Bill McKibben’s recent column is a sobering reminder of the crossroads we face as a society. It captures the urgency of the climate crisis and the power of collective action against the entrenched interests of the fossil fuel industry. For those of us in New Mexico, his words resonate deeply as we reflect on the past eight years of struggle, victories, and ongoing battles for environmental justice.
Here in New Mexico, we’ve faced the fossil fuel industry head-on, fighting to protect our communities and the planet from further harm. One of our most significant victories was stopping a proposed LNG plant that would have further entrenched fossil fuels in our state. This win was not just about blocking a facility; it was about affirming the power of people standing together against corporate greed. Our grassroots efforts, spanning from public protests to legal challenges, showed that communities can make a difference when united.
The Fight Against the Strategic Water Supply Act
As McKibben highlights, power often works by distorting reality. In New Mexico, this distortion is glaring in the Strategic Water Supply (SWS) Act currently before the legislature. While framed as a solution for water scarcity, this plan is little more than a lifeline for the fossil fuel industry. It subsidizes the treatment of “produced water” (a toxic byproduct of oil and gas extraction) with taxpayer dollars, locking us into a future where communities bear the cleanup costs while the industry profits.
The SWS Act is a textbook example of environmental injustice. It shifts the financial burden of fossil fuel contamination onto taxpayers, exacerbating existing inequities in a state already struggling with underfunded schools, high rates of air pollution, and water contamination. Communities of color and low-income families—those least responsible for the climate crisis—are the ones who suffer the most.
Environmental Justice Is Community Justice
Our fight for stricter environmental regulations has always been about more than just the environment—it’s about justice. It’s about ensuring that no community has to choose between clean water and economic survival, between breathable air and jobs. This fight has brought together indigenous leaders, environmental advocates, health professionals, and everyday residents to demand accountability from an industry that has long prioritized profits over people.
The impacts of fossil fuels on public health in New Mexico are undeniable. From childhood asthma in areas near oil fields to contaminated drinking water in rural communities, the cost of inaction is measured in lives lost and futures stolen. Yet, the industry’s influence in our legislature remains strong, bolstered by campaign contributions that drown out the voices of the people.
Standing Together
As McKibben reminds us, the climate crisis is not just a scientific problem but a moral one. It demands that we hold onto the truth, even as misinformation floods the public discourse. Our victories in New Mexico show that resistance is possible, even in the face of overwhelming odds. They also remind us that our work is far from over.
We must continue to bring the fight to the people, shining a light on the connections between fossil fuels, public health, and environmental justice. We must resist plans like the SWS Act that deepen the inequities we are striving to eliminate. And we must ensure that the future of our state—and our planet—is built on clean energy, community resilience, and justice for all.
Bill McKibben’s words inspire us to push forward, but the true inspiration comes from the people standing shoulder to shoulder in this fight. Together, we can—and will—win.
Let’s keep the conversation going. Share your thoughts and stories about environmental justice in New Mexico and beyond in the comments below or on social media. And if you’re ready to take action, join us in advocating against the SWS Act and for a cleaner, fairer future.
I feel your pain and as all the anxiety I've carried since November starts spilling from my eyes and as disgusted as I am by our self-worth being determined by the number of followers we have I also believe that sometimes we can use these despicable applications as forces for good.
> Hopefully the horror will give new impetus to calls for Sacramento to follow Albany and Montpelier in passing a “climate superfund” bill to make the shareholders of the oil companies pay for the damage.
I don't fully understand this climate superfund thing. It seems to me that if the purpose of the fund is to "pay for the damage", then it will lessen the economic danger of overconsumption. Yes, big oil is responsible but what about the consumers that just keep buying and buying and keep global shipping and the airline industry going?
Basic economics says that a climate superfund to pay for climate change damage will mainly externalize the cost of consuming to someone else.
