Skip to main content

Our World Is Burning. What Does That Mean for Your Vote?

By September 14, 2020February 28th, 2024From Susan

You can see it from space. Our West coast has become a raging inferno with smoke visible from nearly one million miles away. As of this writing, three million acres have burned in California alone and 500,000 people have been ordered to evacuate in Oregon. Whole towns have been burned to the ground, lives lost, property destroyed and with no end in sight. Shocking? Yes. But scientists have warned for years that fire seasons like this were just around the corner.

No, this is not the new normal

The signs are everywhere. Climate change isn’t about something that may happen in the future. It’s happening now before our very eyes as it creeps into our own backyards. Think about the recent devastation we’ve seen on the Gulf Coast, or in Puerto Rico, Texas, the Carolinas, Iowa, and other parts of the country. Heat waves, hurricanes, droughts, abnormal weather patterns – all of this can be scientifically attributed to climate change.

While the majority of Americans agree that climate change is a threat to our future, our current administration has not acknowledged the relationship between the fires and climate change and continues to roll back environmental protections that are desperately needed to make our world safe for our children and their children.

Your vote can change the world

Make no mistake, your vote can change the world for better OR for worse.  Don’t believe it? Think about the past 3 ½ years. While the majority of voters want more renewable sources like wind and solar, the Trump administration has cheered on the coal plants, rolled back the rules about how much pollution can be emitted by cars, and trucks and has undone dozens more regulations aimed at curbing pollutants that directly impact climate change.

Undoubtably the most harmful (and heartbreaking) occurrence over these last years has been the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement– an agreement for which nearly 200 nations came together to pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The United States of America, the second largest polluter in the world, has been the only country to withdraw from a global effort to save our planet.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

We’ve run out of time.

Your children’s future is literally at risk.

Scientists have been saying we have only a decade to reverse this trend, but now many scientists are giving us just 18 months.

Is there hope? Yes. If we move fast.  As countries begin rolling out plans to restart their economies after the damage inflicted by the pandemic, there is opportunity to imbed plans for a greener future. The European Union is creating plans that will transition away from fossil fuels and put people to work making old buildings energy efficient. Yet, the United States and this administration is steadily slashing environmental protections. All while the West coast burns.

We have to ask ourselves: can we afford four more years of inaction on the single biggest threat facing the world?

More than ever, it’s important to vote for candidates who are pro-environment. Fighting climate change is a big part of the Democrat’s platform. It is simply not a priority on the Republican side.

So vote. Vote as if the world were on fire.

-Susan