A climate consensus…from tomorrow

I recently read with interest an opinion editorial from 2024 on the lack of public and bipartisan political support to combat climate change. Eight years have passed since then and, as we head into the US presidential election of 2032, the fight against climate change enjoys widespread and robust public and bipartisan support (other than from a limited, albeit vocal, minority). It’s also a major part of the platforms of virtually every leading presidential candidate.
 
What has changed since 2024?
 
First, the repeated destructive climate events of the last eight years, which seem to have accelerated over the past five, have solidified public opinion behind prioritizing the fight against climate change. The deadly, and seemingly relentless, combination of wildfires, droughts and other extreme weather events across our country have destroyed too many businesses, livelihoods and even lives.
 
Significantly, this concern has also coalesced internationally, driven notably by the heat waves and flooding ravaging cities and entire regions abroad. We now finally have a true international consensus, rather than the past competitive posturing of too many of the world’s leading countries.
 
Yes, these climate events were already occurring in 2024, but their impacts weren’t sufficiently internalized by enough of the public or the politics of the time. Today, it’s evident efforts to grow economies and increase prosperity are being severely undermined by climate change’s destructive impacts ... and there is even the possibility of degrowth in some situations. 
 
Second, equally important but less visible, is the rise to power of the current generation of leaders –politicians and others raised with a fundamental and intuitive understanding of climate change’s menace. Older politicians who grew up under the Cold War and other threats are gone from most leadership positions. Yes, before, some leaders would warn that climate change was a significant threat. But the limited political action, including actions in 2023 by politicians from both the Republican and Democratic political parties to rollback climate initiatives (such as the climate-oriented but strategically “misnamed” Inflation Reduction Act of 2022) belied that sentiment.
 
Today, in 2032, the situation is very different. It isn’t just that today’s leaders know if they don’t act decisively, they will have to face the onslaught of climate events that are projected to worsen over the next decade and beyond. Instead, it’s their more profound and more intimate appreciation of the issue because they grew up with the emerging reality of the climate threat.
 
Unfortunately, we have wasted valuable time since 2024. What is happening today here in 2032 was predicted back then (albeit, with some differences, which was to be expected). Our regret is that back in 2024, too many in politics, business, and elsewhere failed to act sufficiently to fight the rising menace of climate change that has now descended upon us.