Of course logic sadly doesn't apply much to politics but as someone who worries that were not doing enough on climate change even when there are relatively dece

Of course logic sadly doesn't apply much to politics but as someone who worries that were not doing enough on climate change even when there are relatively decent governments that argument is incredibly weak and a terrible message. Energy Independence isn't an inherent good. What people often mean by it is we won't be reliant on a number of states some of whom are allies with very different value systems and some of whom are enemies (Russia, Iran). While I'd love for Russia and Iran to be weaker so they cause less trouble I think that many of our ackward allies and even some self declared enemies like Venezuela may get worse not better if they are poorer. There's also an isolationist/self sufficiency argument which is just stupid. Trade is good especially with friendly neighbors. The only country that tries to be self sufficient is north korea, NK is a hellhole and even they don't achieve self sufficiency. Its also lumping in a lot of separate environmental issues that are not climate change. My understanding is that carbon energy production isn't responsible for most of the rainforest loss especially compared to logging and agriculture industries. Sustainability/renewables isn't convincing. Sure we will hit peak oil someday but due to economic factors it keeps getting pushed back. If there was no global warming there would be much less effort to stop oil use/extraction. Sure it can have some extremely negative local effects but if it wasn't for global warming that wouldn't be enough. Healthy children and clean water. Well global warming has some effect and maybe living near a coal mine might be unhealthy but in general other non carbon energy pollution/environmental issues have a lot more to do with keeping water clean and children healthy. Environmental regulation can have real costs. Even as someone who thinks we regularly undervalue the positives of environmental regulation we shouldn't totally ignore some of the negatives. Besides there's no need for the stupid why not just do it anyway message. Global warming is a real thing. A massive global thing that will effect everyone in an extremely costly negative way. Some actions governments may two fighting global warming may have negative economic consequences that are not made up by clean energy job/industry growth. That's OK because the massive costs of not preventing global warming from getting worse are significantly larger then minor economic issues today