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Good morning,

Today is the second hit in the Liberals one-two policy punch.

Yesterday, Chrystia Freeland laid out the governments post-Trump vision for foreign relations. You can read the full half-hour speech here. The tl;dr version is: because the United States has shrugged off the burden of world leadership, Canada and other countries must step up to defend the global order against threats as disparate as terrorism and climate change.

Now, with the governments reasoning established, it will unveil what it plans to do about it. The defence policy review (more here), released at midday local time, will explain the militarys plans for overseas deployments and what the government plans to spend in procurement over the next 20 years.

This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa, Mayaz Alam in Toronto and James Keller in Vancouver. If you're reading this on the web or someone forwarded this email newsletter to you, you can sign up for Politics Briefing and all Globe newsletters here. Let us know what you think.

CANADIAN HEADLINES

Former U.S. president Barack Obama echoed some of Ms. Freelands sentiment in a speech in Montreal last night. In Paris, we came together around the most ambitious agreement in history to fight climate change. An agreement that even with the temporary absence of American leadership will still give our children a fighting chance, he said. Afterwards, he and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau got a bite to eat.

In the House of Commons, MPs voted last night on a motion stating that climate change is still a problem and that Canada remains committed to the Paris Accord on reducing emissions, despite the United States withdrawal. The motion passed 277 to 1. The lone holdout was Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant of Eastern Ontario.

The Liberals also backed a Conservative motion in support of the controversial Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project even as B.C. remains uncertain over its political future. The motion passed 252-51 with support from the entire Tory caucus and almost all Liberals. The NDP and Greens, whose provincial alliance in B.C. threatens the project, all voted against supporting the project.

The Liberals are cleaning up some provisions in the Criminal Code, including the introduction of some measures meant to protect victims of sexual assault.

A showdown between senators and the Liberal government over a bill to end sexual discrimination in the Indian Act continues, with a Quebec chief saying the Liberals are raising unnecessary concerns about the number of new people who would be eligible for status.

Kevin OLeary wants a recount.

And as Ontario businesses and residents begin to start preparing for a $15 minimum wage a dichotomy has emerged: small business owners are saying theyll be squeezed by the hike while low-income workers say the increase has the potential to be life-changing.

John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) on the Liberals new foreign policy: Welcome to the Trudeau Doctrine: Canadian foreign policy seeks to preserve multilateral institutions and the Western alliance in the wake of America First. This will not go down well with the prickly and, it seems, at times paranoid American President. And it contradicts earlier efforts to preserve good relations with the Trump administration in the lead-up to renegotiating the North American free-trade agreement.

Stephanie Carvin (The Globe and Mail) on turning vision into reality: It is important for Ms. Freeland to articulate an understanding of where she believes Canada to be in a fast-changing world. On Tuesday, she did so convincingly. But the true test of her skills as a minister will be putting this vision into practice and successfully navigating Canada through Mr. Trumps choppy waters.

David Bercuson (The Globe and Mail) on mixed signals: There is a massive inconsistency between what Minister Freeland declared and the signals the government has been putting out through Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Susan Delacourt (iPolitics) on the importance of trade: Provocatively, the speech also put the crisis in world trade in the same category as Russias seizure of Ukrainian territory and world terrorism itself as a breakdown in rules, order and the sanctity of borders.

Nik Nanos (The Globe and Mail) on opportunity for the NDP: With many of their progressive policies co-opted by the Liberals, the NDP presenting themselves as another moderate social democratic movement could lead them to political oblivion in the short term. One option for the NDP is to veer left of the Liberals, reclaim the New Democrat populist heritage and attack U.S. President Donald Trump.

