Earth Under Siege II: Fighting a Far-Right Agenda (Harvard Political Review)
HPR
By Ilana Cohen | August 2, 2019
Even as it poses an unprecedented planetary threat, the rise of far-right leaders has inspired a new scale of climate activism. Representing a greater resistance to right-wing extremism, public and private institutions alike, alongside citizens of all ages, are mobilizing to derail the world from a climate collision course while there is time left to do so.
...At least in the United States, debunking far-right rhetoric may also require tackling media manipulation. The Union of Concerned Scientists works to combat the inaccurate presentation of anthropogenic climate change as a 50-50 debate. With Americans’ belief in anthropogenic climate change at a record high, Meyer believes that efforts to sow climate skepticism like those employed by President Trump represent a dying tactic, reaching only a minority of voters. In countries like Hungary, where media is largely under state control, battling far-right bias appears more difficult. Here, the willingness of experts to speak out against misinformation can be critical. Already, CEU Professor Zsolt Enyedi has seen Hungarian scholars show “incredible courage” in leading efforts to expose and protest the Fidesz takeover of academia.
The Race Against Time
Regardless of trends toward or away from right-wing politics, the greatest obstacle to achieving sufficient climate action seems not to be political inertia or resistance but a lack of time. At the moment, the most promising movements for decarbonization still cannot put the world on track for limiting serious warming. Even as public momentum for climate action grows, political will continues to lag behind. “You can’t negotiate with the atmosphere … you can’t change the laws of physics,” explained Meyer. “That’s the real challenge: we’re making progress but is it going to be enough and fast enough?”
Much more here. Interesting article.
http://harvardpolitics.com/world/earth-under-siege-ii/