In the face of Climate Change

I shivered despite the warmth. My heart constricted. My stomach swallowed itself. I knew the end was near, I was ready to throw up, suddenly sure I wouldn’t eat or drink for the rest of the day.
It’s a nearly monthly occurance, my panic attacks brought on by some scrap of news or article, all of them focused on one subject: climate change.
And I am sick of it.
I am sick of the doomed nature of these essays, yes, but I’m more sick of the system that makes them exists. That we live in a world where a climate change denying bigot can lead my country while his lackeys profit off the misery of millions. The Trump administration is filled to the gills with coal and oil lobbyists, minions and accessories. We should be on the cusp of a clean energy revolution, instead Trump vaguely mentions saving coal workers while handing their CEOs time to pilfer millions of dollars while toxic waste fills up the rivers and air of Appalachia. There is no other industry where this would be acceptable, yet coal and oil can dump their trash onto the world without paying the price, at least not any that they will pay for.
For there is, of course, a price. More devastating storms, failing harvests, droughts engulfing entire countries. And from there millions of displaced people, economic collapses and, most terrifyingly of all, war.
I am done.
I realize that I am part of this system as well, from my truck to my shoes, and I will do my best on an individual level to offset my carbon, but this is aimed at the truly small handful of people investing in destroying my future.
- There is no debate on climate change, it is real and it is here.
- The rich will not be allowed to get away with their crimes against the planet. With environmental justice they will pay for the carbon they have released.
- We will not allow the world to devolve into eco-apartheid, where the 1% treats the globe as a playground while the rest of us struggle to survive.
- I will fight tooth and nail against any attempt to stymie clean energy.
- I will not be conned into false choices, where the only way to save coal workers is to dig up more coal, rather than expand the safety net around those folks and make sure they can transition into other jobs and — -
- I demand our government invest our tax dollars in renewable energy.
- I will not give credence to the idea that there are “two sides” to the debate on human-caused climate change when the 97% of the climate science community agreed decades ago that it is real.
- The fact that we subsidize coal, oil and gas $5.3 Billion a year (according to the International Monetary Fund) is a crime against humanity.
- Oligarchs do not have more rights because they have more money.
- I will fight for the collapse of the carbon lobby.
- I will not be fooled that a system that allows a CEO to profit off the sickness of others is acceptable.
- I will not be told to tone down my anger or be reasonable while my government ignores science and pushes the poor into further economic debt.
- I will not buy into the reasoning that we must think of finance and economics first while people die. I will not believe that the pockets of billionaires is more important than any life.
- I will not give into hopelessness. Even if I fail, I will have fought.