B.C. UPDATE

As B.C. prepares for a possible referendum on electoral reform, it could look to the experience of New Zealand, which switched from the traditional first-past-the-post system to proportional representation 25 years ago. The NDP and the Greens, which are preparing to take down Premier Christy Clarks minority government, have promised a referendum next year. It would be B.C.s third the province held two failed referendums in 2005 and 2009 on a system called single-transferable vote. In the 1990s, New Zealand adopted a mixed-member system, in which voters choose a local representative and also pick from a separate list thats used to ensure the final seat breakdown match the popular vote. Experts there say its been a success and has resulted in a stable government, despite concerns about fragile coalitions, and it has increased the representation of minorities in New Zealands Parliament. In B.C., the New Democrats and Greens havent said which system theyll propose.

And B.C. Premier Christy Clark, whose government will likely be defeated in a confidence vote later this month, is warning the New Democrats it would be disastrous to delay construction on the Site C hydroelectric dam. Ms. Clark has written the leaders of the NDP and Greens, who want a fresh review. NDP Leader John Horgan says evictions related to the dam and other decisions should stop during the transition. But Ms. Clark says that could cost the province $600-million.

David Moscrop (Macleans) on redoing the B.C. election: In our democracy, the people are the ultimate arbiters of who gets to govern insofar as they elect the members of the legislature who get to determine who the premier will be. But its unclear where the popular will lies.

INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES

Some of the largest business lobbies in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are banding together to champion the North American free trade agreement. The groups are pushing for as little to change in the deal as possible when negotiations begin later this year.

Two assailants with rifles -- one of whom detonated a bomb he was carrying on himself -- have struck the Iranian parliament in Tehran. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, marking the first time the group has launched a major assault in Iran.

Qatar has long punched above its weight on the international scene. The small nation of 2.5 million people has the third-highest amount of natural gas reserves and is in the top 15 for oil reserves, hosts a large U.S. air base and owns and operates the Al Jazeera media network. Now, after a diplomatic blacklisting orchestrated by Saudi Arabia the country is left in a difficult position. It didnt help that U.S. President Donald Trump took to Twitter to support several Arab states decision to cut ties with Qatar over its alleged support for terrorism.

British voters head to the polls tomorrow for the 2017 general election. Although national security issues have been the major talking point in the past few days much of the election has been focused on domestic issues such as healthcare funding. The BBC has broken down where the parties stand on major issues ranging from social services to Brexit.

When Mr. Trump refused to reaffirm Americas commitment to NATOs principle of mutual defence last month he omitted 27 words from his speech: We face many threats, but I stand here before you with a clear message: the U.S. commitment to the NATO alliance and to Article 5 is unwavering. The omission was not planned and took his senior staff by surprise. Allies took the speech as a sign that the U.S. was retreating from its position in the world and prompted German Chancellor Angela Merkel to say that Europe could no longer rely on America, much like Ms. Freeland told the House yesterday.

Today, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats testifies in the Senate on ties between the Trump team and Russia. Last night a report emerged that in March Mr. Trump asked Mr. Coats to stay behind after a cross-departmental national security meeting. Mr. Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo were the only people as Mr. Trump complained about FBI Director James Comeys handling of the Russia investigation. Mr. Coats told associates that Mr. Trump asked if he could intervene in the investigation.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions offered to resign in recent weeks but Mr. Trump refused to accept his offer. In his daily press briefing Press Secretary Sean Spicer refused to say whether or not Mr. Trump still has confidence in Mr. Sessions.

And in Mr. Trumps world, everything seems to be two weeks away. Bloomberg takes note of the number of times the President has promised action on a particular file in two weeks time, and how those self-imposed deadlines are often missed.

Lawrence Martin (The Globe and Mail) on James Comey: Playing the role that John Dean did in the Richard Nixon Watergate drama wouldnt bother James Comey. Hes become the architect of White House fate. He torpedoed Hillary Clintons bid to become president. He could now torpedo Mr. Trump as President. Or help save him.

