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grufty jim wrote: handofdave wrote: To suggest that perhaps we should be abandoning Democracy to save the planet, tho... well, who's going to go for that? Do leftists want to live under a totalitarian government? Some, perhaps, but then again I imagine they've got overly optimistic visions in their heads that somehow everyone will obey and be rewarded with a neo-Eden.
It's worth pointing out that in times of emergency even the most liberal of democracies need to re-evaluate their political structures. The classic example being WWII; when those nations who were fighting against fascism implemented quasi-totalitarian policies in order to do so.
Even Orwell writes about the absolute necessity of such measures when faced with an overwhelming threat.
This really kind of gets to the heart of the matter... climate change isn't rolling tanks over borders or shooting scuds into our neighborhoods. It's more subtle. People who aren't looking closely don't even see it happening. So they're not feeling acutely anxious about it.
I'd guess that most people, even the ones aware of the problem and acknowledging it as such, are more concerned at present with those issues that are paradoxically more tangible AND more abstract simultaneously... where the market will go, will they keep their jobs, etc.
What's problematic about the analogy with WW2 is that, well, that was back during a time when many civil rights hadn't been invented yet (Few questioned mass internment of Japanese Americans then).
What sort of emergency measures do we use today? Do we seize all farms and force vegetarianism on everyone? Do we bulldoze the suburbs and turn them into agricultural work camps? Do we sterilize everyone after their first child? Is there any army willing to carry out orders to use harsh tactics on their own people over warnings?
Totalitarianism would only come after the disaster hits, not before.
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