Will it hurt big oil? It might make them less rich and maybe seriously hurt a few companies. But as long as oil can be used to do a lot of useful work and externalize that to the environment, it will be extracted.
I love the idea of using solar and wind and other green sources but even if they manage to reduce CO2 by 50% you've still got a greater than 1PPM increase per year and lessening the burden on consumers by externalizing their pain from their very consumption is questionable, in my opinion. Not saying that it's wrong, but it should be scrutinized as a strategy
Climate denialism was the original test case for the disinformation campaigns that now characterize Republican/Russian communications. The hack of the University of East Anglia emails in 2009 (some suspect by the oil-rich state of Russia) and very skillful though utterly dishonest exploitation of them - with much help from right wing media - set the standard for the manipulation of public opinion through Big Lies that has sadly since become routine.
We shall fight for our seas and oceans, we shall fight for our planet. We shall fight the darkness that is coming and we shall never, never surrender. Tomorow the world changes and we stand with those great forces for good that fight with us and we will win. Forget this talk of national defense, of patriotism, of country. Now we are one species and we fight shoulder to shoulder with all those against those in every country including our own that would destroy our planet and kill our children.”
Thank you for this insightful article. I often struggle to talk with global warming deniers aka climate change deniers. I would like to help open their minds. I would ask if any of you or your followers have had success with a listener, would you please share what topic and facts got someone’s attention?
I recently found myself unexpectedly in conversation with an ethnonationalist rightwing German visiting his child in Ireland and as conversations with these types go, after a series of twisty rhetorical turns meant to deflect and distract me from my point (hell no there's no such thing as ethnoAmerican or ethnoGerman, purebred humans is nonsense—his child stepped up and said, Dad we have swedish ancestry in our family) ... I brought up the recent far right anti-democratic wannabe next German chancellors "wind turbines of shame" rhetoric (that party also loves to demonize immigrants).
And then I asked, because despite my anger to be in such a bad faith discussion he aimed to turn into an argument to win, I asked, Tell me. What does your ego gain to reduce your identity to the fact your parents happened to have sex in Germany and randomly produce you? Why does your self-esteem and sense of self depend so much on polluting the planet? Why shame because wind farms are built? Why do you choose emotion and hide behind opinions that don't solve problems in a world your child will spend the rest of their life knowing your generation failed and now are too proud and angry to say I'm sorry? To learn how to take responsibility rather than blaming everyone else and demonizing immigrants?
I gave him an hour of my time because of his child. Facts and topics don't work. Listening might. Asking questions once you figure out how they think and argue might. What got his attention was that I refused to agree or argue or accept that he had a right to an opinion that destroys the world I have to live in. Don't know if that helps. Takes a lot of self-control and patience. I felt angry for two days as a result of trying and failing. But I know he was trying and failing to change my mind and looking like he was controlling his temper. His child was a witness and didn't look surprised by any of his bs.
This might be helpful. I'm interested in this, too, with some of my neighbors. Approaching with curiosity and linking cc to something you know someone cares about seem to be the best pieces of advice. Helpful to me is to remember you won't get it perfectly and it will won't happen over one conversation.
The inauguration marks another, more ominous ending. That is, the value we place on truth. Because we are going to inaugurate the conscious transmission of bullshit. "In his 2005 work "On Bullshit", Princeton philosophy professor Henry G. Frankfurt defines bullshit not as mere lying - sometimes bullshit is true - but as the product of a post-truth state of mind. "It is", he writes, "a lack of connection to a concern with truth - this indifference to how things really are - that I regard as the essence of bullshit." From "The Wrongness of Baseball History" by Thomas W. Gilbert
The is no argument that we humans must persist in reducing the causes of climate change. However, in the meantime, we should stop ranting about insurance companies, understaffed fire departments, and stupid land use and concentrate on hardening our abodes before it is too late. Do we really want to celebrate the return of a normal climate if we are all living in makeshift huts because most of our homes have burned down, floated downriver, or been blown to smithereens in wind storms and hurricanes?