Sarah Mason-Case (Policy Options) on how Paris is not Kyoto: Perhaps the most notable sign that the world is on a different path this time around is the shift in attitudes and actions in the private sector and subnational jurisdictions. These advances are well publicized: the proliferation of renewable energy (and the impending demise of coal), disclosure of climate risks in corporate reporting, mass litigation compelling states to act, municipal partnerships to reduce emissions, subnational carbon pricing and more. Innovative approaches to address climate change are proliferating. Since controlling climate change was always going to require transformations across national boundaries, in jurisdictions down to the local level and by all public and private actors, some might say these burgeoning initiatives are whats needed or what persuaded countries to reach the Paris Agreement in the first place.

Jeffrey Jones (The Globe and Mail) on electoral uncertainty: A hot trend is sweeping the worlds of energy, environment and politics. That is, an agreement is valid only as long as the government in the jurisdiction that signs it does not get voted out in an election. This is very troubling. Or its reason to cheer. Maybe its both, depending on which side of an issue one supports. One things for sure: This fad heaps huge risks on investors as they try to guess which deal will hold up and which ones will fall apart for political reasons. (for subscribers)

Follow Chris Hannay on Twitter: @channay

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Politics Briefing: Liberals announce change in defence policy - The Globe and Mail

Eco-warriors are celebrated in one video. In another, a message flashes across the screen: We believe no matter who you are, where youre from, who you love, or who you worship, we all belong. Yet another ad champions the theme of girls and Stem (science, technology, engineering, and math) education and celebrates a girl-centered technology organization.

Despite all appearances, these videos are not public-service campaigns. Instead, they are advertisements for some of the most blockbuster brands around: for the car company Kia, for Airbnb, and for the phone carrier Verizon, whose ad campaign involves partnering with Girls who Code. These companies are now gesturing at liberal values through their messaging. If television is waking up politically, with shows such as The Handmaids Tale, advertisements seem to be far ahead.

Why is this the case? For starters, advertisers are constantly looking for future markets, and younger Americans are ostensibly more liberal than their parents. Brand loyalty starts in the cradle and ends in the grave, as I wrote in my first book, Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers. The increasingly progressive messages in marketing campaigns are clearly a mercenary attempt to entice millennials: they are trying to be woke.

The coveted demographic that has the dollars to spend on high-end products is increasingly clustered in the bluest American cities, such as New York and San Francisco. In the past two decades, both capital and income have drifted there. If the Democratic party has changed, now circling around the professional classes and the very rich, the rise of Democratic consumer dollars is part of this shift, and these ads appear to be catering to it.

This all makes it seem, at least on the screen, like blue-state voters still have purchasing power but political power and economic power are held by different groups of people. Trump-leaning rural Americans with fewer consumer dollars to spend control the polls, as the national voting system gives more power to underpopulated rural areas. And advertisers cater to richer, progressive liberals, hoping that reflecting their values will persuade them to open their wallets.

I spoke with the urbanist Richard L Florida about this. He thinks that these ads are reflecting a bifurcated country, one with different consumer tastes and different amounts to spend on said tastes: the Whole Foods shopper and the plain old grocery shopper, the creative class member who drives the cliche Prius versus the equally cliche rancher driving the pickup truck.

Advertisers used to wonder how a spot would play in Peoria [Illinois], says Florida. Now they wonder how it would play in Brooklyn. Of course Heineken would need a liberal ad, Florida says, in order to distract the buyer whod rather be discovering a craft brewery from Michigans Upper Peninsula into buying a boring old big-brand beer.

The strategy doesnt always work, as shown in the embarrassing Kendall Jenner Pepsi spot, which appropriated Black Lives Matter in the name of sugar water. But for the most part the results are quite deft, as in the said Heineken ad, a British spot featuring a real transphobic lad conversing with a transgender soldier, across both beers and social differences.

According to Rob Baiocco, a creative executive at the BAM Connection who has worked on campaigns for Pringles and Starburst, all of these issue ads may warm the hearts of millennials, as they are intended to. But to his mind, they are also highly suspect. He highlighted the fakery of their woke-ness: Companies are avidly and aggressively trying to get involved in a socially responsible space, and they are doing it horribly they are grabbing at straws.

