this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2024

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Biden’s Record Is Full of Climate Wins — So Why Don’t Voters Know It? Environmental groups are making a concerted effort to educate voters about President Joe Biden’s climate policies before election (www.notus.org)

submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by silence7@slrpnk.net to c/climate@slrpnk.net

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[–] fireweed@lemmy.world 33 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Are we still rapidly backsliding on climate issues? Then don't wonder why "no one knows about how much Biden is helping the issue." I, like I'd imagine most people, have little interest in hearing about his "wins," be they climate, economic, etc, if all they amount to is "I helped make a worsening problem worsen slower!" That's not news, that's just a reminder of how pathetic the better of two evils is. If he actually does something substantial enough to improve even one of the many giant problems the country/world currently faces, everyone will know about it because it will visibly change the communities that we live in, and directly affect our day-to-day lives. The time for incremental change was the 20th century; we've kicked the can down the road for so long it landed in "go big or go home" territory.

To be clear, I'm going to vote Biden in November because the alternatives are all so much worse, but damn, that's not something to celebrate.

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

No, the US is not "rapidly backsliding" — it seems to be moving in the right direction, if not yet quickly enough.

[–] fireweed@lemmy.world 17 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Every climate scientist crunching the numbers right now is freaking out behind semi-closed doors because they're worried that if the media starts running with the story that "thanks to a series of feedback loops the climate may already be fucked beyond hope of ever returning to normal, and at this point the best we can do is try to minimize the damage but even that will require completely upending the status quo," everyone will give up on climate/environmental action entirely, so the public instead is fed an alternating diet of toned-down warnings and positive news about microscopic improvements to maintain a general sense of hope.

If that's "moving in the right direction," we deserve our demise.

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

The point where things stop getting worse is the point where we've fully succeeded in getting off fossil fuels, ended deforestation, and phased out use of a few industrial gases and refrigerants. That's something like the end stage of action, not the messy middle where we are now. If we succeed, we'll get there in about 25 years.

[–] magiccupcake@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

Even if we fully stopped emitting net CO2 today, the climate will continue warming in 25 years. All the methane and CO2 we've already emitted will continue to warm the climate.

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago

First, they are big wins. You can't change the world on a dime.

Second, it doesn't help when we have to start anew every sixteen years.

[–] LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world 28 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Voters don’t know it because mainstream media is working overtime to suppress any good news for Biden and give megaphones to conservative traitors

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

If it bleeds it leads. If it's green, does it exist?

We need a new phrase along the line if a tree falls in a forest. If it's green and no one is there to care, does it exist?

[–] dillekant@slrpnk.net 1 points 4 months ago

I think it's a combination of:

Voters who believe climate change is a hoax so trying to claim victory here might not give returns, so it's better to do it quietly
Voters who believe climate change is real are going to be looking at this as not enough action given what the IPCC is saying

So this spate of legislation is tepid for both sides, so it doesn't really "make" news. As far as Fox & other right wing media, going into the detail of climate change just hurts their message because no one can look at detail and not immediately realise that there's "something to this climate change mumbo jumbo", so covering this is actually toxic for them. They are better off sticking to the top-level "it's a hoax they want to kill your babies" or whatever.

[–] Wahots@pawb.social 14 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

More than just climate. Huge infrastructure acts that are helping rebuild our our states. Helping us add stuff like protected bike lanes, too. Capping prescription costs, which is huge.

Massive investments in our economy and R&D, something we have been sorely lacking.

Some queer rights and even some small but humanizing stuff, like letting bi and gay men donate blood like the rest of humanity, and making the bar safer for everyone.

In addition to all the other stuff, like stopping the pandemic, pulling the economy out of a nosedive under Trump, reversing schedule F (think Trump's version of Order 66) for federal employees who actually keep the lights on and the country going between multiple presidents, forgiving tons of student loans, and curtailing the damage from abortion being revoked where he can.

Not to mention his accomplishments on background checks for guns, pardoning federal Marijuana offenses, and slapping the dogshit out of Russia via our friends and allies. ❤️

Edit: Damn, there's actually a list of accomplishments. He's done a lot of good shit even if he's kind of a bad public speaker.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/therecord/

[–] goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Did I miss something in this article or is there no mention of what the author says Biden is doing well?

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

There are tables of that elsewhere

[–] goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org 14 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Which should be in the article instead of just being critical of others.

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 3 points 4 months ago

I absolutely agree.

[–] cerement@slrpnk.net 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

when the anti-climate garbage is freely available and shouted everywhere and the pro-climate information is buried by corporate media or hidden behind a paywall …

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 14 points 4 months ago (1 children)

There's a reason I'm pretty aggressive about sharing gift links

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world -1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Why don't you find a better source instead of one that paywalls. There are actually plenty.

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 5 points 4 months ago

Because a lot of the coverage is only done by news sources that you pay for. I'm actually not sharing a LOT because it's in publications that don't gift link.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (20 children)

I think voters know and don't care because he's supporting a genocide. Its the elephant in the room and there is just no amount of whataboutism that will overcome it. The Venn-diagram of people for whom climate (or any progressive issue really) is a priority, but also not mindlessly slaughtering a people, is basically a circle.

No good thing that Biden has ever done matters so long as he's complicity supporting the genocide of the Palestinian people.

Joe's road to winning this election is very simple. Cut off aid to Israel and put 100% of the blame on Bibi. Make him your fall guy and then about-face on this issue and pressure the Israeli government into calling snap elections.

