Can a Democrat Win the Presidency on Climate Change?

People care about money in their pocket, new car, new TV, sports, beer, things like that there.

Saying we need to consume less will not a President make.

‘We will do what do we until we can’t, then we won’t.’

The good news is that all of the Dem candidates probably will have it as, at least, an important issue in their campaigns.

Show how green energy is the future, and paint their opponents as Luddites stuck in a bygone era.  Unfortunately, there just don’t seem to be enough people who care about the future of the planet, so a different approach may get more people on board.

He’s my Governor and a good guy.

And the truth is that 70% of CO2 emissions are generated by the wealthiest 20% of world citizens to include almost all Americans.  Asking Americans to sacrifice anything relating to their lifestyle will have zero attraction.

And for those still dreaming of a shiny future running solely on renewable energy – dream on.  The timeline to solve the climate change problem is twenty years or less.  Converting western industrial societies to all renewable energy in twenty years or less is simply not practical.  And more importantly, the rare earth metals necessary to build solar panels, wind turbines and batteries are simply not there in sufficient quantities for the manufacturing volumes needed.

All that is to say, if we are collectively going to tackle this problem it will require two things Americans despise: shared sacrifice and consumption reductions – both of which mean lifestyle reductions.

You can’t run on that alone and win. If it’s part of a larger package, yes.

Compact cars are undesirable these days–Chevrolet is dropping the Chevy Cruze and other maufacturers are dropping their small, compact economy cars. ‘muricans want gas hog SUVs and pick up trucks. I laughed out loud when my aunt in Tampa had to have a new Range Rover-all wheel drive. WTF for? My ancient Saturn still gets 42 miles per gallon and has over a quarter million miles on it. It’s almost old enough to be a grandparent in human years…wait–it IS old enough. I never see small cars on the roads, they are going the way of the horse and buggy cause, you know, lifestyle choices.

I’m reading that the Chinese are taking this seriously and dog only knows what India is doing–the US is a tiny country compared in population to other newly industrialized countries yet we contribute much more CO2 emissions per capita because of our 60’s mentality of consumerism.  Now, if gasoline prices were around 8-9 bucks a gallon all that would change but the manipulation of the oil market has created some of the consequences we are now seeing.  

Most Americans want action on climate change. Republicans are the exception: Poll
In a new NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll 66 percent of Americans now say they’ve seen enough evidence to justify action on climate change, up from 51 percent two decades ago.
That figure incorporates 85 percent of Democrats, 79 percent of independents, 71 percent of women, 61 percent of men and strong majorities of all racial groups.
Resistance comes only from the one-third of Americans who identify themselves as Republicans. A 56 percent majority of the GOP says either that concern about climate change is unwarranted or that more research is necessary before taking action.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/americans-want-action-on-climate-change-republicans-are-the-exception-poll.html

Faux Newz vue-ers will believe when their living rooms are underwater…