They are entering a complex conversation they have no right to be in, yet they are forcing their way in, Baiocco says. These creatives are trying to make their toilet paper save the world.

Sometimes, he adds, a Pringle is just a Pringle.

Those who study commercials can also be skeptical of these precision Democratic and/or activist ads. Empowering girls becomes a product unto itself. Thats commodity activism: theres no real connection to structural change, says Sarah Banet-Weiser, an advertising expert at the University of Southern California and author of AuthenticTM: The Politics of Ambivalence in a Brand Culture.

Banet-Weiser sees another striking omission in these goodwill ads: there is no mention of the political problem that has afflicted so many voters, namely economic inequality. Indeed, inequality is the largest driver of our national division, but it still dares not speak its name in these ads and in commodity activism. Economic inequality can only be sold in ads or made shiny and interesting when its called opportunity or female empowerment, says Banet-Weiser. Thats because, of course, ads are ultimately manipulating us to spend, not to set our political imaginations free.

Ads with gentle anti-Trump messaging may be relatively new, but we can look to a long history of activist commercials to see what may happen next time around. Indeed, advertisers of the 1960s and 70s conquered radical cool for their own purposes. They had actors singing in perfect harmony owing to their shared passion for soda, as in the 1971 Id Like to Buy the World a Coke spot.

That generic message of peace in the ads of the Vietnam era is now more issue-specific, however, with ads supporting undocumented workers or getting girls into technology.

There is another dark side to this: with our congresspeople refusing to even interact with us at town hall meetings, the closest we can get to having someone hear our complaints is to send a mean public tweet to the folks at American Express or Apple, or to boycott Ivanka Trumps clothing line until some retail chains remove it. But these are simply companies, not the commonweal.

Since United Airlines violently abused a paying rider, the outrage at unfeeling corporations and bad customer service has grown, leading to some bitter hashtags. But wouldnt some of this rage be better directed at our national representatives or at the jurists who made corporations people in the first place?

And yet, despite all of the limits of the woke ads or, as some call the phenomenon, faux woke and to a smaller extent, the new consumer activism, both give people like me a pathetic satisfaction. As I sit watching TV, curled on the couch in my post-election fetal position, I can believe for a moment that we exist in a different America one where the Democratic shopper is the victor, a country that values tolerance and diversity and the education of girls like my daughter.

Outclassed: The Secret Life of Inequality is our new column about class. Read all articles here

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Faking 'wokeness': how advertising targets millennial liberals for profit - The Guardian

Shortly after three men with knives and a van spent eight minutes murdering and maiming people at random on London Bridge, one of the Democratic Partys leading voices on national security responded on Twitter. Chris Murphy began by criticizing Donald Trump for sounding the alarms. My god, he wrote. @POTUS has no idea that the goal of terrorists is to instill a level of fear in the public disproportionate to the actual threat. The Connecticut senator tried to put the threat in proper proportion. Terrorism is a real threat, he acknowledged, but remember that since 9/11, you have a greater chance of being killed by a falling object than by terrorists. Murphy then issued a five-point rebuttal to Trumps approach to terrorism. He did not issue a five-point plan for defeating falling objects.

Maybe Murphy didnt do this because falling objects are not equivalent to three men ramming and hacking people to death on London Bridge. Terrorists attack not just individuals but society, which makes mortality rates a poor measure of the danger terrorism poses. Falling objects attack neither. The men behind the carnage in London appear to have been inspired by ISIS, the same organization that has recently motivated young Muslim men to mow down civilians from Minya to Manchester, Berlin to Baghdad, Istanbul to Orlando, and beyond. Telling people not to be frightened by such actsthat fear is what the terrorists wantdoes not make those acts less frightening. Many people are scared by terrorism, despite the allegedly comforting statistics, because terrorism is scary. Its designed to be. And most people recognize that while terrorism takes various forms, one of the most virulent strains these days is extremist violence committed in the name of Islam. They distinguish, in other words, between wobbly furniture and jihadist terror.