Being retired Navy, I have lived around a lot and traveled a lot. My BFF is a German, my spouse is a Bulgarian, and we have friends all over the EU. It is hard not to notice that even poor countries in Eastern Europe typically build their house with brick, rock, or concrete walls with heavy tile roofs. They also avoid building in flood plains, deep woods, or places with unstable earth like mesa cliffs, and steep hillsides.
In contrast, America has, since its inception, been building houses out of wood - or more recently wood-frame with aluminum, wood plank, stucco, etc. siding and light and flammable asphalt shingles with tar paper underlayments. We can afford concrete walled homes with blow-off and fire-resistant roofs. My house is built that way because I live on the Florida Atlantic coast way above storm tide height. Our entire neighborhood, being in a hurricane-prone state, was engineered to handle heavy rain runoff that sends water the sewers cannot handle to normally dry-field catchment ponds so nobody's house floods.
A headline picture of the only house standing on Mexico Beach after Hurricane Michael had concrete walls, built on concrete pilings well above storm tide, with a tile roof that did not blow off. Nearly all surrounding homes lost their roofs, the walls blew out, and the storm tide washed them out into the Gulf of Mexico. I have seen pictures of totally destroyed mansions near the California coast with one or two concrete houses standing after a wildfire without a scratch.
We need statewide building codes that will require homes to be built to withstand today's fires, windstorms, and floods - and we need them enforced. Insurance companies should offer discounts to owners who harden their homes as motivation to help reduce losses. My house has seen 6 hurricanes. The only damage was to the pool screen from flying debris from other people's yards.
<< Last year saw the biggest one-year jump on record, with carbon dioxide levels rising by 3.58 parts per million.
<< The figure exceeds the most pessimistic predictions of the U.K. Met Office, which says that even record-high emissions from fossil fuels cannot fully explain the surge in carbon dioxide.
<< U.K. scientists note that increasingly severe heat and drought mean that trees and grasses are drawing down less carbon dioxide than in the past, while desiccated soils are also releasing more carbon back into the atmosphere. >> Bit.ly/YaleE360-17Jan25
This seems to undermine Michael Mann’s explanation that once Net Zero is achieved, trees and grasses will draw down legacy CO2 emissions from the atmosphere (including what’s released from the ocean due to the change in partial pressure differential) quickly enough to reduce atmospheric concentration and global temperature within a matter of a few years or decades—before catastrophic tipping points become runaway and global temperatures become unlivable.
As you were saying, money and power are at the core of climate denial and obstructing the energy transition. It’s nice to know there are other options.
Thanks for your newsletter as always. It’s great to get a rundown of what’s happening in summary form with additional links to more info.
Excellent column, Bill. I admire how ability to knit together your own person loss, other people's reactions to government policies, financial analysis, sadness, and hope.
Say, is there a link to that livestream I can share?
As Bill says, I truly believe that the economics of the clean energy industry is what will save us. So much of our society is focused on money that the continued growth of profits from clean energy will overwhelm the fossil fuel industry. I hope - for our children’s and grandchildren’s sakes.
Bill suggests we are moving from the era of justice to an era of power. Really? When was there an era of "justice"? Who experienced that commitment to justice rather than power? Surely, it was not the victims of brutal, traumatizing, and destructive U.S. foreign policy in Korea, Iran, Guatemala, Uruguay, the Congo, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Palestine, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Cuba, Panama, Grenada, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Angola, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Kurds, etc., etc. The number of people killed, mutilated, maimed, displaced, psychically and emotionally traumatized is surely in the hundreds of millions. Tell them about the U.S. commitment to justice. It has always been about power.
