By Audrey MaUPDATED: December 7, 2024 at 6:01 AM PSTIt was heartbreaking to see Florida hit by two powerful hurricanes in quick succession, leaving behind a trail of destruction that Floridians are still struggling to rebuild from. But it’s the human losses that rips my heart to pieces — the 7-year-old boy washed away with his grandparents, or the families still waiting to find out if their missing loved ones will ever be found. Meanwhile, here in Southern California, we are coming out of the hottest summer in 130 years. And this heat has come on the heels of the sixth-wettest year on record for Southern California. It isn’t just the hurricanes and the heat that have left a mark on me — it’s the sense that these events are no longer rare anomalies but part of a new, unsettling normal.I looked up the least disaster-prone areas in the United States. What I saw shocked me. It is so small there is no way to fit 330 million people in the remaining places that are considered somewhat safe. We are now all at risk. There is no such thing as a climate-safe haven anymore.Scientists have told us for the past 50 years that there is an invisible enemy coming out of our factories, cars and power plants, that if left unchecked, would cause hurricanes to grow stronger, droughts to become deeper,and fires to burn hotter. The invisible enemies of carbon dioxide and methane don’t care who we are, what we believe or what our politics are. They trap heat because they obey the laws of physics. It’s that simple, but we didn’t listen. It’s just so much easier to see climate change as a distant threat, something that happens far away, but now it’s happening in real time and in our own backyards.In the face of this clear, present, and universal danger, what did we do? Pretty much nothing — 2023 set a world record for greenhouse gas emissions. We refuse to act not because we don’t have the tools to act, but because of the forces of inertia, fear and greed. We have a fire burning in the sky so we don’t have to burn here. The technology exists to harness the sun’s energy but it requires change, and people don’t like change. But change can be a powerful self-fulfilling force. When we make change at the local level it will spur others to do the same. When we vote and hold politicians accountable, we make change. When we show up to protests, we make change.We also need to tell the real narrative behind climate change. Big Oil funds much of the public relations campaign that is fueling the fear, uncertainty and doubt surrounding fossil fuels and climate change. Humans worship a unique force, the “profit motive.” The electric companies and oil refineries have spent the last two centuries profiting off of fossil fuels. Their entire profit machine is predicated on burning something. First it was coal, then oil and now natural gas. They fear that rapid change toward clean energy will scare away their customers and investors so they used the playbook
Mer. Dic 25th, 2024