The Problem With Calls for 'Resilience'

In the raw moments after a terrorist attack, people are often looking for recognition of the horror and reassurance that theyll be kept safe, not to be told that theyre overreacting or to be soothed with unconvincing arguments. Franklin Roosevelt famously told Americans during the Great Depression that the only thing we have to fear is fear itselfnameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror. Less famous is how he contextualized that message. He listed the countrys many dark realitiesthe government deprived of revenue, families stripped of their savings, the unemployed facing the grim problem of existence, and so on. The good news, Roosevelt said, was that these were merely material things, and they could be regained. Before fear could be feared, it had to be reckoned with.

Murphys reaction to the London attack captures a common line of reasoning, particularly on the left, and it recalls some of the clinical rhetoric that Barack Obama used in similar circumstances. In repeatedly resisting (with some exceptions) any language that associated terrorism with extremist interpretations of Islam, the former president provided fodder to right-wing critics who argued that he was misleading people about the nature of the problem. And in his cerebral approach to counterterrorism, Obama could come across as tone-deaf to the public mood. After attackers killed 130 people in Paris , for example, Obama scoffed at reporters questions about whether the bloodshed would change his ISIS strategy. My colleague Jeffrey Goldberg documented what happened next on the presidents overseas trip:

Air Force One departed Antalya and arrived 10 hours later in Manila. Thats when the presidents advisers came to understand, in the words of one official, that everyone back home had lost their minds. Susan Rice, trying to comprehend the rising anxiety, searched her hotel television in vain for CNN, finding only the BBC and Fox News. She toggled between the two, looking for the mean, she told people on the trip.

Later, the president would say that he had failed to fully appreciate the fear many Americans were experiencing about the possibility of a Paris-style attack in the U.S. Great distance, a frantic schedule, and the jet-lag haze that envelops a globe-spanning presidential trip were working against him. But he has never believed that terrorism poses a threat to America commensurate with the fear it generates. Even during the period in 2014 when ISIS was executing its American captives in Syria, his emotions were in check. Valerie Jarrett, Obamas closest adviser, told him people were worried that the group would soon take its beheading campaign to the U.S. Theyre not coming here to chop our heads off, he reassured her. Obama frequently reminds his staff that terrorism takes far fewer lives in America than handguns, car accidents, and falls in bathtubs do. Several years ago, he expressed to me his admiration for Israelis resilience in the face of constant terrorism, and it is clear that he would like to see resilience replace panic in American society. Nevertheless, his advisers are fighting a constant rearguard action to keep Obama from placing terrorism in what he considers its proper perspective, out of concern that he will seem insensitive to the fears of the American people.

Into this emotional void stepped Donald Trump, who on terrorism is the id to Obamas ego. He rails against political correctness, portrays radical Islamic terrorism as a grave threat to the nation, and embodies the fearful alarmism that terrorism can provoke.

Obamas stance on terrorism also contained a contradiction. He argued that the terrorist threat was much less severe than other challenges such as climate change and gun violence. But he didnt scale back his counterterrorism policies to reflect that assessment. After criticizing the excesses of George W. Bushs war on terror, Obama launched a massive drone war against suspected terrorists in several countries. He urged the government to do more on gun violence, which is responsible for far more deaths per year in the United States than terrorism is, while simultaneously claiming that the U.S. government was right to spend over a trillion dollars, and pass countless laws, and devote entire agencies to preventing terrorist attacks on our soil. Either Obama never managed to invest in counterterrorism at the level he felt it deserved, or he was tacitly acknowledging that terrorism is, in fact, a big problem that statistics only partially capture.

Murphy faces a similar dilemma. He has developed a counterterrorism strategy that includes opposing Trumps travel ban, which he claims will alienate and unfairly malign Muslims without reducing the terrorist threat; de-emphasizing military solutions to terrorism in favor of better-resourced diplomacy and a new Marshall Plan of economic assistance to the Middle East and Africa; and withholding U.S. support to Saudi Arabia unless it stops spreading fundamentalist Islam across the Muslim world.