Yes, it will almost surely be worse under Trump, domestically and internationally, and Trump and his fascist minions will push us ever closer to the abyss as global heating, eco-system destruction, and the Sixth Great Extinction spiral out of control, all driven by capitalism's irrational quest to exponentially increase the accumulation of capital at all costs, including the cost of making the earth uninhabitable for increasing life forms, including human life. Buckle up; rise up.
i kind of think the reason emissions were so high this year is the genocide in Gaza that receives no attention whatsoever here. that might be a political decision -not to piss off big donors, friends in high places etc - but our military expends the most emissions if i am not wrong.
Biden doomed us with this unbearable genocide emanating every day for over 400 days from our phones. i could watch a massacre on almost any given night in extreme detail as if it were happening across the street from me. on his way out, he gave 8 billion more weapons to Israel while insisting he told them all along not to kill civilians. the US was the only country to veto a ceasefire at the UN 4 times.
our vested interest in colonization and depraved militarism (bombing children in refugee tents- does it get any worse?) lost Dems the election. all polls show that GAZA GENOCIDE was the number one reason people did not vote for Harris, who refused to distinguish herself from Biden and his awful genocidal policies.
the Dems slow walked Trump for a miscalculated easy win in 2024 (or just genuinely feared mafia style retribution- most likely reason IMAO), and left us to this extreme downward spiral.
the fires in CA are a precursor to the complete blow out coming our way (we all know this is true).
Americans are poor. very very poor. they choose between groceries and housing. outside the nice metropolitan areas (not great in LA, i can tell you). so fascism in its most extreme is upon us.
they will steal immigrants housing for their own. whites have done this to Blacks before - it is nothing new. it will be violent, horrific, and senseless. we won't progress. there isn't any chance of progress.
Is there a link to the youtube livestream we can share?
I found it: https://www.facebook.com/events/s/the-way-we-get-through-this-is/799613369024488/
Also accessible on YouTube by searching: rebecca solnit the way we get through this is together
Thanks! Here's the YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf_ydiJ8GLw
Bill McKibben’s recent column is a sobering reminder of the crossroads we face as a society. It captures the urgency of the climate crisis and the power of collective action against the entrenched interests of the fossil fuel industry. For those of us in New Mexico, his words resonate deeply as we reflect on the past eight years of struggle, victories, and ongoing battles for environmental justice.
Here in New Mexico, we’ve faced the fossil fuel industry head-on, fighting to protect our communities and the planet from further harm. One of our most significant victories was stopping a proposed LNG plant that would have further entrenched fossil fuels in our state. This win was not just about blocking a facility; it was about affirming the power of people standing together against corporate greed. Our grassroots efforts, spanning from public protests to legal challenges, showed that communities can make a difference when united.
The Fight Against the Strategic Water Supply Act
As McKibben highlights, power often works by distorting reality. In New Mexico, this distortion is glaring in the Strategic Water Supply (SWS) Act currently before the legislature. While framed as a solution for water scarcity, this plan is little more than a lifeline for the fossil fuel industry. It subsidizes the treatment of “produced water” (a toxic byproduct of oil and gas extraction) with taxpayer dollars, locking us into a future where communities bear the cleanup costs while the industry profits.
The SWS Act is a textbook example of environmental injustice. It shifts the financial burden of fossil fuel contamination onto taxpayers, exacerbating existing inequities in a state already struggling with underfunded schools, high rates of air pollution, and water contamination. Communities of color and low-income families—those least responsible for the climate crisis—are the ones who suffer the most.
Environmental Justice Is Community Justice
Our fight for stricter environmental regulations has always been about more than just the environment—it’s about justice. It’s about ensuring that no community has to choose between clean water and economic survival, between breathable air and jobs. This fight has brought together indigenous leaders, environmental advocates, health professionals, and everyday residents to demand accountability from an industry that has long prioritized profits over people.
The impacts of fossil fuels on public health in New Mexico are undeniable. From childhood asthma in areas near oil fields to contaminated drinking water in rural communities, the cost of inaction is measured in lives lost and futures stolen. Yet, the industry’s influence in our legislature remains strong, bolstered by campaign contributions that drown out the voices of the people.
