Today I read about the recent repeal — or attempted repeal — of the Clean Power Act by the Trump administration. My concern — beyond the obvious horror of the decision itself — is effect it has on will have on public moral. Bad environmental policy is bad existential policy: it shrinks our sense of what is possible as a species; as people — as creatures on this planet.
On a practical level, we don’t actually need government policy change to fight back against climate change — if every suburban home in the country planted, say, two trees, a vegetable garden, and signed up for clean energy, and perhaps planted some bee-friendly flowers, we would have an instant green revolution. Of course, we should want sane and beneficial regulation, like we were beginning to have under Obama (regulation now being rolled back), but the real, in my opinion, action, is on the molecular level — the level of individual action. The message that Trump/Pruitt sends, therefore, is of incredible importance. If it seems as if individual action is made pointless, canceled out, by public policy, then widespread change, behavioral transformation — a collective waking-up to our environmental crisis — will be less likely. The Trump EPA relentlessly informs the public that big business, really, fundamentally, evil, business, will be privileged, celebrated, and encouraged.
The radical spirit of environmentalism, in this political environment, can only grow depressed. “You cannot be the leader of the free world” and not deal with climate change Emmanuel Macron said recently. This, undoubtedly, is true. The message then, is that the United States is not free, or poorly lead, or both. Our current environmental policies, which fly in the face both of science and experience, suggests that our government is essentially suicidal, or at least, disinterested in survival — interested in short-term profits for the very few, literally, above the lives of billions. It is hard to see the point of making an effort to live a cleaner, greener life — of choosing life instead of death — when leaders or governments or simply powerful people, are choosing death, decay, degradation. The most ominous consequence of allowing a few coal plants to bake C02 into the environment may be the indirect effect on our social psyche: environmental nihilism.