A progressive foreign policy isnt just looking at the back-end of terrorism, but is also looking at the front-end of terrorism, Murphy told me earlier this year. And at the front-end of terrorism is bad U.S. military policy in the Middle East, is the Saudi funding of a very intolerant brand of Islam that becomes the building block of extremism, and poverty and political instability.

Which is why its perplexing that, around the time we spoke, during a visit to Yale Law School, Murphy observed that Americans are more likely to be killed in an elevator accident or by lightning than by terrorism. Why ditch the Saudis and unveil a new Marshall Plan to solve a problem thats less threatening than lightning?

Original post:
The Trouble With How Liberals Talk About Terrorism - The Atlantic

When Frances president offered his country to Americans upset by the administrationof President Donald Trump, he neglected to mention that his countrys laws dont exactly make it easy to immigrate there from a country outside the European Union.

French President Emmanuel Macron delivered the video remarks on Twitter last week in response to Trumps decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord.

To all scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, responsible citizens who were disappointed by thedecision of the president of the United States, I want to say that they will find in France a second homeland, he said in English. I call them: Come and work here, with us, to work together on concrete solutions for our climate, our environment. I can assure you, France will not give up the fight.

Before American climate scientists start packing their bags and perusing Parisian real estate, however, they might want to research French immigration law. Syrian refugees can get in. For Western scientists, it's not so straightforward.

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, said the statement was offensive.

"That was a total political stunt to say that, and it demeans the purpose of asylum," she said. "That was just trash-talking by Macron."

According to frenchlaw.com, France follows the rules set up by the Geneva Convention on asylum. The country offers asylum to foreign-born people subjected to persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or due to political opinions.

It seems unlikely that French bureaucrats processing an asylum claim by an American scientist would count a U.S. government environmental policy as persecution. But in this snowflake era, who knows?

There are other options. Skilled workers have an easier time getting work visas compared with unskilled laborers, according to frenchlaw.com. But the law requires high-skilled workers to first have a job. At the same time, a job posting is made at a regional French unemployment office for five weeks and then submitted to the Departmental Directorate of Labor, Employment and Vocational Training, which then rules on the would-be immigrant's application.

If approved, the application then is forwarded to a French consulate abroad. The employee must appear personally at the consular office to process the visa. Once in France, the employee must submit to a medical exam before receiving a work permit.

The process is not short or easy, according to a story that appeared this weekend in The Local, an English-language news site with editions in several countries.

"That was a total political stunt to say that, and it demeans the purpose of asylum. That was just trash-talking by Macron."

The story quoted Allison Lounes, an American writer and consultant living in France, who said that "the hardest things for people arriving in France are knowing what to do and in what order."

Jennifer Greco, a blogger living in Paris, said: "Before moving we had a very difficult time trying to get the list of required documents for our visas from the French consulate in the U.S."

American Johanna Steves said the paperwork requirements are exhaustive.

"With my friends we've joked about how just opening a bank account requires that you provide the dental history of all of your ex-lovers," she told The Local.

Food blogger Julie Nies told the website that she had several going-away parties at her former job in the United States because the visa process was so long. She said she also had to make an 18-hour drive to the nearest French consulate.

"There was so much back and forth," she said. "They must have lost my paperwork three times. I notified my job in the U.S. that I was leaving, and then found out I had to stay another month."

Several ex-pats also expressed exasperation to The Local about the maze of sometimes conflicting requirements in order to get set up with a cellphone, bank account, apartment, and driver's license.

Lounes told The Local that dealing with any government office in France from setting up utilities to enrolling children in school requires a great deal of patience.

"Americans expect things to be set up relatively quickly and easily like it would be in the U.S. or other Anglophone countries and that's just not the case," she said.

And finally, The Local warns in another story, there is "no point coming over here as a tourist and then hoping to figure it out from France they'll just send you back."

