Climate chaos will define the next presidency

Julian Zelizer : If Kamala Harris is elected, we’re in for a climate catastrophe.

He says we built this country for physical conditions that no longer exist.

The climate crisis is an era, not an issue, and it will set the defining challenge for a Harris presidency, Zelizer says.

Julian Zelizer: Destruction and discontinuity will erode capacity of many communities and local governments to respond to these challenges.

He says we're going to have to fight like hell for rapid decarbonization while we reckon with challenges of a climate-changed America and contend with intergenerational problems of poverty and oppression.

If elected, Harris could declare a climate emergency and launch national climate response, Zelizer says.

Don’t expect a national media that has lagged far behind in its climate reporting to suddenly make clear the growing climate peril we’re in.

Instead, look for all sorts of major institutions to decide that climate work is no longer essential in an atmosphere of denial and retribution.

Imagine a vast new climate response apparatus rife with denial, implemented by political appointees, executed through corrupt deals.