
France’s Combustible Climate Politics - Jun8
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/06/opinion/france-yellow-vests-climate-change.html
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Jun8
Great opinion piece that deftly demonstrates government action for climate
change in the EU and US contains a large aspect of political maneuvering and
virtue signaling, with sometimes large unintended consequences.

The uproar in France clearly demonstrates the downside of "just tax or fine
it" approach to government control, be it gas consumption or sugary drinks.
These tend to disproportionately hurt people who don't have the power to make
any change.

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seren
I am not really convinced by the piece. According to the article the fix
should be :

> None of this is to say that the world should give up. Beyond nuclear power,
> we need to be placing medium-sized bets on potentially transformative
> technologies not funded by regressive taxes or industrial subsidies, and not
> dependent on future breakthroughs that might still be decades off, if they
> happen at all. Let thousands of climate-startups bloom — and let markets,
> not governments, figure out which ones work.

I don't see any supporting arguments why it should work better.

Also nuclear power was never the result of the effort of medium sized start
up, but the effort of (apparently evil) governments and their military
complex. You cannot have your cake and eat it too... The cognitive dissonance
is strong in this one.

