May 6 - Policy - Questions

[jamesallenevans]

Questions for Governor Jerry Brown, inspired by the week's readings:

“Nuclear Addiction,” Thought Magazine, Vol. 59 No. 232, March 1984 (by Jerry Brown) -- Critique of US nuclear policy “A Stark Nuclear Warning,” NY Review of Books, July 14, 2016 (by Jerry Brown) -- Review of Bill Perry's “My Journey at the Nuclear Brink” “The Atomic Titanic,” The Button: The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump (by Walter Perry), in Library Reserves linkable from the left menu. “How Close Is Humanity to the Edge?” The New Yorker, November 21, 2020 (by Corinne Purtill) -- Profile of Toby Ord “The Risk Landscape” and “Saving Humanity”, chapters 6 and 7 from The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity.

Questions: Every week students will post one question here of less than 150 words, addressed to our speaker by Wednesday @ midnight, the day immediately prior to our class session. These questions may take up the same angle as developed further in your weekly memo. By 2pm Thursday, each student will up-vote (“thumbs up”) what they think are the five most interesting questions for that session. Some of the top voted questions will be asked by students to the speakers during class.

[brycefarabaugh]

In your opinion, which group is more important for enacting meaningful policy reforms: grassroots activists or “elites” (be they in government, academia, the media, etc)? Should people interested in addressing existential risks focus on activating the grassroots in mass movements to affect political change, or could working to sway the opinions of a small number of elites be more effective at reducing such risks?

[panunbali]

Why is it that there does not seem to be much of a public discourse around the threat of nuclear annihilation as is deserved? Is it because we're focused on climate change right now and that is the priority? How then does policy prioritize the threat of different apocalyptic threats at the same time?

[Aiden-Reynolds]

How can you practically implement nuclear disarmament without opening up an international nuclear power vacuum? While many nations having large nuclear arsenals is dangerous for everyone, each nation individually may face at least a similar level of threat by being at a nuclear disadvantage. It seems that this practical consideration would highly motivate nations around the world to cheat or circumvent any real attempts at nuclear disarmament.

[ABacotti]

Drawing on your very long history as California's governor, congrats by the way, and in the absence of federal government action, is there anything that states can legally do to help with problem of a potential nuclear war? Do they have any control over what weapons are housed in their area? Is there any hope for us other than action by the president and federal government?

[laszler]

Do you believe term limits have an influence on the effectiveness and/or ambition of lawmakers? That is, if a lawmaker knows they cannot be reelected, do you think this pushes them to implement larger policy goals or hold back on them?

[jcrary711]

Assuming some sort of disarming of nuclear weapons of countries like Russia and the U.S. was possibly, do you think powerful nations would willingly weaken themselves in this manner? If so in what scenario would they do this and why?

[shiruan-uchicago]

What facilitated and enabled the negotiation of the reduction and the limitation of strategic arms between the USSR and the US during the Cold War, especially given the fact that the talks around START I and the INF Treaty were carried out at the moment of re-intensification in the 80s – after the breakout of the Soviet–Afghan War and the armament expansion decision of the Reagan administration? How were the two superpowers able to get back to the negotiation table with mutual trust on such an existential problem?

[gracecwagner]

We’ve talked about the dangers of misinformation in this class before and the danger it holds on its own. Do you think it’s possible to back away from the “nuclear edge” without acknowledging this, or do you think a part of the policy changes will need to be educating the public too?

[mesber1]

How Close Is Humanity to the Edge? provides a rather positive outlook on humanity and its potential to achieve greatness as well as to take rational steps that allow for expansion whilst mitigating its risks. Is this outlook too idealistic? Is it reasonable to think that individuals would be willing to strive towards "the greater good" mentioned in Ord's school of thought ("effective altruism") if that required the sacrifice of short-term gain?

[WinstonHartnett]

Do you think, given our current political troubles and track record in curbing climate emissions, nuclear threats, and pandemic infections, that the American political system is no longer suited for governance in a modern world? Additionally, how do you respond to allegations that the Chinese political model has produced better outcomes in the COVID pandemic because of its structure?

[smshiffrin]

You discussed how human behavior regarding the nuclear conflict can be compared to addiction--Is there a psychological strategy that can be employed to help solve the nuclear crisis?

[LanceJohnson1]

This week we zoomed in on policy responses to existential threats. The actions of policymakers, however, are strongly influenced by the criteria of what will get them re-elected. As such, would net value be added to society in the U.S. if policymakers could only serve one term - and therefore if their incentives were more closely aligned toward solving existential and general problems? Or would this not be the case?

[isabelmw]

How important do you think it is that the general public understands existential threats? Would it be enough for politicians to put forth policies that address large scale threats and issues even if the public didn't ultimately understand them? There is signature class this quarter title Truth and one of it's primary questions is have we entered a post-truth era/world, what are your thoughts on such a question?

[dillanprasad]

Is it even fundamentally valuable to create policy for unstoppable environmental catastrophes, such as, say, Yellowstone erupting, a solar flare, or an asteroid hitting the earth? How do we allocate funding--a finite resource--to prophylactic measures against such impossible problems at the cost of very pressing social inequities that trouble our society?

[jtello711]

The nuclear crisis is one that's predicated on the nature of mutually assured destruction, and yet other countries with less capable military arsenals are made to bear the same level of risk should nuclear arsenals ever be deployed under any circumstances. Considering how dangerous nuclear fallout is, how can we assure that the casualty level be kept to a minimum and that there remains a safe haven for what remains of humanity under the most dire of circumstances?

[chakrabortya]

These readings made me think more about the connections between the various existential threats we have spoken about. Which threat if any do you think is most interconnected to other threats? Is it possible to institute policies that address multiple threats at once? What would that look like?

[aj-wu]

It seems like one of the major obstacles to enacting workable policy solutions is the lack of coordination among experts (the policy people aren't listening to the science people, the industry people aren't listening to the policy people, etc.). How do we, as individual professionals, contribute to bridging this gap? Given American capitalism and the power of corporations to influence democracy, is this even possible?

[seankoons]

What makes something unthinkable? As a former person in government, specifically in California, did you ever have to deal with preparations for the “unthinkable,” earthquakes, wildfires, etc., and what were the steps you used when preparing for them? Are there some crazy things that your office prepared for that seem “unthinkable” that the public doesn’t know?

[kottenbreit]

Do you think that the framing of future disasters as extinction risks to humanity is helpful because it makes people aware of the stakes, or hurtful because it might ignore smaller crises that still cause great human suffering?

[jrgill-coder]

How can the world move toward a more globalist society, as nativist movements continually are gaining steam globally?

[Brunofireflame]

What do you think is the largest obstruction to climate change legislation? Additionally, do you think a slew of legislation like the Green New Deal is adequate or unnecessary for the crisis?

[k80ambrose]

In the Nuclear Addiction article, you critique the United States' nuclear policy. Why--in the age of mutually assured destruction--are nuclear weapons still a defense mechanism that policymakers consider as opposed to diplomatic solutions? And what forms of warfare do you think will replace nuclear weapons: perhaps bio warfare and cyber attacks?

[AlexandraN1]

As a politician I was wondering whether the issue of existential threats was acknowledged and relevant in day-to-day political workings. What would your suggestions be to influence the level of existential threats through direct policy actions?