Are you ready for the climate lockdowns?
The possibility of climate lockdowns is already being floated by some of our
greatest thinkers. They see a confluence of global crises as an opportunity. The perfect storm caused by COVID-19 and the resulting global economic meltdown offers a chance to take what they see as bold and dramatic action to save the planet. The Biden administration will certainly use the consequences of COVID to push through
some green legislation, but just as before, it will not be enough in the eyes of progressives. There must always be more.
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Mariana Mazzucato, in
MarketWatch last September:
‘Under a “climate lockdown”, governments would limit private-vehicle use, ban consumption of red meat, and impose extreme energy-saving measures, while fossil-fuel companies would have to stop drilling. To avoid such a scenario, we must overhaul our economic structures and do capitalism differently.’
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Karl Lauterbach, an MP for the German Social Democratic party
wrote in
Die Welt last December that ‘we need measures to deal with climate change that are similar to the restrictions on personal freedom [imposed] to combat the pandemic.’
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How would governors and the federal government impose climate lockdowns? Simple: by declaring that climate change is an immediate public health and national security crisis, and using the same authority granted to them by public health departments to implement them under the same guidelines they did for COVID-19. Bernie Sanders and AOC
announced a bill suggesting as much yesterday!