Move to Fight Climate Change

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This game simulates a political movement to get the State of New York to become carbon neutral by 2030. To do this you must: 1) build a national organization with 15 million members, 2) convince 300,000 of these members to move to safe Republican districts in Western New York, 3) take control of Albany, 4) pass a $100 per ton carbon tax, and 5) buy up all gasoline powered passenger vehicles in the state and replace them with electric vehicles. If you can do this, you will have turned a $2 trillion economy into a carbon free juggernaut.

This game explores the potential of moving environmental activists to safe Republican state legislature districts to turn these districts into safe seats for progressives.  These migrants could create super majorities in blue states, and these majorities could enact major carbon emissions reductions programs.  This game looks at how this strategy would play out in the State of New York.  If 300,000 progressive freelancers and retirees moved to six state senate districts, the Democrats would have a durable super majority.  These 300,000 progressives would also basically dominate the democratic primaries, making Greens the de facto kingmakers in New York state politics. 

With the governor’s mansion and the legislature locked down.  Progressives could pass some truly radical policies.  The state could borrow $125 billion to buy a new electric vehicle to replace every passenger vehicle on the road in New York today.  This would amount to less than 10% of New York’s GDP, which is quite manageable (its 20% today…the US is over 100%).  New York could also pass a $100 per ton carbon tax, basically outlawing fossil fuels.  With the policies in place, the migrants can go home, or they can move on to other states and repeat the process.  

To achieve real action on climate change, all you need to do is convince 0.12% of the US voting age population to move to New York for a few years.  Retirees and people who can work remotely would be ideal.