See the original post:
Macron's Asylum Offer for Triggered US Liberals a Pure 'Political Stunt' - LifeZette

A firefighter carries a woman from her car after it was caught in street flooding as a powerful storm moves across Southern California on February 17, 2017 in Sun Valley, California. After years of severe drought, heavy winter rains have come to the state and the evacuation of hundreds of residents from Duarte, California for fear of flash flooding from areas denuded by a wildfire last year. Research has shown that Californias drought was likely worsened by climate change. And climate change, as well, is also leading to heavier, more extreme rainfalls worldwide. Photograph: David McNew/Getty Images

On Thursday when the announcement hit that Trump was taking America out of the Paris Climate Accord, my social media feed predictably blew up. As an environmental journalist with a lot of left-leaning friends, you can imagine what it looked like: anger, frustration, shock, sadness, another outrage from the worlds most outrageous leader. All of a sudden every one I knew was talking about climate change; Ill admit it was a nice change of pace, but after nearly ten years of covering climate change I also knew it would be fleeting.

Liberals have been the champions of climate action for decades, but theyve largely championed it as an after thought, something that comes near the end of a long to-do list, like the brussels sprouts you conveniently forget to pick up at the grocery store (polling bears this out). When I bring up climate change during chats with left-leaning friends, I often get that pause that suspended moment when I can see someone in the group look askance. I can see what theyre thinking, Again, Jeremy, with the climate change?

And I want to yell: Yes, again! Again and again and again! Of course, again. Dont you get that this is a crisis of civilization? Dont you understand that all your other concerns will be swallowed by this one? But Im a polite Midwesterner, so after spouting my two-minute climate piece, haltingly and in eloquently, I let the topic shift to something everyone is more comfortable with like civil rights, health care, or crippling student debt.

You see, the GOP has made it too easy for liberals in the US to simply shrug their shoulders and say: its their fault we cant get anything done. And, of course, this is true. In part. Of course, the GOP is worlds only major party that still denies climate change. Of course, the GOP has been corrupted by fossil fuel industries to the extent that they willfully ignore the worlds greatest national security threat.

Let me say that again, because it so important: climate change is the great aggravator.

But Obamas 2010 climate legislation in the US didnt just fail because the GOP refused to support it. It also failed because Democrats didnt support it enough, some of the them even openly opposed it. The Democratic Party has been in general timid, conservative, and coy on climate change. Oh, at times their rhetoric has been inspiring, but their actions have no-where near measured up to the what the science demands. They include it in their platform, but rarely prioritize it. Yes, Obama got more done than any other president before but even during the administration best moments it never felt like the planetary emergency it is.

Liberals: climate change belongs on its own tier above all others, shared perhaps with nuclear war only climate change is already here and inevitable, future nuclear wars are not.

But communicating that to anyone who isnt required to spend their work days (like me) reading up on the latest climate science is almost impossible. This is not exactly surprising. Psychological research shows that people simply dont respond to a problem that is viewed as a future-oriented or too big to make a difference (neither of which is true of climate change, but it is often been communicated that way). Sure, we like to watch the civilization collapse on shows like The Walking Dead, but no one likes to confront the possibility that they and their loved ones may one day see a world melting down. Health care feels so much more present (and I get it, I have a precondition and my family wouldnt have access to insurance without the Affordable Care Act) but for all its importance, health care legislation isnt going to prevent the collapse of the world as we know it.

Climate change is the great aggravator. Let me say that again, because it so important: climate change is the great aggravator. Every single issue that liberals care particular about whether it is economic inequality, racism, sexism, injustice, war is going to be made worse by climate change. Climate change will hit people of color, the poor, indigenous, and marginalized communities hardest and first, whether they live on eroding islands or high-rises in the middle of Brooklyn. And, yes, climate change will disproportionately injure women over men. Of course, climate change will also strike what conservatives care about most. The global economy will be absolutely shattered by climate change and national security threats will popup like overheated groundhogs even the most rich and powerful will not get away unscathed.

