During his 2013 State of the Union address, President Obama promised that if Congress didn’t act swiftly on climate change, he would. And a few months into his second term, he’s already made a few promising moves. His political action group, Organizing for America, is taking climate deniers to task by issuing a mocking video of Republicans and a plush new website tool to help figure out which members of Congress are most resistant to taking climate action.
All this is a good start, but considering the opposition he faces in the House, what can Obama actually accomplish? And if an economy-wide carbon price is off the table, what’s next? What if he can’t get his new EPA administrator through the painstaking Senate approval process without being filibustered? And what about those other plans you’ve heard of to hack the planet, like pouring iron into the ocean?
The following chart is your one-stop shop for mitigating climate change from the top down. We look at what’s next for the Obama administration as well as where your own individual choices fit into the big picture. Choose your own climate action adventure:
