Governments should be responsible for preventing these types of externalities as one of their core functions. There is no incentive for markets, consumers, and companies to deal with this, yet the forecast costs of climate change and sea level rise are (and will be) massive. Many places have some weak patchwork framework of private insurance and FEMA style funds, but without an actual pricing and enforcement system there's no way out of the warming feedback loop.

I was extremely disappointed in the failure of my (Canada's) government to articulate what a carbon tax was or how it worked to voters, and that allowed the opposition from both sides to chip at it until now it's a politically toxic idea.

The game theory of international accords is increasingly falling apart and countries will try to undercut each other on carbon pricing.

https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a16995

"When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles,"

Over the summer in the California valley, your computer will scream at you in bright red text it's hot outside. You'll even receive emergency messages on your phone, tv and radio from the government when it reaches triple-digits. There's a joke from someone I can't recall, but the gist is "we used to call it summer...".

Just recently, California declared a state of emergency over a winter storm - a usual/normal occurrence for this time of year as well.

Normal and completely natural weather events are being used to create an environment of alarmism and fear. This is part of why our youth are so convinced the world is going to end $NEXT_YEAR - they've grown up in a world were the government constantly tells them to be afraid of normal, seasonal weather.

Free speech doesn't create an obligation. It's not a binding magic. It's irrelevancy hasn't just happened. It's been a slow death.

The shift to information age and science education did not start until after the Boomers and much of GenX were in and out of school and college. The world for them was cheap and just winging it. Science! Bah! Uncle Rico can still throw them balls over that mountain!

Was warning people 15 years ago the now 80 year olds in charge are nihilistic and not going to change; they will be dead and are just trolling youth about caring. They’re self selecting biology.

Takes $800k/yr to have the buying power $200k/yr had in 1980. The rise in inequality and the global temperature follow a growth pattern that was way too normal to be winging it; what's been allowed economically has been very carefully studied and managed to preserve freedom of agency for the elders. Same as environment:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExxonMobil_climate_change_deni...

Same old stupid political inanity as when I was younger. It still works on a lot of people.

This doesn't really have anything to do with constitutional "free speech". This is a government agency, not the personal research blog of a private citizen.

Government agencies don't have "free speech".

That said, it's a shame this is happening. Maybe a future administration will reopen it.

Did you interpret the calls for the end of censoring and cancellations that all government agencies must continue to exist forever?

And if so is there any resemblance of logic behind that interpretation?

Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised about this at all. If anything, I think it might even be the same cause: because climate change sceptics were being suppressed before Trump.

To be upfront: I'm not American, but it's hard not to notice how the narrative has changed all over the internet.

My personal perspective to the climate crisis has always been a defeatist attitude, I was always in favor of green energy etc, but that's primarily because it would also improve the local area, Air quality etc. from a climate change perspective, it was always pointless, because that's a global issue and cannot be solved by internal regulation in a singular country

These are the same people who were "being censored by the media" while going on Fox News to complain about it.

Whining about freedom of speech, or the "demise of Western values", while banning school libraries worth of classic works of western literature for being "subversive".

Their heads would probably explode reading Plato or J.S. Mill.

And the J.D. Vance nominated judge will say "not guilty!"...

And if it turns out to be a big nothingburger, can we sue the politicians to recover the billions in taxpayer dollars that were diverted to their cronies on projects to nowhere during the green gold rush?

We wouldn't want to become one of those! As long as we never hold leaders accountable I'm sure we'll be safe from that fate.

If you think of any (societal) issue you care about, there's a good chance it would get solved with that tiny change

Donald Trump is 79. He can only be held accountable in the afterlife, if there is one.

This is a super interesting perspective.. but instead of only looking to the future, could we apply this to the past?

aka Were their predictions about global warming in 2015, 2000, or earlier that drove policy that ended up being incorrect?

I suppose China does not need american scientist to work in China. They just need to make sure they can't work in the US. Which they are doing.

The only "funny" outcome is that they manage to fund a startup that develops tools to alleviate climate change, and explicitly reserve them to countries and states that believed in climate change in the first place.

But that would be mean. So, of course Florida can have it. It will just be slightly expensive for them.

There is no appetite for oil alternatives that would stop this from meaning the deaths of hundreds of thousands or more people.

The fact is there is no effective way to power a stable grid with modern renewables. Increasing the energy mix sustainably is great. But if people truly want to divest from oil and coal there number one issue right now should be how to onboard nuclear energy effectively. This has been true for decades at this point, but purist policies on the right and the left have left it completely unrealized or actively dismantled it.