California has the most talented film and TV industry on the planet. If Newsom wanted to kill the sale of new ICE vehicles, he could throw a paltry $10 million at a select group of producers, writers, and directors to produce a suite of media aimed at dissuading people from buying new gas-burning cars. Tik tok videos are super cheap to produce. Young people buy a lot of new cars. If they are informed about the harm caused when a new gas car is sold, many of them would not buy it. Constant pressure against all buyers of new gas cars would build such that by the time 2035 rolled around, few Californians would want to be seen in a smelly, loud, polluting car.
Another outstanding post, Sammy. Thank you for these salient and thoughtful reflections. I am more and more convinced by the position that any lasting policy change on climate is going to have to come from a cultural shift, which feels very far off at the moment. A new Netflix documentary, The White House Effect, covers the Bush One White House, when there was so much public pressure to address what was then referred to as the greenhouse effect that Bush ran and won on that issue. It's hard to relive those times, and it's heartbreaking to see how that opportunity was lost, but it's a reminder that until more people are thinking about climate more of the time, as you say, we won't have the public groundswell we need to keep Newsom, Hochul, Shapiro and others from waffling.
Thank you for reading, Mary. You know I'm with you on the cultural shift...and I've heard about that documentary, I need to watch it! Thank you for the reminder.
Sammy, thank you so much for pointing out Newsom's hypocrisy. I keep trying to tell people that he's killed rooftop solar and has supported oil companies, but I feel like a voice crying in the wilderness. Everyone seems to think he's great, but we know that if he's elected president he will do to the country what he's done to California and then we're really in trouble. Please keep highlighting his terrible record on the environment. Also, Jeff Bezos's wife is chair of the Air Resources Board?? (That's a joke. Obviously there's another Lauren Sanchez.)
Thank you as always for reading, Paula. I do think Newsom's still done a lot of good on climate, and I've written other articles making note of that. But if he wants to keep making claim to being a world leader, the actions have to match the rhetoric.
California has the most talented film and TV industry on the planet. If Newsom wanted to kill the sale of new ICE vehicles, he could throw a paltry $10 million at a select group of producers, writers, and directors to produce a suite of media aimed at dissuading people from buying new gas-burning cars. Tik tok videos are super cheap to produce. Young people buy a lot of new cars. If they are informed about the harm caused when a new gas car is sold, many of them would not buy it. Constant pressure against all buyers of new gas cars would build such that by the time 2035 rolled around, few Californians would want to be seen in a smelly, loud, polluting car.
An intriguing concept! I'd love to see the results...
Another outstanding post, Sammy. Thank you for these salient and thoughtful reflections. I am more and more convinced by the position that any lasting policy change on climate is going to have to come from a cultural shift, which feels very far off at the moment. A new Netflix documentary, The White House Effect, covers the Bush One White House, when there was so much public pressure to address what was then referred to as the greenhouse effect that Bush ran and won on that issue. It's hard to relive those times, and it's heartbreaking to see how that opportunity was lost, but it's a reminder that until more people are thinking about climate more of the time, as you say, we won't have the public groundswell we need to keep Newsom, Hochul, Shapiro and others from waffling.
Thank you for reading, Mary. You know I'm with you on the cultural shift...and I've heard about that documentary, I need to watch it! Thank you for the reminder.
Sammy, thank you so much for pointing out Newsom's hypocrisy. I keep trying to tell people that he's killed rooftop solar and has supported oil companies, but I feel like a voice crying in the wilderness. Everyone seems to think he's great, but we know that if he's elected president he will do to the country what he's done to California and then we're really in trouble. Please keep highlighting his terrible record on the environment. Also, Jeff Bezos's wife is chair of the Air Resources Board?? (That's a joke. Obviously there's another Lauren Sanchez.)
Thank you as always for reading, Paula. I do think Newsom's still done a lot of good on climate, and I've written other articles making note of that. But if he wants to keep making claim to being a world leader, the actions have to match the rhetoric.