Biden is still not doing nearly enough about the climate crisis

(The Guardian, 1 May 2023) The president is trying to appeal to climate-conscious young voters and appease the fossil fuel industry. It won’t work.

Just before announcing that he would again run for president, Joe Biden signed off on what on the surface looks like a great move to help address the climate crisis: an executive order that creates an office of environmental justice in the White House. “Environmental justice,” the president said from the Rose Garden, “will be the mission of the entire government, woven directly into how we work with state, local, tribal and territorial governments.”

That is a beautiful sentiment. And sentiment, when coupled with substantive policy positions, can lead the country forward. The idea of a White House office that can help mobilize an all-of-government response to the climate crisis could be a force multiplier in the fight to save the planet. But to be effective it needs real presidential leadership that involves the creation of a bold and realistic plan to phase out fossil fuels along a strict timeline.

That is to say, what we really need is societal transformation. That transformation can only be delivered by a mass public mobilization to demand it – and with leadership from the top, which, thus far, has been sorely lacking.

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The Guardian, 1 May 2023: Biden is still not doing nearly enough about the climate crisis