Patience is key in the election. Now we must apply it to climate action
Days after Election Day in the United States, the future of our Planet is still up in the air. Sort of.
Days after Election Day in the United States, the future of our Planet is still up in the air. Sort of.
We have an idea of who will win: Early Friday morning, former Vice President Joe Biden pulled ahead in Georgia and Pennsylvania, two states that would block President Donald Trump’s path to victory.
As we wait for over 65 million early mail and absentee votes to be counted, Biden has addressed the public several times, either online or in speeches, always with a similar message: patience.
“Democracy is sometimes messy,” he said Wednesday. “It sometimes requires a little patience as well. I ask everyone to stay calm, all of the people to stay calm. The process is working.”
Patience. That’s a hard-to-grasp concept for environmentalists who have already been waiting decades for climate action. And the way this election is unfolding, it’s looking like that patience will once again be put to the test.
Though Biden may very well win the presidency, he’s going to have a tough time getting his $2 trillion climate plan through Congress. Democrats, the only party at least willing to talk climate, underperformed in key Senate races, failing to flip Montana, Maine, Iowa, and probably Alaska (though they’re hopeful of their chances in Georgia).
It’s all the more bitter because some of us predicted a green wave, which would have allowed for fast progress on climate change, clean energy, and environmental justice.
So, what do we do now? Well, it’s not ideal, but it may just mean more of what we’ve been doing since Election Day: waiting, holding out hope, and trusting the process. The end results could be just as exciting.
It’s awesome that we may have a president who made climate a key part of his campaign — a president who will reinstate environmental regulations, rejoin the Paris Agreement, and deliver meaningful executive orders, like raising standards for gas mileage. All these can be done without a Democrat-controlled Senate.
Of course, these will also take time.
One change we won’t have to wait for, though, is a healthy dialogue surrounding science. The U.S. was the world’s scientific leader for decades, but over the last four years, Trump has put that at risk by severing international ties, limiting research funding, and publicly feuding with experts.
Biden partially ran on his belief in science and his trust in experts, especially when it comes to climate change and COVID-19. And seemingly it worked — more Americans trust him over Trump to take on the pandemic and climate change. Of course, Trump didn’t do himself any favors, lying over 20,000 times in his first four years.
No matter what, having a world leader who doesn’t make baseless claims will earn a collective sigh of relief around the country.
In our polarized political climate, it’s really easy to be pessimistic about our future. The U.S. federal government is slow-moving and resistant to change. The Biden-Harris ticket is far from perfect. The world is moving on without us. And the climate crisis is speeding up.
But we always knew our work wouldn’t stop after this election, regardless of who won the presidency, House, or Senate. There is no reason to feel defeated now. If anything, this election — with all its chaos and confusion — proves the power of the people. And, damn, do we have a lot.