Standing Together
As McKibben reminds us, the climate crisis is not just a scientific problem but a moral one. It demands that we hold onto the truth, even as misinformation floods the public discourse. Our victories in New Mexico show that resistance is possible, even in the face of overwhelming odds. They also remind us that our work is far from over.
We must continue to bring the fight to the people, shining a light on the connections between fossil fuels, public health, and environmental justice. We must resist plans like the SWS Act that deepen the inequities we are striving to eliminate. And we must ensure that the future of our state—and our planet—is built on clean energy, community resilience, and justice for all.
Bill McKibben’s words inspire us to push forward, but the true inspiration comes from the people standing shoulder to shoulder in this fight. Together, we can—and will—win.
Let’s keep the conversation going. Share your thoughts and stories about environmental justice in New Mexico and beyond in the comments below or on social media. And if you’re ready to take action, join us in advocating against the SWS Act and for a cleaner, fairer future.
#EnvironmentalJustice #ClimateAction #NewMexico #FossilFuelResistance
Yes, but…..Facebook. A livestream on Facebook?!
I feel your pain and as all the anxiety I've carried since November starts spilling from my eyes and as disgusted as I am by our self-worth being determined by the number of followers we have I also believe that sometimes we can use these despicable applications as forces for good.
> Hopefully the horror will give new impetus to calls for Sacramento to follow Albany and Montpelier in passing a “climate superfund” bill to make the shareholders of the oil companies pay for the damage.
I don't fully understand this climate superfund thing. It seems to me that if the purpose of the fund is to "pay for the damage", then it will lessen the economic danger of overconsumption. Yes, big oil is responsible but what about the consumers that just keep buying and buying and keep global shipping and the airline industry going?
Basic economics says that a climate superfund to pay for climate change damage will mainly externalize the cost of consuming to someone else.
Will it hurt big oil? It might make them less rich and maybe seriously hurt a few companies. But as long as oil can be used to do a lot of useful work and externalize that to the environment, it will be extracted.
I love the idea of using solar and wind and other green sources but even if they manage to reduce CO2 by 50% you've still got a greater than 1PPM increase per year and lessening the burden on consumers by externalizing their pain from their very consumption is questionable, in my opinion. Not saying that it's wrong, but it should be scrutinized as a strategy
Climate denialism was the original test case for the disinformation campaigns that now characterize Republican/Russian communications. The hack of the University of East Anglia emails in 2009 (some suspect by the oil-rich state of Russia) and very skillful though utterly dishonest exploitation of them - with much help from right wing media - set the standard for the manipulation of public opinion through Big Lies that has sadly since become routine.
That seems correct to me
We shall fight for our seas and oceans, we shall fight for our planet. We shall fight the darkness that is coming and we shall never, never surrender. Tomorow the world changes and we stand with those great forces for good that fight with us and we will win. Forget this talk of national defense, of patriotism, of country. Now we are one species and we fight shoulder to shoulder with all those against those in every country including our own that would destroy our planet and kill our children.”
The war has begun.
Thank you for this insightful article. I often struggle to talk with global warming deniers aka climate change deniers. I would like to help open their minds. I would ask if any of you or your followers have had success with a listener, would you please share what topic and facts got someone’s attention?
I recently found myself unexpectedly in conversation with an ethnonationalist rightwing German visiting his child in Ireland and as conversations with these types go, after a series of twisty rhetorical turns meant to deflect and distract me from my point (hell no there's no such thing as ethnoAmerican or ethnoGerman, purebred humans is nonsense—his child stepped up and said, Dad we have swedish ancestry in our family) ... I brought up the recent far right anti-democratic wannabe next German chancellors "wind turbines of shame" rhetoric (that party also loves to demonize immigrants).
