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The influx of dirty money into the November election is endangering many candidates who support climate action. Real Climate Economics blogger James Boyce stresses the importance of voting for candidates who are willing to take on the fossil fuel industry on the Real News Network. You can watch it here.

Real Climate Economics blogger James Boyce published the following commentary on Triple Crisis. 

Security, defined as protection from natural and accidental disasters as well as from deliberate efforts to inflict harm,  is a basic human need. To a large extent it is a public good:  when provided to one it is provided to all. Security is one reason for the existence of governments.

Those who want to play the role of daddy in a daddy state peddle the illusion that security can be entrusted to government alone. But real security requires more than government agencies. On the economic front, it requires infrastructure built for resilience. On the political front, it requires citizens to shoulder responsibilities. And on the moral front, it requires respect for others. 

Resilience means minimizing vulnerability. Metaphorically speaking, it is the ability to bounce without breaking. Disasters, natural and manmade, cannot be eliminated altogether. Speaking last month to security professionals in London, Jonathan Evans, director-general of Britain’s internal security agency MI5, decried the “nonsensical” assumption that terrorism is 100% preventable. “Risk can be managed and reduced,” he observed, “but it cannot realistically be abolished, and if we delude ourselves that it can we are setting ourselves up for a nasty disappointment.” (more…)

In one of the more memorable moments of the 2008 presidential campaign, candidate Barack Obama explained why he rejected John McCain’s call to postpone their September debate in Oxford, Mississippi, during the negotiations on the first financial bailout package. “It’s going to be part of the president’s job,” Obama declared, “to be able to deal with more than one thing at once.”

Something similar can be said about climate policy. A variety of proposals – for public investment, carbon pricing, regulatory standards – are cooking in Washington’s political stew. Sometimes the proponents of specific policies are tempted to oversell their merits, while dismissing other policies as unnecessary or even counterproductive. But if Congress and the Obama administration are going to get smart on climate change, part of their job is to deal with more than one policy at once. (more…)