The internet lost its sh*t after Andrew Yang said it was too late to stop climate change -- but is he a fearmonger or realist?
During the July debates, when CNN moderators asked Democratic presidential candidates about their plans to tackle the climate crisis, most of the responses were about what could be accomplished if we took swift action. Earther’s Brian Kahn said Yang “has the most dangerous ideas about climate in the entire Democratic field.” New York Magazine’s Max Read interpreted Yang’s comment to mean, “The world is fucked, you’re on your own, take some money, head to higher ground.” The controversy illuminated a contradiction at the heart of Yang’s campaign: His signature universal basic income proposal to give every American $1,000 each month suggests Yang is perfectly capable of selling a pie-in-the-sky idea. The title of Yang’s climate plan is “It’s Worse Than You Think – Lower Emissions, Higher Ground.” And despite what his critics assumed, Yang’s plan isn’t just to distribute a UBI and let people figure it out on their own — the plan includes $40 billion in subsidies and grants to help people relocate or elevate their homes to escape wildfires, rising seas, and floodwaters. A similar conversation played out when New York Magazine ran David Wallace-Wells’ “The Uninhabitable Earth,” a cover story describing the worst possible effects of climate change, in 2017. “Research suggests that worry and hope can motivate people to support climate action,” wrote Leah Stokes, a professor and researcher on climate politics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in a Twitter thread dissecting Yang’s climate plan.
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