Climate Symbolism

Do you remember the famous "just say no" public service ads from the 1980s--the commercials that urged kids to say no to drugs? (There was also a spin-off "just say no" to premarital sex.) I think many of us can agree that the basic idea was well meaning. And naive and simplistic. The just say no to the Keystone XL pipeline message that climate activists and enviros are rallying around today has the same feel. The campaign is similarly well-intentioned but--like the vacuous anti-drug messaging from the 1980s--it also distracts from the complexities of the problem, as numerous critics have pointed out. I've always contended (and still do) that these critics miss an important aspect of the Keystone battle. In 2011, I wrote: