Why the next 365 days will be one of the most important years of our lives

I’m a dad. I believe President Trump has chosen to significantly endanger the world I dream of passing on to my kids. I write that hesitantly, because it may seem an exaggeration— and it is also very sad — but based on the facts I understand, I am convinced that it is true.
This is the story of how I feel about that and what I plan to do about it.
Really, he has cause significant danger for the world that we all today will pass on to our children, nieces & nephews, and other little ones we know. What we all do during the next 365 days may be more impactful for our children’s future world than nearly anything we can do in all our days after that.
Why
I work in long-term energy planning, helping power companies figure out how many wind, solar, and gas plants to build and what kinds of new power and battery technologies to develop for the future. One morning in 2014, my colleague Jim asked me to help him on project to prepare for a international meeting in Paris the next December— where over 190 countries would gather to try to agree on a plan to reduce the carbon emission by 2050, to help the world avoid the worst effects of potential climate change.
Together with some great colleagues nearby, as well as researchers, engineers, and a wide range of other experts in countries around the world, we were going to work together to develop tangible models to show how each country, including the US, China, India, Brazil, Canada, Japan, the UK, France and many others, could deeply cut its emission by 2050. I focused on the US and researched ways that the US could reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% in 2030.
It was the period of time that was probably the hardest I’ve ever worked. In addition to this project, I was also doing my normal work, and being a dad to a 2 year old girl (her younger sister had not yet been born). I was waking up around 4:30 many mornings to work on this climate project.
I remember walking to train tired one evening after work, wishing I could already be home with my family, and questioning if it was worth it. The answer that came to me was this: I was 37. In 2050 (the year we were most focused on in the project), my daughter would turn 37. I imagined her having a little a one of her own at that point, and feeling all the hopes and dreams for her child that I felt right then for her.
And I also knew based on what climate scientists tell us and the data I was using in my work, that at that point, it would be far past the time to change what was going to happen with the climate. Either:
(a) we will have acted boldly and consistently in the 35 years until 2050 and together across the world held to avoid some of the worst effects of climate change and maintain the world as close as we could to its present state, or
(b) we would have acted far too slowly or not at all and very negative effects would be already happening and on a trajectory that couldn’t be avoided by actions after 2050.
What I really deeply wanted was for my daughter in 2050 to look hopefully upon the future world of her little girl then, rather than see that future only with concern and sadness. The upcoming Paris meeting we were working to support could influence which course the world would take. At that point it was clear to me why I was so focused on working hard on that project, and why I should be: I was working for my daughter’s future happiness, and the world that she and her family would live in.
After months of significant work by many countries and long discussions, in November, as I strung up holiday lights in the front yard, I heard the good news on the radio: there was an agreement in Paris, and it was a strong positive move for the world acting to reduce emissions and minimize climate change. The US made commitments to reducing emissions, as well as China, India, all of the EU, and over 100 other countries across the world.
It was not a certainty that this agreement alone would accomplish the goals— much work was still to be done, but it was a very meaningful step in the direction we needed to be headed. And one that was not easy and didn’t always happen in previous efforts. Each country would develop concrete plans for how they would reduce emissions by 2050. Some past meetings had focused more on who has to go first and how to allocate the work of reducing emissions. This Paris Accord, I think rightly, recognized we all need to do a lot of work over the next 3 decades, so we all better go ahead and get on with it.
After finishing putting up the lights, I got out some champagne to celebrate over dinner with my sister’s family. Not everyone was aware of the importance of this moment — lest of all my then 2 year old daughter (or new her sister on the way), but I did. I knew there were many things to still do, but sitting at dinner I certainly didn’t imagine what would ultimately get in the way of getting on with this important work. This gave me courage. This would be the inheritance I would work to give my daughter — and I was proud that my own skills could be used to help her have a still hospitable and beautiful world to bring her loved little ones into.
—
By June 2017, President Trump had been in office 4 months. He had appointed Rex Tillerson, former CEO of Exxon-Mobile to be his Secretary of State. Many who cared about the future of our climate did not take this appointment as an encouraging sign. Nevertheless, then-Secretary Tillerson publicly voiced his advice that the President should keep the US in the Paris Climate Accord. Many US businesses, including Tillerson’s former employer, Exxon-Mobil, sent letters suggesting also requesting the US stay in the Accord. Nevertheless, President Trump still chose to announce his plans exit the agreement, removing all semblance of US federal effort or leadership from climate efforts at the global level. At upcoming meeting of world leaders such as the G7, the US wouldn’t even show up to attend discussions on climate.
I sat in the parking lot taking in the news. I had a sense this would be coming since that November — even tearing up a bit when I took my daughter to an aquarium with coral at Christmas break because I realized it was now a lot less likely that reefs may be around in her adulthood. But still, the finality of the decision and the news hit me. Despite the work and good fortune of actually getting to an agreement in Paris, despite all of the US’s potential to lead on this issue and the long-term benefits it might have for our economy and the livability of our future country, our President was saying we were giving up.
And with that one choice, he moved my daughters’ and all of our children’s likely future closer to the path in which they will see many more wildfires, floods, severe hurricanes, droughts, dangerous heat waves, refugees, wars, and droughts. A world in which October days when kids can’t go out to the playground because of smoke is more of a regular thing every year, and a world in which the many more days are too hot to go outside for a walk on my family’s land in Texas. And potentially much worse effects for some children. This one decision just greatly reduced the chances that we’ll be able to work together in time to preserve a positive climate for our children.
—
Today, on November 4, 2019, the earliest day possible day of to officially declare its notice to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, the Trump administration formally declared its decision to withdraw from the Paris Accord. There is one glimmer of hope however, which is that U.S. withdrawal cannot become official until November 4, 2020, a date upon which we may have a new President elect.
Therefore, it feels appropriate that today, I officially declare that I am committing today — and all the days of the next year — to giving my utmost to electing a new President who more properly values my daughters’ future. I bring to this effort all the love that I have for them, and will channel energy that together with any of my skills to finding the best ways to make it most likely that our country elects a new President on Nov 3, 2020, as well as enough new Senators who would be willing to pass meaningful legislation for the US to act in reducing its emissions and avoiding climate change.
How
This is how I will go about that. From my research, the presidential & Senate election will most likely hinge on what happens in 7 states: AZ, PA, MI, WI, NC, FL, and IA. (GA, TX, ME, and CO elections may also be important, especially for control of the Senate). The outcome in these 7 states are likely to depend on less than 100,000 votes, or less than 5% of the totals in each state.
Therefore, what needs to happen in the next 365 days is (1) register as many people as possible in these states who are likely to vote for Democratic candidates, and then (2) then make sure as many of those states’ registered voters as possible likely to vote for Democrats actually do turn out to vote early, mail in their ballots, or make it to their poll on election day.
Each of us have three ways we can help this to help this happen:
- Money that we can donate to campaigns or other organizations seeking to boost registration and turnout,
- Time that we can use to (a) mail letters to encourage registration, (b) call potential voters to encourage them to register & vote, and (c) travel and go door to door asking people to register and go vote (and sharing timely information on how to do that), and
- Connections with other people whom we can encourage to join me in working together for this goal. This is likely the most important, because every person that we encourage to do as much as plan to do will double the potential impact each of us can have.
Now
I’m currently working to make my own specific plans to do this, including scheduling now the weekends that I plan to travel to the high impact states to volunteer, and ways I can save money and time over the next year to help contribute to this.
For all of our children’s futures, there is not a moment to waste from right now. What we plan and choose to do in every day of this year matters.
So, I encourage you all: Decide what this year means to you. Make your own plan. Then go do it.
