Democracy is under threat at the best of times. Therefore we need to hold together on this, although The Atlantic opinion site detects a new onslaught from climate change. Is climate change threatening our democracy, as it says? Or is this more green hype trying to disturb the old order?
Could Major Disasters Be Threatening Our Democracy?
The Atlantic thinks “major disasters and challenging long-term weather conditions are weakening local governments.” This is threatening our democracy, it says, and is increasing racial and class inequality, and reducing trust in government.
The opinion site insists, “Those disasters have highlighted the role of inequality, civic instability, and poor planning in amplifying the effects of both extreme and mundane weather. The evidence therefore seems to be mounting that not only will the developing climate regime, if sustained, expose the cracks in the American democratic project, but it will also widen them.”
The Situation Worsens as Masses Crowd Global Urban Areas
Current American security policy states, “Climate instability will lead to instability in geopolitics and impact American military operations around the world. Because these effects are threat multipliers. They will therefore aggravate stressors abroad such as poverty, environmental degradation, political instability, and social tensions.”
Why is this so? Could this be threatening our democracy? The recent report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel predicts, “A cascade of troubling scenarios unless immediate action is taken.. Droughts, floods, rising seas and heat indices, and famines will be disastrous for populations. Especially the masses that continue to crowd global urban areas.”
The poor will be always be with us, as is our duty arguably to help. But will we, when there appears to be a shortfall of political will to help? Some nay-saying politicians may be denying climate change because this “could constitute a political loss”, The Atlantic website asks, is this because lawmakers are on the back foot, or is there something deeper behind this?
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