In This Article

• What is climate mobilization, and why is it crucial?
• Why do known solutions remain unimplemented?
• How does systemic collapse impede progress?
• What steps can be taken to overcome these challenges?

We Know What Would Save Us — But Don't Do It

Let’s stop pretending this is a mystery. We’re not lacking research. We’re drowning in it. The IPCC reports are stacked like tombstones. Economists have run the numbers. Engineers have built the prototypes. Scientists have been waving red flags for 40 years. Everyone knows what needs to be done. But instead of a full-throttle response, most so-called leaders propose tweaks, targets, and timetables — a new carbon tax here, a shiny innovation prize there. Tony Blair’s latest “climate reset” is a perfect example: polished, cautious, disconnected from urgency. Even Steve Keen — not known for pulling punches — had to call it out for what it is: another fantasy dressed up as strategy.

I’m not asking for policy refinement. We need a total, immediate, all-hands-on-deck mobilization — the kind not seen since World War II. Not in theory. Not in 2050. Now. That means converting industries overnight. Turning car plants into turbine factories. Electrifying everything. Ending fossil subsidies, not in ten years, but today. Building public transit, as our lives depend on it, because they do. This isn’t environmentalism. It’s triage.

And yet, here we are. Surrounded by plans. Starving for action. We know what would save us, and still — we don’t do it. Or we won't. Or worse, we've convinced ourselves we can’t. Either way, the result is the same: collapse with footnotes.

The System Isn’t Broken—It’s Just Unprotected

The system we live under wasn’t explicitly designed to destroy the planet, but wasn’t intended to protect it either. That’s the flaw. As practiced today, capitalism was built for extraction, expansion, and private gain, not for sustainability, stability, or intergenerational responsibility. It has no brakes, off switch, or built-in safeguards like a responsible engineering system would. When a machine is built to spin faster and faster without accounting for friction, eventually it tears itself apart. We’re watching that happen in real time.

This is why climate action keeps getting chewed up in the gears. It’s not because policymakers don’t understand the science. It’s because the institutions they operate within — markets, elections, corporate boards — are locked into a short-term logic that punishes any move that reduces profit or challenges growth. When ExxonMobil posts record profits during a global climate emergency, that’s not a bug. It’s the algorithm working as intended. It's not a mistake when Congress hosts climate hearings in the morning and approves new drilling in the afternoon. Its complexity is baked into the structure.

So when discussing a WWII-scale mobilization, we’re not just asking for budget reallocations or greener products. We’re asking for a fundamental rewiring of the system’s purpose—from profit to preservation, from private wealth to public survival. That kind of shift terrifies the people who currently benefit most. If we start redesigning the system to serve the future instead of the quarterly report, their grip on the present begins to slip, and they know it.

Why a “Liberal Donald Trump” Might Be the Fantasy We Secretly Need

Let’s be honest — this is where things get uncomfortable. Love him or loathe him (and I fall firmly in the latter camp), Donald Trump demonstrated something few modern leaders have: the ability to bulldoze bureaucracy, dominate the media cycle, and mobilize a mass following that sticks with him no matter how outrageous the behavior. Now imagine that raw political force repurposed for good. Imagine that same fire aimed at mobilizing a nation for climate survival: factories retooled for green production by executive order, fossil fuel CEOs called out as state enemies, and a population electrified, not with fear and grievance, but with purpose and unity. That kind of charismatic, authoritarian-lite leadership is terrifying… unless pointed in the right direction. Then, it might be the only thing that moves the needle.

It may sound radical, but a 'liberal Trump' — not in values, but in sheer disruptive power — might be the only archetype capable of breaking through the inertia of our dying institutions. We don’t need another incrementalist with a clean PowerPoint and a five-point plan. We need a leader who kicks down the door, not just opens it slightly and asks nicely for consensus. One who doesn’t apologize for using power, because they understand that power is all that will dislodge the fossil-fueled death spiral we’re locked in. And yet, that figure doesn’t exist on the political horizon. Certainly not in the current Democratic leadership, which seems more concerned with decorum than deadlines.

Instead, we’re offered technocratic centrists who treat the climate crisis like a budget spreadsheet. They push tax incentives, voluntary corporate pledges, and “market-based mechanisms,” as if the biosphere runs on bipartisan compromise. But we don’t need nudges. We need mandates. We don’t need incentives. We need orders. Every delay is a form of denial, just with better manners. And anyone who dares to suggest otherwise is dismissed as too radical, too naive, or — the ultimate insult in our calcified politics — unelectable. Meanwhile, the clock doesn’t care. It keeps ticking.

