Even a healthy U . S . democracy would struggle to respond effectively to the “ wicked ” problem of climate change . As humans , we would have to overcome innate cognitive limitations to accept the connection between everyday actions like driving and attenuated effects on climate . As voters , we would have to appreciate the importance of addressing a problem with limited immediate salience primarily for the benefit of future generations . Politicians would need the courage to fight for policies that would yield no visible benefits for voters in their political lifetimes .
Change would have to occur over the tooth and nail opposition of the fossil fuel companies — among the most powerful corporate special interests in the history of our country . We would need to be open to transformative change and a rethinking of values and priorities to develop a shared vision for a future radically different from settled expectations , all while reckoning with the ways that historical injustices — most notably colonialism and racism — produced and remain embedded in the systems that brought us to this precipice .
But our democracy is decidedly not healthy . Corporations pour money into elections virtually unrestrained and face no consequences for flagrantly lying to the public — most notably for present purposes about whether climate change is real and dangerous and what causes it — to maximize their profits . The right to vote is now more theoretical than real , with federal protections dismantled and many state and local governments adopting measures that make voting harder ( especially for disfavored people , including communities of color ).
The votes of those who make it into the voting booth are counted — our electoral system is sound . However , it is not perceived as such ; ideological fantasies of voting fraud cause vast swaths of the public to reject legitimate electoral outcomes . And myriad pathologies in the information environment , from social media algorithms to purposeful disinformation efforts , have fractured our ability to talk to and reason with one another .
Nor is our climate system healthy or stable . We already limp from unprecedented crisis to unprecedented crisis — the Pacific Northwest heatwave in 2021 , deadly fires in 2023 , a hurricane that made landfall in Louisiana in 2021 and drowned 11 people in New York City basement apartments — with hardly a chance to catch our breath in between .
This rapidly changing physical reality adds further stress to our ailing democracy . We face the daunting task of attempting to transform our society , law , and economy to cease emissions and sequester carbon while also trying to adapt to ongoing and worsening dislocations from climate change .
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