Think Global, Act Local

It may be our only remaining hope - because we're all going down together

From Hillary Clinton’s Instagram account comes this lovely photo of two people who, if elected, might have changed the world.

Anybody else remember when we thought we’d be able to accelerate climate action by holding the incoming president’s feet to the fire and demanding more urgent measures? Remember?

I remember thinking about that in 2015, when so many of us (me included) were convinced that Hillary Clinton could not avoid being elected president. We didn’t think that she’d be a perfect “climate change president.” Many of us did think, though, that she’d be persuadable. I recall thinking - and talking out loud to others about this - that we would be able to “pivot to climate” and expend more activist energy on that issue, because most of our other important issues would be well in hand in a Clinton administration. (I know. I am a “sweet summer child.” Or, if you prefer, a “dimwitted knucklehead.” It’s kind of the same thing.)

Anyway… good times, eh?

Instead, we got Trump. In addition to all of the criming, failures, insanity, and chaos his ridiculous “administration” brought us, he also pulled the United States back from the Paris 2015 climate accord, dealing a dire blow to that already frail and hopium-heavy agreement among nations.

The first Trump administration meant that those of us in the US demanding “climate action” continued to agitate (remember the 2019 climate strike? it was HUGE) but as we did so, many were also dreaming of 2020, when the incoming Democrats would surely be more persuadable. Perhaps there would be the political will to declare a climate emergency? Perhaps with THIS incoming administration, climate would be on the front burner?

And then… COVID. The world was derailed. Activists continued to plan, to protest, to snarl traffic and block shipping lanes, to glue themselves to roadways and throw food at art, and however you feel about any of that, it did keep the climate at least somewhat in the headlines. The Biden Administration did pass the Inflation Reduction Act (more on that in a moment), but the sense of URGENCY was not there. Worse, per data from the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management, the Biden Administration granted 3,377 permits to drill on public land in 2023 - and in fact permitting was up 50% over the permitting during the first Trump Administration.

In 2016, the average global CO2 level was 404.41ppm.

In 2023, the average global CO2 level was 421.08ppm.

Global CO2 is not all the fault of the United States. But if we had managed to reduce our enormous emissions levels, then… perhaps those numbers wouldn’t be what they are.

But Biden had a lot on his plate cleaning up the Trump disasters, dealing with global inflation, steadying the ship of state and getting the economy back in gear. Maybe it was too much to hope that there would be time or political will to do more than the IRA? It probably was.

So I was hoping - I think a lot of us were hoping (and working, campaigning, call-banking, door-knocking) - for a Blue Wave in 2024 that would keep Trump out of office and continue with Democratic control of at least the White House and one branch of congress. These would be people on whom a climate revolution might work. People who might respond positively if activists were able to occupy the National Mall, pitch tents on the White House lawn - whatever the tactics might have been.

Am I describing clutching at straws? Yes, dear reader, I believe that I am. But the hope was out there. A little bit of hope remained, however flickering, that an energized mass of climate revolutionaries would be able to convince the Democratic chief executive to declare a climate emergency, impose a $1.00/gallon tax on gas at the pump, institute a reasonable system of rationing, create a national Climate Corps to plant trees and re-wild huge swathes of land… you get the drift.

Instead, the Insane Clown Posse is riding back into town, and they’re probably gleefully coal-rolling in a flotilla of two ton, jacked-up, super cab pick-ups.

We will not be “getting back to normal.” That ship has sailed. The climate has changed. The questions now are: what do we do to save as many folks as we can? And do we finally revolt against the parasitic capitalist elite who are driving this multi-crisis?

If we just address the heat of a world that is 2.0C hotter than the present moment, we can see that the climate barreling down on us is not something to which we can adapt. Bear in mind that “the last time the Earth was hotter than it is today was at least 125,000 years ago, long before anything that resembled human civilization appeared.”

So how is it that we are letting amoral asshole capitalist scum like fossil fuel corporation CEOs and bought-and-paid-for politician lackeys steal it from us? Are you not angry yet!?

We will all suffer. The richest among us - those moral vacuities whose highest aim is to slash their taxes while supercharging their sad, desperate, empty hyper-consumption - will likely not, at first. But do you remember that old song? Yes, the more-than-occasionally mawkish Billy Joel wrote in “Goodnight Saigon” a lyric that haunts me to this day:

“And we will all go down together.”

There’s no hope that in the next four years we’re going to make any progress on lowering emissions. In their infinite wisdom, Americans once again elevated a vacuous, preening, greedy rapist to the presidency. They elected a man whose cupidity is boundless. A man who could not learn about the climate crisis if someone drilled a hole in his cranium and set up a hose with SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE stenciled on it, to deliver information directly to his dangerously smooth gray matter.

And even if he COULD learn, he wouldn’t. He’s not motivated to think about anything but filthy, short-term profits for himself and his best buds the Saudis and Russians and assorted fossil fuel executives and willfully blind billionaires and other enemies of humanity.

I’ve been advocating for a climate revolution for years. I’ve been repeating,

“Asking did not work, voting did not work, marching did not work, emissions keep rising, our leaders have failed us: CLIMATE REVOLUTION”

for a long time. I passionately believe that a revolution will be necessary for any substantive change to happen.

The rub is - what does a “climate revolution” look like now with the foxes guarding the hen house? What constitutes a revolt when we also have so much on our collective plates (abortion, LGBTQIA+ issues, race, misogyny, actual fucking functioning democracy… and more…) in the next few years?

Back in 2016, a massive occupation of the National Mall might have moved the needle with the federal government, had a Democratic administration been in office.

The various marches and protests since 2014 have perhaps moved public sentiment, given that as of 2023, 72% of Americans believe that global warming is happening, but federal policy is still not in emergency mode. For example, the Biden Administration was able to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which contained almost $400 billion in funding to reduce carbon emissions - but, crucially, did nothing drastic enough to actually bend the curve down. This is incremental change, at best, at a time when we need to be “on a war footing” vis a vis the climate.

And that action - not enough, but something - was under a Democratic administration! With Trump and his “drill baby drill” gang in power, there’s no hope that we’ll get anything other than increased extraction and the old rape - pillage - plunder routine over the next four years.

So now what?

Local governments cannot do a great deal to influence emissions, but they can do a little. And more importantly, local governments can do things that might materially help you when the next flash flood, wildfire, heat dome, or hurricane is looming.

It is commonly held, too, that local governments are more responsive to their constituents. If you can go to a town meeting, or a chamber of commerce shindig, or walk over and talk to your local aldermen, you can make eye contact. Talk to someone in person. Persuade. Run for office. Enact local measures to increase protections for more vulnerable folks when the next heat dome hits. Change zoning laws to ensure that homes cannot be built in areas most prone to flooding or landslides. Set up hotlines and cooling centers and food banks.

There is a lot that we can do on the local level to help ease some of the pain that is coming. In fact, this might be the way we have to do a “climate revolution” - by hand, near home, project by project. The revolution may be just us putting up our hands and saying SAVE US. HELP US. Don’t abandon us!

Sure, we can (we must) continue to agitate on the larger stage. We must do what we can to rebel against the oligarchs and rando billionaires who are buying influence the way the rest of us buy toilet paper. But the true revolution for our survival may have to be more modest, less sweeping, less dramatic, yet no less existentially important.

I’d like to talk about that more here. What do y’all think?

Thanks for reading!