The GOP: Suicide Pact as Political Platform

If you’re hoping for bipartisan climate action, you might want to pack a lunch—and a parachute. The Republican Party of 2025 isn’t just ignoring the climate crisis; it’s actively accelerating it. We’re talking about a platform that champions fossil fuel expansion, dismantles environmental protections, and treats “net zero” like a punchline. This isn’t a misunderstanding of science — it’s a willful rejection of it, fueled by money, ideology, and political calculation. The party of Lincoln has morphed into the party of ExxonMobil and Marjorie Taylor Greene, where climate change is either a hoax, a globalist plot, or just another thing Jesus will fix. Expecting this crowd to support a WWII-scale mobilization is like asking arsonists to lead the fire brigade.

What makes it worse is that many of the GOP’s most loyal voters — often older, well-educated, and financially secure — are the same people who rely on the very public programs their party keeps trying to gut. Social Security, Medicare, disaster relief — all routinely targeted by Republican budgets, even as climate-related disasters escalate. But they keep voting red. Why? It’s not ignorance. Its identity. Tribal loyalty has overtaken rational self-interest. Once you’re locked into a cultural worldview where liberals are evil, science is suspect, and compromise is betrayal, facts become irrelevant. You vote your tribe, even if your house is underwater and your insulin costs more than your mortgage.

This is the political terrain we’re stuck with. Mobilizing for climate survival requires a functioning political system — but the GOP, as it exists today, is structurally incapable of participating. They’ve built their brand on resentment, fossil fuel protectionism, and performative obstruction. So long as they hold a veto over national policy — through the Senate, the courts, or sheer noise — any serious attempt at transformation remains fantasy. The Republican Party doesn’t just oppose climate action. At this point, it’s a party organized around collapse.

Collapse Isn’t Coming—It’s Already Happening

There’s a common question floating around every time a new climate report drops or another global summit sputters: “When will the collapse begin?” But that question assumes collapse is some future event — a singular, apocalyptic moment you can circle on the calendar. That’s not how it works. Collapse, in the real world, is quiet. It’s slow. It unfolds not through one dramatic failure but through the relentless accumulation of small ones. It looks like EV chargers that don’t materialize, even after billions in public funding are allocated. It seems like government agencies are launching programs with no delivery systems. It looks like infrastructure that’s crumbling, not because it was attacked, but because no one knows who’s responsible for fixing it anymore.

Health care is a perfect example. In theory, we have the most advanced medical system in the world. In practice, it's being hollowed out by private equity, profit-maximizing insurers, and endless administrative bloat. Patients can’t get appointments for months. Nurses are burning out. Clerical workers outnumber doctors. And while all of this happens, corporations report record profits, and politicians give speeches about “efficiency.” It’s the same story in education, transit, and housing — a slow, grinding breakdown where nothing quite collapses simultaneously. Still, everything gets just a little worse every year. We’re not preparing for collapse. We’re adapting to it, one lowered expectation at a time.

And what about the institutions meant to coordinate solutions? Many can’t even keep their websites functioning. Federal portals crash. Local governments operate on 20-year-old software. Customer service across industries has become a digital

But What If… We Could?

Let’s not lie to ourselves: the chances are slim. But not zero. The key isn’t just policy—it’s a moral reawakening. We have to convince people that survival is worth the sacrifice. That comfort now can’t outweigh the catastrophe later. That interdependence isn’t weakness—it’s how every thriving society has ever survived anything.

That means new leaders. New narratives. A new declaration—not of independence, but interdependence. And maybe—just maybe—if things get bad enough, fast enough, we’ll find our moment. Or our last excuse will finally run out.

But time is not on our side. And history doesn’t wait for permission.

Music Interlude

About the Author

Robert Jennings is the co-publisher of InnerSelf.com, a platform dedicated to empowering individuals and fostering a more connected, equitable world. A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Army, Robert draws on his diverse life experiences, from working in real estate and construction to building InnerSelf with his wife, Marie T. Russell, to bring a practical, grounded perspective to life’s challenges. Founded in 1996, InnerSelf.com shares insights to help people make informed, meaningful choices for themselves and the planet. More than 30 years later, InnerSelf continues to inspire clarity and empowerment.

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This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License. Attribute the author Robert Jennings, InnerSelf.com. Link back to the article This article originally appeared on InnerSelf.com

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Article Recap

This article confronts the harsh truth that while climate mobilization is our clearest solution to planetary collapse, our systems are structurally incapable of acting on it. Political paralysis, profit-driven institutions, and cultural fragmentation all conspire to ensure that what we know we must do remains forever out of reach. Until that changes, collapse isn’t just likely—it’s already underway.

#ClimateMobilization #SystemicCollapse #EnvironmentalPolicy #PoliticalParalysis #ClimateCrisis