Hope Meets the Presidential Debate
A Climate Pessimist Finds Hope
Thirteen minutes into the presidential debate last Thursday, I texted my friends a succinct, NSFW version of “We’re doomed.” The candidates hadn’t even spoken about climate change yet, and my climate despair was in full force.
At first, I tried to help by yelling at the television: “That’s a lie!” “He’s just making stuff up!” “What does that even mean?”
But the President of the United States looked shook. He whispered and stuttered a trickle of disjointed facts against the tidal wave of lies. He looked weak and frail.
My despair hit me with a wave of nausea. Neither of these people looked like they could lead the US and the world through decarbonization to any kind of climate justice or even survival. We’re doomed.
My energy deteriorated to match the President’s, and I stared at the TV, perplexed, mouth agape.
By the time they did speak about climate change, I was audibly moaning to myself.
I went back to the transcript to see if it was really as bad as I remembered. The moderator asked a very reasonable question about climate change: “Will you take any action as President to slow the climate crisis?”
And Trump spoke for a minute and a half on various topics unrelated to the climate.
The moderator said, “38 seconds left…Will you take any action as President to slow the climate crisis.”
And Trump again did not answer the question, stating nonsense about how during his administration, “We had H2O. We had the best numbers ever.”
In his rebuttal, President Biden attempted to address the myriad of topics Trump had brought up while also talking about the climate, and calling out Trump’s lies and nonsensical statements. It was a confusing answer. It hurts my heart to read.
But, in there—in that mess of a rebuttal—the President said something important. I missed it the first time. Partly because I was moaning to myself about the end of the world, but also because it was hidden in statements about other policy initiatives, and because the President whispered and stuttered through it. But it’s there in the transcript: “I’ve passed the most extensive, it was the most extensive climate change legislation in history, in history.”
That is not a pretty sentence. But—it’s true. The Inflation Reduction Act is very good for climate. It doesn’t get us all the way to the goals set in the Paris Agreement, but it gets us pretty close. We agreed to reduce our carbon emissions to 50% of the 2005 levels by 2030. The Inflation Reduction Act has set us on course to get us almost there by 2035. So, not quite, but a huge step in the right direction—A huge step that should give us hope and encourage ideas about how to increase the impact of these policies.
But instead of feeling hopeful, I am deciding the President looks old; neither of these guys looks like the leader I want; the world is ending; we’re all doomed. When my climate despair jumps to the forefront like this and pushes aside helpful, hopeful thoughts, it gets in my way. It keeps me from seeing the progress we are making now, and it keeps me from doing the work needed to make even more progress. And there actually is progress.
I know it’s not too late for the planet. I know we’re only doomed when we decide there’s no hope and choose not to act. And, now I know that even deep in the weeds of the messy transcript of a disastrous debate, there are real policy successes. Even on the presidential debate stage, when you look for it, there is hope.
This piece is part of my work on my upcoming book titled (for now) A Climate Pessimist Finds Hope. Please comment! Is there something here that makes you think, “well, yeah, but, what about….” Tell me about it! Do I use a particularly persuasive or not persuasive argument? Tell me before the bad stuff ends up in the book!
For more on the book see:
As painful as it all was, I think the only response more challenging was on childcare where it devolved into golf scores. I’m glad you found this nugget. There is progress and there are people doing incredible things even when a former leader, a current leader, and both standing as want to be leaders, can’t seem to find the words.
I appreciate your shift in thinking here. I’ve been in the same unsteady boat since the debate. Just bobbing along, slightly stunned, especially on the heels of the Chevron decision. Perhaps today I can pick up the oars again.