(Even paranoid DFHs have real enemies)

It is a problem soooo fraught peril and beset with so much emotion/ideology that it is RIPE for the picking by some opportunistic demagogue with enough charisma and the appearance of a plan to hijack it. (Cross-posted at Walled-In Pond and My Left Wing…)

It is not impossible to imagine conditions under which such a leader might appeal to the “planetary good” to suspend certain provisions of the Constitution in the name of reducing emissions: highway check-points, for example, at which not only would your car’s emissions be tested, but—since you’re stopped anyway—the passengers might be searched for illicit/contraband commodities, say. Or have a dog just sniff the car, for “explosives.” It requires no particular perspicacity to envision the reduction of green-house gasses, for example, becoming the (or even one) rationale for draconian restrictions on liberties and freedoms, and make it the pretense for the imposition of authoritarian/totalitarian measures to assure ’compliance’.

Particularly if penalties might include dispropriation.

Defining the “climate crisis” as a ’national security issue’ opens the door for these kinds of abuses (see Homeland Security/torture, e.g.), as sure as I’m a 60-something, dope-smokin’ DFH*.

(*DFH = Dirty Fucking Hippie)