Nuclear may have been a viable answer 20 years ago, but it no longer offers that because of the time it takes to bring a power plant online. Also, because we have been economically blocked from supporting nuclear by the right that insists everything the government does must be “paid for” as if the monopoly issuer of dollars needs our dollars to spend, as well as the radical left that would have us all living in huts and eating tree bark, we have not advanced the safety of nuclear power generation for almost 40 years.
Solving climate change is going to require a similar effort to that which we undertook to win WWII, but this is not the same America that mobilized all resources possible in a singular effort toward a common goal. The voters have been convinced since RayGun that “their” dollars fund the government, which makes reaching any consensus impossible. It would mean a lot of very ignorant and backward people grasping nuances that they can’t understand and would resent to their death even if they did. The ultimate Achilles heel of democracy is democracy.
I’ve said for some time that someone with better than average intellect and an ability to see patterns and big pictures would have my vote for dictator for at least that person’s lifetime. Of course, the concept of a dictatorship is not one to be considered at a time when the President and village idiot are the same person. The idea that we might condemn the human species to a horrible death because we think we can’t “afford” to prevent it is the ultimate of ignorance, but it is actually a fairly common view in America at present.
Nancy Pelosi, who should be carrying the banner for mitigating climate change, has been solidly in favor of a “paygo” policy for any government funding, insisting that every dime spent be “paid for” with a tax or cut in some other area. Even the massive military budget doesn’t begin to cover the scale of what will be demanded to save our species and our economy doesn’t even function like that. The US government can, without a dime of revenue, purchase anything that is for sale priced in dollars without creating inflation.
