Hot & Bothered: A Glide Path to Ruin

Where should the climate movement be focusing its energy in the Biden era?

Sunrise Movement members rally in Philadelphia (Colin Kinniburgh)

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Ten days out from Election Day, it looks like the worst has been averted. A presidential candidate who ran on the most ambitious climate platform the US has ever seen soundly defeated one who has spent the last four years torching environmental regulations, installing fossil fuel barons in the highest executive offices, and casting doubt on the reality of the climate crisis itself.

Yet the early days of the transition have underlined that Joe Biden is far from the candidate that the climate movement dreamed of—and that his plans for mitigating the crisis fall far short of what the science demands. Further clouding the picture, Democrats’ chances of winning control of the Senate and passing anything even close to meaningful climate legislation have been whittled down to just one date: January 5, when Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock will have a second chance at ousting Georgia’s Republicans.

So where should the climate movement be focusing its energy over the coming weeks, months, and years as we enter the Biden era? Kate and Daniel sit down to debrief a tumultuous election—and what could be an even more tumultuous next phase.

Further reading

Kate: Will Biden Repeat Obama’s Mistakes? (New Republic)

Kate: The Democrats Will Suffer if They Abandon the Green New Deal (New Republic)

Daniel: With Joe Biden, There’s Still a Case for Climate Optimism (Novara Media)

Daniel: The Case for Social Housing (with Mark Paul, The Justice Collaborative)

Climate Change | President-Elect Joe Biden

Climate Mandate – The Team We Need to Combat the Climate Crisis (Sunrise Movement, Justice Democrats)

The Climate21 Project

Deconstructed: What Happened? (Ryan Grim with Ilhan Omar and Mike Siegel, The Intercept)

What Went Wrong for Congressional Democrats in 2020 (Open letter from New Deal Strategies, Justice Democrats, Sunrise Movement, Data for Progress)

Andy Levin viewed as likely contender for Biden’s labor secretary (Melissa Nann Burke, Detroit News)

Obama and the Arugula Scandal (Daily Kos)