The Lost Cause

Its thirty years from now and were making progress, mitigating climate change, slowly but surely. But what about all the angry people who cant let go? For young Americans a generation from now, climate change isnt controversial, its just an overwhelming fact of life. But so are the great efforts to contain and mitigate it. Entire cities are being moved inland from the rising seas. Vast clean-energy projects are springing up everywhere. Disaster relief, the mitigation of floods and superstorms, has become a skill for which tens of millions of people are trained every year. The effort is global. It employs everyone who wants to work. Even when national politics oscillates back to right-wing leaders, the momentum is too great; these vast programmes cannot be stopped in their tracks. But there are still those Americans who cling to their red trucker caps, their grievances, their anger, their nostalgia for the golden age of assault rifles. Their alternative news sources reassure them their resentment is right and pure and climate change is a con. Theyre your grandfather, your uncle, your great-aunt. Theyre not going anywhere. And theyre armed to the teeth.