America: September 2020. Chaotic, criminal mishegaas in the White House. Wilding White Nationalists in the streets. Furious, righteous protests met with tear gas, rubber bullets, and police brutality. A pandemic rages. The real economy – the economy of people struggling to make ends meet – is melting down, while the stock market rises higher and higher, bringing unimaginable riches to a ridiculously tiny slice of the population. California is ravaged by wildfires. Texas and Louisiana are pummeled by a ferocious hurricane that was the strongest to make landfall in the Pelican State in 160 years.
I am a proud resister and progressive, and a lifetime registered Democrat. As a Little, I accompanied my parents to demonstrations. In grade school, I proudly wore an “I was planned” button, and sported a red armband each May Day. In high school, to the derision of my peers, I publicly supported President Carter. In college I joined Greenpeace and marched against nuclear power and for social justice issues.
For the last five years my issue of choice – the issue on which I spend 75% of my time and money – has been climate change. In these parlous times, and particularly since Trump was “elected” to office, some have challenged me on my focus, and accused me of abandoning “more pressing” issues, as if climate change were not THE MOST PRESSING ISSUE of our time.
Think that only the last two sentences in the opening paragraph are related to climate change? Feel that someone who prioritizes climate action has abandoned their work on the other issues near and dear to progressive hearts? Well, that’s off base. Because it is all connected.
This year’s long hot summer of socially distanced protests have been urgent, tumultuous (though 99% peaceful), revolutionary and potentially world-shattering. The demonstrators are lancing a 400 year old boil and not letting the complacent among us look away. You want American heroes? I think the BLM and social justice warriors organizing and demonstrating and making their voices heard are heroes. But remember that among the many and cruel racial disparities in the United States they are protesting are housing, food security and healthcare. Climate change intersects with each of these in ways that put POC at a distinct disadvantage. I cannot fight for human rights and racial equality without fighting against climate change.
Kamala Harris is the nominee for VP. We didn’t manage to elect a woman last time – maybe this time, we’ll vote a woman into the #2 spot. In the meantime, it’s important to note that women will be adversely and disproportionately affected by the changing climate. For example, the widespread drought and crop disruptions that climate change will bring will destabilize our food supply, disproportionately affecting women, for whom food insecurity is a pressing problem. I cannot fight for women without fighting against climate change.
Unions are under relentless attack from the right. Without unions, we the people lose most of our power to demand that we be paid and treated fairly. Even for non-union workers, we must have an adequate minimum wage, that families can actually LIVE ON. I am 100% for a $15/hour minimum wage – or more! – and we are going to need it if folks are shelling out to re-re-re-re-build after the latest hurricane, flash flood, or wildfire. I cannot fight for working people without fighting against climate change.
Poverty is an intractable problem in America: about 12% of us (that is 36,460,000 people!!!) currently live in poverty. While the well-off will deal with the impacts of climate change where they live by buying what they need to survive, or will simply move to more amenable places out of the path of hurricanes or wildfires, poor people will not. They will be left behind in crumbling communities that are in the path of the natural disasters engendered by a warming atmosphere. I cannot fight for poor people without fighting against climate change.
Climate change is the ur-issue of our time. It’s the monster in the closet that has already devoured your neighbors and is just waiting to pounce on you. It’s the top! It’s the Colosseum – it’s the top! It’s the Louvre Museum – it’s a melody from a symphony by Strauss! Well, you get it. It will impact everything. It will change everything. It cannot be ignored, and it should not be fobbed off as “less important” because the link to something more “front of mind” and in the headlines isn’t immediately apparent.
And it is most definitely linked to the upcoming election in November.
We have already lost 4 years of potential government action under Trump. Imagine another four years – and remember: emissions are still going up.
#HairOnFirePeople
