In a commentary for this issue of The Progressive addressing the world’s climate emergency, writer David Helvarg highlights an important distinction: “We had long thought of climate change as being like a thermostat happening gradually over centuries,” he writes, “but more recent science shows it’s more like a light switch that can change everything in a few decades.” Extreme climate events in the past few months have dramatically underscored that statement.
In the month or so that we’ve been preparing this edition on climate change and Indigenous issues, we’ve witnessed a barrage of extreme weather events, including the hottest three months on record; the hottest global sea surface temperatures since records began in 1850; devastating wildfires in Hawaiʻi that destroyed thousands of homes and killed almost 100 people; Canadian wildfires that set a new record for carbon emissions; a wildfire at a scale never seen before in Spain’s Canary Islands; extreme flooding in Greece that turned “villages into lakes”; catastrophic flooding in Libya that killed more than 11,000 people; record rains that caused significant flooding in Japan; the worst flooding in parts of China in sixty years; flash floods in Pennsylvania; flooding in Las Vegas, Nevada; and even torrential rains at the Burning Man festival that temporarily trapped thousands of people on the mud flats of the Nevada desert. Perhaps Burning Man should be henceforth christened “Burning Planet.”
We humans like to think we’re smart enough to figure things out, but so far, we haven’t. Otherwise, we would have listened to what Indigenous peoples, climate scientists, and environmentalists have been telling us for decades: Our species—along with many others—will not survive here on Earth unless we implement immediate and drastic changes in how we live and the carbon that we emit. A recent assessment by scientists warned that the support systems that sustain life on Earth are “well outside the safe operating space for humanity.”
We humans like to think we’re smart enough to figure things out, but so far, we haven’t. Otherwise, we would have listened to what Indigenous peoples, climate scientists, and environmentalists have been telling us for decades.
We find ourselves in extreme crisis management mode, and our only recourse is what Helvarg calls environmental triage, or “saving what we can.” This shouldn’t be a partisan issue, as climate chaos is affecting us all, and we can no longer kick that can down the road to our children and grandchildren.
Fortunately, many people comprehend the scope of the crisis, and there are increasing efforts to take immediate action. As this issue goes to press, world leaders are meeting at the United Nations in New York City, for a climate ambition summit that by all indications is a serious endeavor to craft ambitious climate policies. In order to attend, according to The Guardian, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres had stipulated that “only countries that can show they have ambitious policies to reduce their emissions in line with the goals of the Paris agreement would be allowed to participate.”
At the same time, millions of people around the world marched to demand an immediate end to fossil fuels.
In the pages of this issue of The Progressive, you’ll find additional insight and information about the ongoing climate crisis, along with examples of how people—particularly young people—are leading the movement for change. The hope is that we will all make this challenge a top priority in our lives.
Winona LaDuke, an Indigenous environmentalist who runs a hemp farm on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota, shares about her years spent fighting oil pipeline projects, along with tens of thousands of others, because, as Anishinaabe elder Sharon Day reminds us, “This Earth is the only home we have.”
Adrien Salazar offers a framework for climate reparations that both holds the countries most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions accountable while also addressing historic racial, economic, and environmental inequalities. Tina Gerhardt shares how young people are using the courts to fight for climate justice.
In Maine, voters will decide in November whether to replace the state’s private utility companies with a nonprofit, public power company that would save money and produce energy from more carbon-free sources, as Glenn Daigon reports. Other states are moving forward with environmental policies, too, including Minnesota, which Sarah Lahm points out is a leading state on carbon-free electricity and other environmental initiatives. And if you’re looking for additional reading, Norman Stockwell and Michaela Brant review four environmentally themed books, including a useful solutions-oriented handbook with “100 climate solutions for everyone.” And there is much, much more compelling writing inside.
On her hemp project’s website, LaDuke observes that according to Anishinaabe prophecies, we are living in a time of the “seventh fire.” It is a time “when our people will be given the choice between the green path and the scorched path.” We’re long past due asking ourselves which path we will choose.