Boom. 5 days later and Biden will be polling at 55% and he can actually take advantage all of the "great things" he's done, which currently stand irrelevant because of the 9000 lb gorilla in the room which is a functionally pro-genocide stance. A worthless pier; air drops; sternly worded letters: they are irrelevant when the President has the tools to have stopped this from day 0 and he continually refuses to use them. This war is hurting the Israeli and Jewish people. Jews are less safe globally then ever before explicitly because of how Israel has engaged in this conflict.

The question at this point is who does the president work for? Does he work for the American people or the Israeli government?

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net -3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

This problem predates October 7, and we just had a candidate lose a primary in part because he sounded too much like he was supporting Hamas. So it's not that.

[–] culprit@lemmy.ml 16 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

'Dangerous Precedent': Record AIPAC Spending Helps George Latimer Defeat Jamaal Bowman

"Jamaal and our movement were such a threat to right-wing power, to GOP megadonors, and to AIPAC's influence in Congress that they had to spend $15 million to defeat us," said one progressive organizer.

So AIPAC and Dems did this, not "because he sounded too much like he was supporting Hamas" what ever the fuck that BS is.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/06/13/clinton-endorses-bowmans-challenger-house/74082348007/

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Again, Biden's position on Israel is central to this. Democrats have been consistently more interested in eradicating progressives from their party than resisting conservatives. If Biden had the same stance as Bowman on Israel (you know, the moral one to have), Bowman wins that primary.

Its over for the Democrats. They've lost this election and lost the future of the party to I don't know what. They've at least one entire generation of voters on this issue, and maybe as much as 40-60% of Z and millennials. They are dead as a party at this point and there is no point arguing about them because they'll never hold power again.

And its because of this issue. Its because of Gaza. Its because they are not interested in the priorities of their base, and have been telling us exactly this since the year 2000. We should listen to them.

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net -1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

That doesn't explain why people don't know about things that Biden has actually done on other issues though.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 9 points 4 months ago

Humans have limited bandwidth for keeping active "issues" in their brains. We prioritize somethings over others. There has been plenty of press on Biden's climate "wins". But they are irrelevant because he's supporting a genocide.

Say a human can have maybe 5 priorities at a given moment. Anything that drops out of those five priorities means we don't "know" about it (its not at the front of our mind).

For likely Biden independents it goes:

1: Genocide in Gaza

2: Stopping Trump

3: The economy

4: The rise of christian fascism (nationally & globally)

5: The rise of authoritarianism

Climate can't get to the top of the heap because there are other issues, more prescient, are way way way more relevant in near-time. And this has always been the issue with Climate as politics. The costs to doing anything (with time as the x-axis) are always high (on the left side of the x axis, near time) while the benefits are low (in near time). The benefits are all extremely delayed. Humans didn't evolved to deal with this kind of shit. Historically when a population of humans fucked up their environment beyond the point we could survive (its happened a bunch of times), those humans just fucking die and whatever left of their diaspora get picked up by other human populations. We evolved to rank and prioritize issues for survival now, a little bit for 5 years from now, and basically not at all for 20 years from now. And practically 0 for issues 100 years from now.

So its not that people don't know about these W's; its just that they don't care. They can't. They have other shit they need to care about because its blowing up in their faces right now.

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[–] Oisteink@feddit.nl 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Probaly as one right dont fix 12 wrongs. And people dont want to hear about it, as if you look closely its like pissing in the ocean (It does not add much)

[–] Onihikage@beehaw.org 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

We cannot allow perfect to be the enemy of good. Governments move slowly, especially the US, so moving the needle a little bit this year will let us move it a little more next year. Gradually, funding environmental progress becomes more and more normal, and greater and greater actions to deal with climate change become acceptable. All great accomplishments started with a proverbial "pissing in the ocean" if you look back far enough in their development.

Let's also be clear that the only alternative to Biden that exists, for the 2024 US election, under the current US voting system, would be far worse than Biden in every environmental category. It's important to push back on the bad, but it's even more important to promote the good work done by his administration, no matter how small of a good we think it is in the moment. If all we do is gripe about the bad, we're helping every wealthy oligarch that wants us to think of governments as impotent and useless while they burn the planet to the ground.

[–] Oisteink@feddit.nl 2 points 4 months ago

I totally agree, this is just my thoughts on why. I vibe on the sunny side of the pond, but we are terrified to what donald can do to foreign policies- we are not yet prepared to handle our security our selves

[–] LordGimp@lemm.ee 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

If Biden so good at environment, then why come ocean so hot?

QED Checkmate nerds we all gon die

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Basically: the US isn't the only country in the world, the things he's doing are going to cut emissions in the long run, but only making a modest difference as yet, and CO2 accumulates over time

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[–] CaptainKickass@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

This is bad news...

For Biden.

[–] jmiller@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago

Sure he's got climate wins, but some of the wins are questionable, like giant hydrogen hubs. Hydrogen sounds great on the surface, but the more you dig into it, the more issues crop up. Some of these hubs will end up producing hydrogen by burning fossil fuels, and that isn't a win at all. And speaking of not winning, we are producing more oil and natural gas than ever before. That's why we aren't excited about his "Climate Wins", they are offset if not overcome by losses.

Having said that, regarding the Climate, pollution, and everything related, Trump is the worst choice. He's already promised Carte Blanche to oil execs if they donate to his campaign. (Not in those words of course, simpler, more incoherent ones.)

[–] yessikg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 4 months ago

There are a lot of Russian and Chinese bots filling people feeds with anti-Biden content and pro-Trump content

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