'Governments should not shy away from nudging people to behave more greenly'

'Sometimes we all need a little help to do the right thing'

Lara Williams in Bloomberg

Just over a week into January, a lot of us are already abandoning our New Year's resolutions, says Lara Williams in Bloomberg. "Such faltering is important to note because we're going to need permanent behavior changes in order to meet our emissions targets." Consumer decisions are an important part of cutting back on burning fossil fuels, but voluntarily changing habits is hard. That's "why we need policy — carbon taxes, subsidies, public information campaigns — to support behavior change."

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'Trump was acting in his political self-interest'

Los Angeles Times editorial board

Former President Donald Trump's claim that he's immune from prosecution for his push to overturn the 2020 election is "laughable" and dangerous, says the Los Angeles Times editorial board. Trump argues he can't be charged for actions like assembling fake electors and pressing Mike Pence to reject some of Joe Biden’s electoral votes because they fell "within the 'outer perimeter' of the president's official responsibility." Nonsense. A president's job is protecting elections, not subverting them.

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'Biden's defense of democracy has to end with him in the White House again'

Rich Lowry at National Review

President Joe Biden showed off "how much he cares about defending democracy" by giving a speech at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, warning of "the threat represented by Donald Trump," says Rich Lowry at National Review. It was all talk. If Biden really thought Trump could wreck the republic and wanted to stop him "at all costs," he would "step aside for some younger, more capable, less radioactive Democrat with a much better chance of beating Trump."

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'Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it'

Cory Franklin in the Chicago Tribune

Covid-19 is not "the beast" it once was, says Cory Franklin in the Chicago Tribune. The mortality rate today is less than 1%, and far lower for the healthy. But "the incalculable damage" from the pandemic "is everywhere: undereducated children, increases in suicides and drug overdoses, a general coarsening of society and intensified political division." If we don't learn from our errors — like caving to political pressure to suppress science — we're bound to repeat them. 

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