Climate Change Mitigation and Political Will

Here’s a reminder of the determination our country was able to muster going into World War II.  Striking, isn’t it?  Yet the differences between then and now are many.

• This is not a war against an aggressive set of people, which, if left unchecked, will take over the world, completely transforming our lives for the worse.

• Most of the consequences of losing the war will not be experienced for a number of years/decades.

• The consequences of losing the war affect mostly the poor.

• There is a huge force for disinformation, known as Big Oil, that continues to sew doubt into the minds of the public as to the science surrounding the issue.  There were no mega-industries that would be hurt by fighting the Japanese and the Germans.

• Solving the problem will require cooperation between governments, many of which are hostile to one another.

• At least in the United States, the problem has taken on a political nature.  There was no political party that objected to our fighting in the early 1940s.  Even the Quakers were over there driving ambulances, etc.

• Victory in both cases required that individuals make personal sacrifices, but here we live in a zeitgeist that is far more spoiled and selfish.

There is no reason for pessimism, but it’s probably good to know what we’re dealing with here.