A Third Call to Action
Continuing the theme of my last two posts, here is another softer on substance and heavier on hey-do-this. The particular theme of this call is “curt.”
The whole crux of the climate issue is not a scientific one. We have the scientific knowledge and means to address the recognized problem. What stands in our way is not a lack of anything external but of something internal. We lack the will to make the change(s) that we have to make.
Or, maybe we have the will but the political system we live in is too heavy to move so quickly to about face. I doubt this considering only 57% of Americans think we are causing climate change. Our system is slow to change and take on such a difficult problem, truly, but if a significant portion of the population doesn’t care or think the issue is real, any representative system will have similar failings.
So, we face not a scientific issue, but a political one. Now, we don’t lack all will to fight this political problem. House Democrats recently proposed a significant additional EV tax credit. A carbon price and Clean Electricity Standards are on the federal table. A fully recyclable wind turbine was recently developed.
But of course, as is the eternal song of current poli-climate machinations, it is nowhere near enough. Europe may be poised to miss its 2030 climate goal by 21 years. My own home of California, an ostensible bastion of progressive climate action here in the States, failed to pass a bill codifying net-zero goals just this week.
While such news can be disheartening, it fortunately doesn’t really change the strategy of the plan of attack. There aren’t a lot of different (high-level) approaches to take when it comes to trying to get political change in our world, my world (I don’t know what achieving political change in China looks like). You vote, you contact your representatives, you advocate, you march, you protest, you strike, you make your voice heard. Strike that. We vote, we contact our representatives, we advocate, we march, we protest, we strike, we make our voice heard.
A lot of that blends into one: make known the needed change. So, I ask, make known the needed change.
Congress is still discussing what the reconciliation package will be. There are promising climate provisions. We need to ensure that they are mountain-moving-grade. This will determine if we can start to meet our goals, goals which we have to meet.
Well, we don’t have to. Life will just be unquestionably worse, so much worse, if we don’t. So, support climate action now.
Call.
Help.
Do you really have any reason not to?
Do you?
Hoping to get back to writing some more substance + call-to-action pieces soon.
It could get us on the road to a ~45% reduction in emissions, a desperately needed bound in the right direction.