The worst thing about climate change wont be its physical impacts; it will be what it makes us do to each other.

Imagine a world with millions of migrants escaping from rising sea waters, with agricultural systems failing and the price of food rising. Imagine a world where every nation suffers from the same water scarcity currently plaguing the Middle East. Imagine a world where hurricanes, rainstorms, wild fires, and blizzards are taking more and more steroids. Imagine a world of mass extinction, where species and entire ecosystems like coral reefs vanish from under us. Such impacts will add stressors to every society in the world; they will compound and aggregate.

What happens when a society becomes overstressed? Its not pretty. Historian Christopher Wickham, has described the period following the end of the Roman Empire as extreme material simplification: population declined, technology stagnated, conflicts erupted, the standard of living plummeted and the written record vanished hence the popular term Dark Ages. Its not just centuries ago: the unimaginable horror and stress of World War I allowed the rise of totalitarianism in both Hitlers Germany and Stalins Russia.

In especially extreme cases, civilization as we know it simply collapses in on itself: witness the mute statues on Easter Island, testament to a conflagration and ecological overreach that is lost to time. Witness the temples of the Mayans overrun by jungle or the multiple societies that rose and fell in South Americas Atacama Desert. But before this happens, extremism, xenophobia, civil war, internecine conflict are the products of a society under extreme stress. When stressors compound, majorities lash out violently. They scapegoat minority groups, whether its the Jews or people of color. Law breaks down and the rule of strong over the weak becomes the norm.

But even these impacts arent some future thing. Climatologists have linked the civil war in Syria in part to water stress exacerbated climate change. Changing rainfall patterns in sub-Saharan Africa are contributing to food crises there, increasing the chances of famine, and you can bet, the possibility of worsening civil and national conflicts, such as what we see in South Sudan. Desertification in the Sahel is resulting in rising extremism. None of this is to say that climate change is solely to blame for any these conflicts or disasters, but you have to be particularly naive to think that a hotter world wont have violent, destabilizing consequences. The US military has been studying climate-stressed conflict and performing war games for decades.

The worst thing about climate change wont be its physical impacts; it will be what it makes us do to each other.

So, what can liberals do? First off, if your understanding of climate change is only passing, educate yourself. Some good places to start: here, here and here. Learn too about off-shoots like ocean acidification, deforestation, mass extinction. Next take action: march, protest, divest your money from fossil fuel companies, use public transit, eat less meat (especially beef), trade in for an electric car, put solar panels on your house, buy carbon credits, do something, do many things.

But of course the biggest changes need to come not at the personal level, but at the societal one. So, reach out to your representatives, whether liberal or conservative, and tell them: this is a top tier issue. Tell your representative you dont vote for politicians who arent aggressive on climate change. And then make good on that in the ballot box. And if you ever get a call from a pollster who asks what your most important issues are dont say the economy or health care. Lead off with climate change. And if they say: oh climate change is not one of the issue their list, then ask them why the hell not?

Finally, yes, once you feel confidant in your knowledge, then reach out to your liberal, center, and conservative friends or families and open up about climate change. Do it respectfully, be ready to listen maybe even to some crazy conspiracy theories or really misinformed science but explain your views and have evidence at hand. Maybe theyll come around, maybe they wont but some research has shown that such one-on-one interactions with loved ones may be the best way to move the dial: candid conversations can change society.

So, yes, good on you liberals: youre on the right side of history and science when it comes to climate change. Pat yourself on the back. But heres the thing: your kids arent really going to care that you believed in climate change, if we dont stop climate change. They arent going to listen to excuses like but its the Republicans fault or but Trump, Trump. If you continue to view climate change as a lower tier issue, liberals, I guarantee you it will be the only issue for your children and grandchildren. And all those other things you cared so much about will be subsumed in a planet of storms, heat, floods, fires, extremism, xenophobia, injustice, violence, war, death, and suffering. This issue will burn away all the others.

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Liberals have a responsibility too: make climate change a top issue - The Guardian