsen overall. Certainly no room in their worldview to respond to climate change effectively or efficiently.
No one government can do enough. He’s shifted the emissions trajectory of the US in a meaningful way. That’s enough to earn my vote when the alternative is so much worse
That’s simply not true. Biden doesn’t give a shit. He’ll be dead before the climate apocalypse occurs, and everyone he works with is paid by big oil to not go “too far” with environmental regulations. Sure he makes it look like he’s making a difference, but the fossil fuel lobby has thus far been succesful in preventing any major countries from taking significant action on climate change.
Don’t believe me? Here’s how world governments are doing at regulating climate change:
You really think Biden, who is fundamentally the same ideology as previous Democrat presidents, is going to do anything different? It’s worth noting Biden was present at the Paris agreement and pushed for weaker language in the agreement to weasel out of the US needing to take any significant action.
To be clear, I think obviously people should vote for him given the alternative. But only because America is a profoundly broken country and that senile old coot is the best option available. I’m just deeply suspect of anyone who says that Biden is actually doing good on the climate, since it’s obvious to me that he really isn’t.
That graph is a highly misleading way to evaluate a single national leader because China sharply increased their coal burning at the same time the US and EU started to cut emissions.