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He walked into people’s homes with an interactive touch screen on his back. Legendary CNN journalist John King, a stable silverback with a rattlesnake and a special knowledge of every American constituency, became a favorite with many Swedes this week. With confident gestures with his hands, he guided us through the prolonged counting of votes and at the same time embodied the role of skilled journalism when democracy is threatened by authoritarian reflexes: “There are no oddities, every vote must be counted,” repeated John King. He could be seen as a kind of popular will, Virgil, a sure guide through the hellish circles of American democracy.
John King was already in the 2008 film “Recount,” which deals with the legal aftermath of a presidential election that may have even greater historical consequences than has now been decided. It was in 2000 that the Supreme Court gave George W Bush victory over Democrat Al Gore, a ruling that may have irreversibly affected not only the future of the United States but the entire world.
Why?
Why alone Some after the elections, Al Gore made the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”, which opened the eyes of many to the realities of the climate crisis, while for eight years Bush continued the reckless opposition of the Republican Party to any effort to reduce the Emissions of greenhouse gases. The idea is almost dizzying: If vote recalculation had been allowed to continue in Florida at the time, the world today might have had a better starting point in avoiding a large-scale climate catastrophe.
Had the vote counting in Florida been allowed to continue, the world today might have had a better starting point to avoid a full-scale climate catastrophe.
This basic existential question also marked this year’s election. Behind every constituency that emerged on John King’s screen was a fateful weight: as if the entire world depended on countless mail-in ballots in Maricopa County outside of Phoenix, Fulton County in Georgia, or the suburbs of Philadelphia.
Perhaps he did just that. Another Donald Trump victory would have been a disaster not only for the political climate in the United States and in the world, but also for the real climate. The election was not just about a president, but about seizing the last chance for a kind of common minimum of existence for all people on earth. “The bar has never been lower and the stakes have never been higher,” as American writer Mary Annaïse Heglar succinctly put it.
It may sound like great words but they are true. Bill McKibben, the American climate magnate, wrote before the election that it was not just about the next four years, but about the next 4,000 years, maybe even 40,000. These dramatic words have coverage too. When the climatic conditions that have allowed human life on earth disappear, they will not be able to recreate within the time limits that are valid in politics. The key is time. As is well known, the UN IPCC climate panel has stated that we have until 2030 to implement extensive emission reductions if the risk of catastrophic threshold effects is to be avoided.
The choice was not just about the next four years, but the next 4,000
With climate denier Donald Trump at the helm of the world’s second largest emitter of carbon dioxide, this would have been completely impossible. The possibility of keeping global warming within the limits of the Paris Agreement was gone forever. Whoever was elected president after Trump had been faced with the task of dealing with disasters that could no longer have been avoided.
Neither did Joe Biden is a savior. But during the election campaign, he has increasingly understood the growing importance and political potential of the climate problem. Hopefully, it will restore confidence in science and research and, not least, build a tone of constructive global leadership for America. Actress and activist Jane Fonda put it bluntly: “I’d rather push a moderate in the right direction than fight a fascist.”
The climate is not “saved” by the loss of Donald Trump in the presidential elections; at least as important is whether Republicans can continue to stop all significant climate measures in the Senate, where the distribution of seats is still unclear. But perhaps it is also a matter of time. Over the past five years, the Republican Party has proven to be a collection of invertebrate opportunists, and they too will be affected when business changes and public opinion on the climate issue fluctuates. The evidence, especially in the United States, is increasingly impossible to ignore.
Climatologist Michael Mann spoke before the election about a “Tolkien-style battle between good and evil” and that “Sauron must be defeated in the United States.”
Climate scientist Michael Mann spoke before the election about a “Tolkien-like battle between good and evil” and that “Sauron must be defeated in the United States.” They may be well-worded words from a leading scientist, but it is true that the climate crisis and democracy are intertwined – as little as climate can quickly recreate democracy once it collapses. Each degree of increase in global warming will facilitate the emergence of future despots like Donald Trump; every degree that can be avoided will increase the chances of maintaining democracy and freedom. Heating of 1.5 degrees is better than 2 degrees, 2 degrees is better than 2.5 and so on. It’s not just about stopping climate change, it’s about surviving in the best possible way.
This also applies the person who will soon be the former president of the United States. Florida, where Donald Trump will likely have even more time to golf at his luxurious spa in the future, was one of the first states to turn red on John King’s interactive map on CNN. There is a risk that in the future it will also be one of the first to turn blue, when the seawater rises over the state.
Joe Biden may not be able to save the golf courses from the tyrant. But at least he will try.
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