… how it enables unscrupulous politicians enormous powers to operate the state as will benefit themselves and their in-group.

Martial law is hardly an unfamiliar concept to a country at war. During every active war, civil liberties and rights – even those delimited in the constitution are limited. Climate change destroys infrastructure with massive floods and fires, puts human life at risk. It brings out the military to restore order and rebuild destroyed infrastructure.

There is an enormous need to build climate friendly and hardened infrastructure in a short period of time. If it’s not built proactively, it will be built reactively after the existing infrastructure is destroyed by climate change induced storms. Areas that aren’t taking serious action now will be taking more action faster later on.

Rushed action by government means curtailed civil liberties, environmental protection undermined, corruption and waste. There is going to be a lot of that when we address climate change – not just the modeling but climate change effects to infrastructure and economy as a whole.

We must do more not only to slow emissions growth and reduce it but also harden our infrastructure now while it’s still cheaper to do and avoid more costly emergency damage repairs. Climate change is going to be really bad – they’re no stopping the serious damage we’ve done to the planet already – but we can take steps to limit the pain and protect our democracy and necessary infrastructure.