Although many – like Joe Biden - would like the country to choose its leaders based on the likelihood that they will carry out the right policies for us, it seems that often we choose them because of who they are or seem to be.  Some like Trump because of his old tv show or his book about making deals, or because he says things they’ve been keeping to themselves.  Some said they’d rather have a beer with George Bush than Al Gore.  Some voted against Michael Dukakis because he looked silly in a tank.  That Al Gore did in fact deserve much credit for us having the internet now, and Dukakis was considered the best governor in the country at the time, didn’t matter as much as the stories about who they were that got through to enough people.  We are in a war of stories.  A professional in that field, producer Armando Iannucci, hounded by the press for comment on the similarity of true events to his series “Veep”, warned in the New York Times today that “The stuff happening out there is madder than “Veep” and deadly serious.”  We need to restore the primacy of reality.  

We (environmental citizens, everyone) absolutely need leaders who have a grip on reality – Mother Earth is whacking us upside the head to make us pay attention, wars are breaking out that need discouraging and prevention, threats to democracy, privacy, our money, AI, viruses, etc. But in an age in which fantasy plays such a large role so quickly we also need people who can reach those people who don’t search out the facts, but who choose between narratives that they hear, and we need to support the development of that energy by asking for it and appreciating it when we get it.

Right now Kamala Harris is injecting something akin to Truman’s Happy Warrior, JFK’s vim and vigor, Obama’s electricity and her own great laugh.  She rides into town like the new sheriff on a real horse of experience, ready to face problems.  When Massachusetts governor Maura Healy introduced Harris to “a friend’s young daughter, who had been at basketball camp, Harris said,

"Tell me about basketball camp, and what’s your favorite position?’…And the little girl says to her, ‘Anything but defense’.  And the V.P. just burst out laughing and said, ‘Me too. I like offense.’”
 (New York Times today).

Today, as we try to process such things as Joe Biden’s inability to swat aside Donald Trump’s lies, continuing Middle East horrors, and how the Supreme Court won’t protect women, among other calamities, (to mention just two - Darfur, and the success of the right in French elections), we have now as well the Loper Bright, Jarkesy and Corner Post cases,[i] which make it much easier for corporate polluters and fraudsters to sue and stymie the agencies Congress created to protect us from them. Meanwhile in Trump v US the conservative majority on our highest court gave the former president the benefit of the doubt concerning whether he can be sued.[ii]

I yearn for the sophistication that enables everyone instantly to see tortured reasoning, and the sophistication that gets us past deploring how bad things are to the actions we can take.  It seems rather simplistic to jump to urging Biden step aside because he isn’t the savior we desire.  Whether an internal struggle in the Democratic party will give us a better candidate is a complicated question deserving careful consideration.[iii]  But we should not just ask for good leaders if we want a better future.  We need to also come together effectively – thoughtfully – as united citizens, if we are to mitigate impending environmental calamities, protect health, rights, community.  A sophisticated approach recognizes that it’s up to us.

​There are ways forward, even though they may seem indistinct.  We will benefit from reasserting principles of civic virtue and practicing real democracy.  Agencies now need defending. We can stop being resentful of our bureaucracies and appreciating them for what they do right. Our administrative state has its bureaucratic problems, but it has largely been built through consensus and reason. It is not evil. Quite often, it is competent.  Occasionally, it is magnificent.  It is ours if we use it and it works well when we value it.

So many I know are depressed about the state of the world, which still depends on the force of American power and reason to be stabilized, however much you may feel disillusioned with that role for us. Yet here we are flirting with ending the American dream of democratic self-government.  An editorial by Michelle Cottle in yesterday’s (print) Times refers to “Republicans scurrying to do the MAGA King’s bidding”.  No king in America, said our founders. Not even a dictator for only a day, as the former president said.  To even consider allowing us to be represented this way, after the urging and praise of those who stormed the Capitol, the attempt to barter Ukraine’s defense for dirt on Joe, the unending and now proven fraud, the fawning before the monster Putin, is not just abandonment of our principles but our dignity as well, and any claim to honor or credibility in the world.

Those who would vote for that may also like this Supreme Court, thinking it is “conservative”, defending traditional values, not seeing how it is not just taking away freedoms but also defenses.  This court clearly wishes to reduce the powers of government agencies and is not satisfied with stopping EPA’s Clean Power Plan or letting states curtail women’s control over their own bodies.  Their philosophy resembles that of the court of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the era of laissez-faire, of Social Darwinism, of the growth of concentrated economic power and the robber baron idea that this was good for us all.  The court then, and this one now, has held more sacred the freedoms of businesses than the right of the people to pass laws curtailing damage by businesses.  Then, they struck the laws down.  Now, they hobble the agencies the laws created.  Government agencies protecting public interests are a bother to those focused on profits.  But the limits set by agencies are necessary in a crowded and poisoned world, and the agencies are the gifts of our parents, which "conservative" philosophy now takes away.  Attention must be paid and the Constitution, which is not properly interpreted by extremist jurisprudence, recovered in its plain and common sense, by us.

I have my students read it, asking them not to read what others say about it until they have read it themselves.  I ask what stands out to them, and they always notice the Preamble, and they always point to “Preserve the Blessings of Liberty for Posterity” and many ask if that means protect the environment, and some assert that it has to, or that line has no real meaning.
​

Some years ago I wrote about the Juliana case in which children (some grown now) have sued the government for letting global warming ruin their future.  First it was a post by the Institute of Sustainable Energy (now the Institute for Global Sustainability) at Boston University, entitled “The Kelsey Cascadia Rose Juliana decision: A Ray of Light” [i].  I had also fallen in love with the name of the lead plaintiff.  Trump had been elected and everyone I knew was incredibly depressed.  I really did experience news of the case as a brightening.

I quoted John Bonine of the University of Oregon Law School to bring that light to the attention of others who care about clean energy but often pay too little attention to the legal theories that underly our ability to make it happen:

Professor Mary Wood's incredibly innovative legal theory about how to give a kick in the pants to the government to fight against climate change has been endorsed by the US District Court today….This is such a fine example of the link between the legal theories of law professors and practical implementation in courts.  And even if it is later rejected by higher courts, it demonstrates the need and usefulness of new thinking in what will soon be a rather dark era.

What was the light in Juliana?  The words of federal district court judge Anne Aiken, who resonantly cited the principles of the equal marriage case (Obergefell) to say:

The nature of injustice is that we may not always see it in our own times. The generations that wrote and ratified the Bill of Rights ... did not presume to know the extent of freedom in all its dimensions, and so they entrusted to future generations a charter protecting the right of all persons to enjoy liberty as we learn its meaning….Exercising my ‘reasoned judgment…I have no doubt that the right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life is fundamental to a free and ordered society.
​
I thought that beautiful music, rich in reason and gratitude for the gift of the chance to manifest democracy.

WHAT WE DID in Research for Environmental Agencies and Organizations Fall 2023 Dec 11  2:30 PM ROOM 132            Zoom link below   

​Accelerating the Clean Energy Transition by Empowering Women. Indrani Malhotra interviewed female experts in the renewable energy field.
 
Building A Tool for Forecasting Municipal Solid Waste Generation and Disposal Costs. Reilly DeMoura worked with Julie Kennie, a volunteer in Dennis, MA, to build a forecasting model for developing waste cost reduction strategies. 
 
Educational Composting Program for Dennis Schools. Also working with Julie Kennie, Anusha Anand developed a plan for a composting in Dennis schools.  

From Spectators to Stewards: local conservation and the campaign to save our backyards.  Taylor Brokesh interviewed officials and conservation-minded individuals, and discovered several guiding concepts that people who care about preserving nature can use to promote more natural resource conservation. 

Helping An Elementary School Alleviate the Urban Heat Island Problem.  Studying the heat island effect led Katherine Chang to design cooling solutions for a vulnerable school she identified using heat maps and to contact the School Superintendent, who asked her to present her ideas so staff could hear them.