From Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

“… Donald Trump is an absolute master at getting people to believe extraordinary things.  … President Xi Jinping has claimed the Chinese system is superior …”

Is climate change too hard for democracy?

By Ralph Evans Jan 21, 2024

We have all heard that 2023 was the warmest year ever for the world, by some margin.

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Yet all indications are that Donald Trump will be elected once more as US President. He has announced that from Day 1 it will be “Drill, drill, drill!”. He will sweep away all sorts of regulation that protects the environment or aims to limit climate change. It would be no surprise if he withdraws the United States from the Paris Agreement once again.

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Donald Trump is an absolute master at getting people to believe extraordinary things. Tens of millions think he will Make America Great Again. Millions apparently think he was sent by God.

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In a world like this, I fear democratic government is not up to the challenge of climate change.

The country that emits by far the most greenhouse gases is China, which of course is not a democracy. It is building wind and solar farms at a very rapid pace, accounting for more than half of such construction in the world. … President Xi Jinping has claimed the Chinese system is superior to that of the West. It would be ironic if, after all the scientific and technical work, all the conferences and all the political argy-bargy in the West it was China and not the democracies that did the most to put a brake on climate change.

…Read more: https://johnmenadue.com/is-climate-change-too-hard-for-democracy/

The author, Ralph Evans, is a retired high flying Aussie government worker, he was head of Austrade, the Aussie government’s international trade promotion body, and co-founded the Boston Consulting Group. He is also the author of Toast: Climate change is doing enormous harm. Why do many Australians deny it? Can we avoid the worst effects?

Ralph Evans published on a blog named after (and presumably created by) John Menadue, another and even more senior retired Aussie government worker.

I guess we should thank Ralph for his honesty. No doubt Xi Jinping will send Ralph a nice appreciation card for this effort.