Den här veckan ger den amerikanske meteorologiprofessorn Michael Mann ut sin nya bok: The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet (Public Affairs).
Michael Mann – känd bland annat för att ha varit en av upphovsmännen till den berömda hockeyklubbskurvan i slutet av 90-talet (som visade att uppvärmningen på senare tid saknar motstycke i historien) – intervjuades nyligen av tidningen Rolling Stone. Där fick han bland annat frågan om hur han ser på att USA snart får en ny president med en helt annan syn på klimatpolitiken än Donald Trump.
Michael Mann svarade då så här:
Now, we are sort of potentially at the dawn of a new era where we have an incoming president, Joe Biden, who not only supports climate action, he campaigned on it. He was elected on it, which means he’s got a mandate and we’re seeing that play out. And again, pressure from the progressive left has played a really important role here. The squeaky wheel phenomenon. Biden probably wouldn’t have become nearly as bold a climate advocate if it weren’t for progressives demanding greater action. Already just with his Cabinet, with the approach he’s taking, where we’re no longer looking at climate as sort of a niche issue that’s confined to, say, the EPA or the Department of Energy. He’s integrating it into every single part of the Cabinet, every single agency. Let’s use the tools of the Treasury, for example, requiring companies to disclose climate risk and making federal funding contingent on that. Diplomacy, of course, critical. Appointing John Kerry as sort of the climate czar, the special envoy on climate internationally, and giving him a seat on the National Security Council, which communicates the fact that we now see climate risk as part of our defense strategy.
Nedan en kort film om boken: