Links tagged “governance”

Analysis: Andrew Dessler: ‘Climate Alarmist as Energy Expert’ (Part I)

Climate Depot's Marc Morano: "If you like living under the coronavirus fears and government-mandated lockdowns, then you'll love living your life under a 'climate emergency'."

Climate activists lusting after the coronavirus lockdowns

"Neither Greenpeace, nor Greta Thunberg, nor any other individual or collective organization have achieved so much in favor of the health of the planet in such a short time...It is certainly not very good for the economy in general, but it is fantastic for the environment." -- Astrophysicist & Philosopher Martín López Corredoira

"One beneficiary will be the climate: after all, the world's lungs are already breathing more easily thanks to the collapse of industrial production. Who is to say that this pandemic does not provide a turning point in world history." - Oxford University Global History Professor Peter Frankopan on the coronavirus

We have an "incredible responsibility" to "actually converge the solutions -- at least the financial solutions -- to coronavirus to the financial solutions for climate. Because what we cannot afford to do is to jump out of the frying pan of COVID and into the raging fire of climate change." -- Former UN Climate Chief and UN Paris pact architect Christiana Figueres &  video link

"[The UN Sec. Gen. said] the pandemic could create an opportunity to rebuild the global economy along more sustainable lines." - UN Secretary-General António Guterres as reported by Scientific American

"If we can shut the world down to stop a virus, that also means it is possible to do the same for climate change. Treat all emergencies like emergencies!" - "What would it look like when the world actually decides to take on the climate crisis? It would look like what we’re seeing right now." - Teen activist JAMIE MARGOLIN in Teen Vogue magazine Op-Ed

COVID-19 "offers an opportunity to direct finances towards bolstering climate action.” – “Similarly, we will step up our efforts to catalyze green investment to relaunch economies on low-emission, climate-resilient trajectories.” – United Nation’s Green Climate Fund

"Let’s not let this crisis go to waste." Coronavirus offers "a chance to do capitalism differently." "Government has the upper hand, it must seize the moment." - Prof. Mariana Mazzucato of University College London in UK Guardian

"Already, the coronavirus has achieved something that government policies and moral awakening couldn’t: it is pushing us into green living...we’ll look back on December 2019 as the all-time peak in global carbon emissions...Governments need to make good use of the current pandemic." - Simon Kuper - FT (Financial Times) Magazine columnist

"The similarities between the causes of and solutions to the coronavirus and the climate crisis are nothing short of eerie." -- Mark Hertsgaard (Covering Climate) & Kyle Pope, editor in chief of the Columbia Journalism Review.

Most governments control people.  This has been the case throughout history.  Proponents of Big Government used different nomenclatures to describe their ideal system, but they all have the single overriding characteristic: centralizing power in government. Socialism, fascism, communism, feudalism, monarchies, dictatorships, theocracies, oligarchies, et al. concentrate power in the state.  The underlying political theology is irrelevant.  In each and every case, the individual is subject to control by the state.  It doesn't matter who orders you about.  It could be a king, emperor, dictator, party general secretary, or elected machine politician.  The result is the same.  You do as you're told.  You're a serf, plain and simple. 
Occasionally, people control government.  This is rare. ... Our freedom depends on We the People controlling our government and not the other way around.  Freedom is a precious commodity — so rare that few in history have experienced it.  As Ben Franklin put it so succinctly, the real question is whether we can keep it.

"History shows us that fear is the greatest power in the government arsenal.  Experience has shown us that personal safety is at the top of our fear meter." ...

Have we lost that Patrick Henry spirit that so embodied the American ideal?  The spirit that asked, "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?"  Henry went on to give those immortal words: "Forbid it, Almighty God!  I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"

German public law professor Thomas Schomerus of Leuphana University: “The fight against the virus can set an example in the fight against global warming." ... The public can be convinced “to accept even the most serious encroachments on fundamental rights." The only thing that is needed for the public acceptance of “stringent measures”, says Schomerus is communication made “in a transparent, comprehensible, science-based and multimedia-based manner”. If this is done, he writes, “the population will be prepared to accept even the most serious encroachments on fundamental rights.”

He writes that the concern about the future of children and grandchildren “can be just as convincing” as the fear of death by the Coronavirus.

Now is the time for global leaders to create one world government to tackle the twin medical and economic crises caused by the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged on Thursday. ...

“This is not something that can be dealt with in one country,” he said. “There has to be a coordinated global response.” ...

Gordon Brown has urged world leaders to create a temporary form of global government to tackle the twin medical and economic crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.