A lot of Cuomo-sexuals out there must be rethinking T-shirt purchases they made last year. Ross Barkan believes “Andrew Cuomo Is Finished,” and I certainly hope he is right.
Readers interested in revisiting some of my own writing about Governor Cuomo might consider “The Empire Is Always Striking Back” from 2018 (on the Federal felony conviction of Cuomo’s close aid and personal friend Joseph Percoco for taking bribes to facilitate the permitting of a fracked-gas power plant in the Hudson Valley); “Amazon Cuomo” from April of last year; or “Their Man in Albany” (from last May, but quoting at length from a personal email I sent in 2018 explaining why I was backing Cynthia Nixon for governor; it is, of course, idle to speculate if Nixon would’ve done a better job handling the pandemic, but one is inclined to believe she might have if for no other reason than that she likely would have listened to her world-class advisers and public health experts).
U.S. Right to Know has a piece out entitled, “Bill Gates’ plans to remake food systems will harm the climate,” and I loved this piece from Brooklyn-based venture capitalist Charlie O’Donnell (“Why there’s no other place I’d rather be than New York“) featuring lines like: “Good luck getting me to move to any startup city in a state run by people who deny climate change, seek to thwart democracy through voter suppression, and that sees proper oversight of vital infrastructure as a financial burden too great to bother with.” I, too, am bullish on New York City. (O’Donnell also has a new podcast out with Lillian Ruiz featuring interviews with leading NYC mayoral candidates that I’m finding helpful as the primary approaches.)
Finally, food (and other biomass) for thought – I’d heard this moment was coming, but a December 2020 Nature article concludes: “Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass,” while a recent Nature Climate Change article makes the perhaps obvious assertion: “Electrification of light-duty vehicle fleet alone will not meet mitigation targets,” and thus suggests, “There is therefore a need for a wide range of policies that include measures to reduce vehicle ownership and usage.”
Technology can be part of a comprehensive response to climate crisis, but tech fixes a la Gates are too often as much about profit as they are about real climate action, and reorienting ourselves towards public goods (in the spirit of public luxury and private sufficiency) will be part of a successful global program of climate action.
Post-script: I probably should’ve mentioned that in endorsing O’Donnell’s election podcast, I’m not expressing support for the Citizen’s Budget Committee, which strikes me as unduly austerity-minded, nor, necessarily, for O’Donnell and Ruiz’s perspectives (which I respect); you’ll have to form your own impressions of the candidates, but these long-form conversations provide some excellent material upon which to base those impressions!
Climate / Change 