We’re Speeding Toward a Climate Change Catastrophe...and That Makes 2016 the Most Important Election in a Generation

Before dropping out of the presidential race last month, Marco Rubio repeatedly declared that the 2016 presidential election is “the most important in a generation.” Such language is, of course, not uncommon to hear during election seasons. Politicians have been assuring the public for decades that the “next election” will be more significant than ever before, and that if the opposition party wins, the consequences will be catastrophic. As Rubio once stated in overtly apocalyptic language, “if we don’t get this election right, there may be no turning back for America.”

As it happens, I think Rubio is right. But not for the reasons that he cites: we’re not a “great nation in decline” because Obama has “deliberately weakened America.” Rather, the next U.S. election matters because a subset of the problems we’re facing today are genuinely global in scope and transgenerational in their consequences....
http://www.alternet.org/environment/were-speeding-toward-climate-change-catastropheand-makes-2016-most-important-election