Just a Statement ...

I wish this was originally mine ... It's not. It is however ... the way I feel.

There Is Only One Issue


Imagine you’re a passenger on a train, and things are not going well in your car. A racist white passenger is refusing to allow an African-American fellow passenger to take the adjacent seat. A female passenger is being sexually-harassed by her seatmate. Several passengers are openly carrying firearms. An ICE agent is prowling the car asking for people’s identification. And the car itself is divided into a luxurious front area for the rich, and a dilapidated, overcrowded, and unsanitary rear area for ordinary passengers.

In the midst of all this dysfunction, a conductor enters and announces that the brakes have failed and that the train is five miles from the end of the line – a terminal station with a cement barrier. He suggests that if all the passengers were to open the windows and hold flat items outside the train, the combined wind resistance might be enough to slow the train in time to minimize the oncoming impact.*

Now imagine the following reactions:

*Some passengers deny that the brakes have failed and accuse the conductor of deliberately misrepresenting the situation as part of an elaborate hoax he and his fellow conductors are perpetrating on train passengers.

*Other passengers admit that the brakes may not be in perfect order, but argue that brakes generally wear down over time and the trains don’t smash into barriers, and therefore it’s unreasonable for the conductor to ask them to inconvenience themselves in this instance.

*Others are genuinely concerned about the brakes failing, but point out that failed brakes are one of many pressing issues that need to be resolved on the train, including overt racism, sexual harassment, dangerous firearms, immigrant rights violations, and gross economic inequality.

*Still others argue that the whole train industry is nothing but an expression of a system that values profit over safety and was built on exploitation and oppression, and that until that system is addressed at its roots, there can be no real progress in slowing down trains.

*Finally, a few people are screaming at everyone else to drop what they are doing and stick stuff out the windows as quickly as possible to prevent looming catastrophe. These people are labeled as “alarmists.”

This is, of course, a metaphor for current situation regarding climate change.

Granted, there is no single “cement barrier” that the earth will suddenly hit. We are already experiencing the “impact” of climate change today, and the catastrophe we face will unspool over decades and centuries.

On the other hand, scientists have now given us a clear deadline for reducing our carbon output to avert the worst impacts: twelve years. A terrifyingly short time given the scope of the challenge we face. This is a genuine, all-hands-on-deck emergency requiring immediate, coordinated action.

And yet, like the passengers on the train, we do not squarely face the facts. Certainly not those on the political right, but we on the left also fail to act as if we truly appreciate the gravity of the situation. Instead, we act as if climate is one among a group of issues that we are concerned about – and for many of us, it is not even at the top of the list.

I am not suggesting we need to focus on climate to the total exclusion of other issues. Things are not quite as dire as that. But they are, unfortunately, dire enough and urgent enough that we must all – every one of us – acknowledge that climate change must be everyone’s number one issue.

If we do not, climate change will soon make a mockery of all our other progressive priorities:

*Climate is already fueling migration, and that will only be amplified as people move due to food insecurity, resource conflicts, and to escape heat, flooding, and extreme weather.

*Progressive economic priorities like universal health care, paid family leave, free college, and a universal basic income will prove unaffordable as climate change wipes an estimated 10% off of global economic output.

*Racism and religious intolerance will skyrocket as humans retreat into their identity groups for security in a world of food shortages and resource wars;

*Efforts to help the world’s poor will be overwhelmed as heat and floods disproportionately impact the poorest.

*Environmental protection efforts will succumb to mass extinctions, wildfires, the death of all coral, insect infestation and melting sea ice, among other effects.

*And as for gun control – well, you may wind up wanting an arsenal for yourself when the time comes.

And all that is not to mention the emerging evidence that feedback loops may cause global warming to spiral out of control, potentially ending life on earth as we know it. Which — for those doing the math — would also be the end of the progressive agenda.

So climate must be everyone’s top priority – the first topic in every debate – the deciding issue for every voter (including you). This is morally and practically necessary. But as the crafters of the Green New Deal understood, many of the other issues we feel passionately about can find a place within the fight for the planet. Battling climate change will require protecting those most in need, both from its destructive effects and from the economic impact of higher energy and transportation prices; it will require redistributing wealth and re-prioritizing Federal spending in order to fund jobs and education for workers to implement the new energy, transportation, and agricultural infrastructure, and fund mitigation efforts; it will require addressing the systemic racism inherent in our NIMBY approach to pollution; it will require empowering women around the world and enforcing environmental protection and placing limits on the excesses of capitalism; it will require extending health care to those most affected, regardless of ability to pay. In short, it will require enacting large portions of the progressive agenda.

But all this must happen within the framework of saving planet earth. In that sense, there is only one issue. Because the train is racing towards the barrier. There is very little time left to act. And on this train, we’re not the only passengers. Our children, and theirs, ride along with us.

 

Why? ... Is there really an issue here?

 

The main topic of the post is "Climate Change" ... the post is in a forum titled "Environmental Discussion". Is Climate Change something other than Environmental? I'm curious here.

Thank You for your time and consideration in this matter.​

 

OK ... so all the major storms and uncontrollable droughts along with the wildfires that go with are no big deal. The great masses of melting glacial areas at or near either pole are not of any concern either. The severity of ranges of regular weather changes all over the world are worthy of no thought.

We've got less than 11-years to face and fix this problem. Those who choose to deny it ... well ... they are who and what they are.

 

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