And then I asked, because despite my anger to be in such a bad faith discussion he aimed to turn into an argument to win, I asked, Tell me. What does your ego gain to reduce your identity to the fact your parents happened to have sex in Germany and randomly produce you? Why does your self-esteem and sense of self depend so much on polluting the planet? Why shame because wind farms are built? Why do you choose emotion and hide behind opinions that don't solve problems in a world your child will spend the rest of their life knowing your generation failed and now are too proud and angry to say I'm sorry? To learn how to take responsibility rather than blaming everyone else and demonizing immigrants?
I gave him an hour of my time because of his child. Facts and topics don't work. Listening might. Asking questions once you figure out how they think and argue might. What got his attention was that I refused to agree or argue or accept that he had a right to an opinion that destroys the world I have to live in. Don't know if that helps. Takes a lot of self-control and patience. I felt angry for two days as a result of trying and failing. But I know he was trying and failing to change my mind and looking like he was controlling his temper. His child was a witness and didn't look surprised by any of his bs.
https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2024/02/how-to-speak-with-your-family-and-friends-about-environmental-issues/
This might be helpful. I'm interested in this, too, with some of my neighbors. Approaching with curiosity and linking cc to something you know someone cares about seem to be the best pieces of advice. Helpful to me is to remember you won't get it perfectly and it will won't happen over one conversation.
A large proportion of the US population appears to be in denial. T. S. Eliot was correct when he said "humankind cannot bear very much reality."
The inauguration marks another, more ominous ending. That is, the value we place on truth. Because we are going to inaugurate the conscious transmission of bullshit. "In his 2005 work "On Bullshit", Princeton philosophy professor Henry G. Frankfurt defines bullshit not as mere lying - sometimes bullshit is true - but as the product of a post-truth state of mind. "It is", he writes, "a lack of connection to a concern with truth - this indifference to how things really are - that I regard as the essence of bullshit." From "The Wrongness of Baseball History" by Thomas W. Gilbert
The is no argument that we humans must persist in reducing the causes of climate change. However, in the meantime, we should stop ranting about insurance companies, understaffed fire departments, and stupid land use and concentrate on hardening our abodes before it is too late. Do we really want to celebrate the return of a normal climate if we are all living in makeshift huts because most of our homes have burned down, floated downriver, or been blown to smithereens in wind storms and hurricanes?
Being retired Navy, I have lived around a lot and traveled a lot. My BFF is a German, my spouse is a Bulgarian, and we have friends all over the EU. It is hard not to notice that even poor countries in Eastern Europe typically build their house with brick, rock, or concrete walls with heavy tile roofs. They also avoid building in flood plains, deep woods, or places with unstable earth like mesa cliffs, and steep hillsides.
In contrast, America has, since its inception, been building houses out of wood - or more recently wood-frame with aluminum, wood plank, stucco, etc. siding and light and flammable asphalt shingles with tar paper underlayments. We can afford concrete walled homes with blow-off and fire-resistant roofs. My house is built that way because I live on the Florida Atlantic coast way above storm tide height. Our entire neighborhood, being in a hurricane-prone state, was engineered to handle heavy rain runoff that sends water the sewers cannot handle to normally dry-field catchment ponds so nobody's house floods.
A headline picture of the only house standing on Mexico Beach after Hurricane Michael had concrete walls, built on concrete pilings well above storm tide, with a tile roof that did not blow off. Nearly all surrounding homes lost their roofs, the walls blew out, and the storm tide washed them out into the Gulf of Mexico. I have seen pictures of totally destroyed mansions near the California coast with one or two concrete houses standing after a wildfire without a scratch.
We need statewide building codes that will require homes to be built to withstand today's fires, windstorms, and floods - and we need them enforced. Insurance companies should offer discounts to owners who harden their homes as motivation to help reduce losses. My house has seen 6 hurricanes. The only damage was to the pool screen from flying debris from other people's yards.
This is frightening:
<< Last year saw the biggest one-year jump on record, with carbon dioxide levels rising by 3.58 parts per million.
