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Neoliberalism wrecked our chance to fix the climate crisis – and leftwing statements of faith have changed nothing
(The Guardian, 17 Nov 2021) Atmospheric carbon does not care about culture war. Neither should we.
Why didn’t we nip climate change in the bud?
Nathaniel Rich poses that question in an important article for the New York Times Magazine in 2018 (later published as a book).
He notes that, for a brief period in the late 1980s, a consensus developed on the necessity for action.
Back then, no one considered the science controversial and so a surprising number of mainstream politicians both acknowledged the threat facing humanity and pledged themselves to address it.
“The conditions for success,” Rich says, “could not have been more favorable.”
The opportunity was squandered because of a reluctance to sacrifice “present convenience to forestall a penalty imposed on future generations”, something he attributes to human nature.
The Canadian writer Naomi Klein rejects that part of the argument with a righteous fury.
She insists that, in fact, the timing could not have been worse, since the late 1980s represented “the absolute zenith” of the neoliberal turn.
The Guardian, 17 Nov 2021: Neoliberalism wrecked our chance to fix the climate crisis – and leftwing statements of faith have changed nothing
