“And next week we’ll be talking about climate change.” My global environmental health professor announces.
There’s a hush that follows, even though we’re all about to take our midterm for our global environmental health course. It’s like we expected this topic from the outset but didn’t really want to ever address the elephant in the room.
I can almost hear the different takes on it:
“I’m so tired of hearing about this.”
“I don’t want to know how bad it is.”
“I’ll be dead before the worst of it hits so. Fuck it.”
“I’m probably going to cry during next lecture,” I warn my class discussion partner. (I’m someone who’s literally cried in their partner’s arms about this fucking course about how we’re fucking ourselves over and have been for years and god nothing’s going to change-)
And then I hear about A.O.C.’s Green New Deal and have read more in depth on it and god, god, god, I want her to get it passed.
If only because then I can maybe sleep at night knowing that we’re not going headlong into destruction. If only so I can have some shred of hope that there’s going to be a peaceful resolution to the U.S.’s excessive carbon output. If only so I can see a reason to stop getting drunk every night due to what I learn at school. If only if only-
If only we can prevent the numerous deaths that are going to occur as a result of our own folly, so we can maybe implement sustainable development and have it mean something as opposed to just another soundbite and keyword.
I’m so sick and tired of the politics, give me an administration that knows the issues and will address them instead of one that obfuscates, ignores science, and won’t do anything to address the incoming storm and god, I’m talking about Democrats here and I’m talking about Republicans and I’m writing strongly worded letters and I’m calling and I’m protesting but god, god, god it’s not enough to just be a persistent songbird and I understand why people took drastic actions in the 60s.
If I had the strength to just change a single thing by killing a man I would. it’s come to that. I know the worth of a life and let me tell you, many people are going to die due to a lack of resources and that’s. Not something that you can just walk away from without feeling some culpability.
And maybe I”m just drunk and ignorant and maybe I’m an ignoramus who makes it about themself but. I felt hope when I read about what the Green New Deal is about, when I read the details and how it plans to cover what the New Deal did but in a more comprehensive way that accounts for minorities. I feel a hope for a sustainable development or at least something close to it.
And maybe it’s too left-wing or unrealistic but I hope that we can soon have a government that will propel us towards a zero-emissions economy.
So. If you support this Green New Deal please, for the love of everything, call your representatives or mail them or protest because there’s a very real death on the horizon and we will have caused it through our negligence.