<< The figure exceeds the most pessimistic predictions of the U.K. Met Office, which says that even record-high emissions from fossil fuels cannot fully explain the surge in carbon dioxide.
<< U.K. scientists note that increasingly severe heat and drought mean that trees and grasses are drawing down less carbon dioxide than in the past, while desiccated soils are also releasing more carbon back into the atmosphere. >> Bit.ly/YaleE360-17Jan25
This seems to undermine Michael Mann’s explanation that once Net Zero is achieved, trees and grasses will draw down legacy CO2 emissions from the atmosphere (including what’s released from the ocean due to the change in partial pressure differential) quickly enough to reduce atmospheric concentration and global temperature within a matter of a few years or decades—before catastrophic tipping points become runaway and global temperatures become unlivable.
Hi Bill,
I’m wondering if you have come across climatize and would consider sharing this opportunity to make clean energy loans to your followers?
https://web.climatize.earth/
As you were saying, money and power are at the core of climate denial and obstructing the energy transition. It’s nice to know there are other options.
Thanks for your newsletter as always. It’s great to get a rundown of what’s happening in summary form with additional links to more info.
Excellent column, Bill. I admire how ability to knit together your own person loss, other people's reactions to government policies, financial analysis, sadness, and hope.
Say, is there a link to that livestream I can share?
As Bill says, I truly believe that the economics of the clean energy industry is what will save us. So much of our society is focused on money that the continued growth of profits from clean energy will overwhelm the fossil fuel industry. I hope - for our children’s and grandchildren’s sakes.
Bill suggests we are moving from the era of justice to an era of power. Really? When was there an era of "justice"? Who experienced that commitment to justice rather than power? Surely, it was not the victims of brutal, traumatizing, and destructive U.S. foreign policy in Korea, Iran, Guatemala, Uruguay, the Congo, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Palestine, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Cuba, Panama, Grenada, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Angola, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Kurds, etc., etc. The number of people killed, mutilated, maimed, displaced, psychically and emotionally traumatized is surely in the hundreds of millions. Tell them about the U.S. commitment to justice. It has always been about power.
Yes, it will almost surely be worse under Trump, domestically and internationally, and Trump and his fascist minions will push us ever closer to the abyss as global heating, eco-system destruction, and the Sixth Great Extinction spiral out of control, all driven by capitalism's irrational quest to exponentially increase the accumulation of capital at all costs, including the cost of making the earth uninhabitable for increasing life forms, including human life. Buckle up; rise up.
i kind of think the reason emissions were so high this year is the genocide in Gaza that receives no attention whatsoever here. that might be a political decision -not to piss off big donors, friends in high places etc - but our military expends the most emissions if i am not wrong.
Biden doomed us with this unbearable genocide emanating every day for over 400 days from our phones. i could watch a massacre on almost any given night in extreme detail as if it were happening across the street from me. on his way out, he gave 8 billion more weapons to Israel while insisting he told them all along not to kill civilians. the US was the only country to veto a ceasefire at the UN 4 times.
our vested interest in colonization and depraved militarism (bombing children in refugee tents- does it get any worse?) lost Dems the election. all polls show that GAZA GENOCIDE was the number one reason people did not vote for Harris, who refused to distinguish herself from Biden and his awful genocidal policies.
the Dems slow walked Trump for a miscalculated easy win in 2024 (or just genuinely feared mafia style retribution- most likely reason IMAO), and left us to this extreme downward spiral.
the fires in CA are a precursor to the complete blow out coming our way (we all know this is true).
Americans are poor. very very poor. they choose between groceries and housing. outside the nice metropolitan areas (not great in LA, i can tell you). so fascism in its most extreme is upon us.
they will steal immigrants housing for their own. whites have done this to Blacks before - it is nothing new. it will be violent, horrific, and senseless. we won't progress. there isn't any chance of progress.