So many people (IMO a vast majority) think they can sit back and wait for systemic changes to fix the climate problem… that they don’t need to proactively take any actions themselves.
But what if Trump gets re-elected a year from now? In that event we can expect global system-wide #climateAction to fall apart. There will be a 4+ year setback. Russia and China are not going to make any sacrifices if the US is not onboard. Will that inspire more people into the activism that they have direct concrete control over (individual actions)?
Honestly the US is not a driving force in the international climate movement. US activists are, but the US as a country has been rather slow in dealing with the situation.
Then China does China and the US has very little influence over them. They built a lot of green technology and deploy it at a massive scale, but also increase emissions every year. I honestly doubt that would change with another US president.
Russia is even worse. They make money from selling oil and gas and also profit a lot from global warming as that turns a lot of Siberia and the Far East into arable land.
Honestly the US is not a driving force in the international climate movement. US activists are, but the US as a country has been rather slow in dealing with the situation.
The US is the slowest to adapt and it’s unmatched in consumerism and personal car dependency. The US is also the most under the stranglehold of unchecked capitalism with an anti-interventionalist population. China is not going to shutdown the coal-fired plants and Russia is not going to cut back on oil and gas if the sacrifice is not mutual. Any one big player can be sanctioned and isolated by a trade war but if the US, Russia, and China don’t mutually agree in lock-step, a global systemic movement won’t happen.
There is a remote chance that Trump would get on board with climate action – not because he would reverse his climate denial position or because he would pay any attention to activists, but simply under the threat of being at the losing end of a trade war.
Russia is NOT the Soviet Union. It is 9th most populous and has the 11th largest economy. The only thing they have going for them are nukes and a large military. Other then that they are about as important as Mexico. That is to say they are a regional power and very very far from being on any sort of level with the US or China.
