THE CLIMATE CRISIS IS ON THE BALLOT
If the Climate Crisis wasn’t on your radar before Category 4 Hurricane Helene – the ongoing loss of life, destruction of property, and devastation happening in North Carolina and throughout Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and the entire Southeast, has most likely grabbed your attention by now. Large areas of North Carolina, including Asheville are disaster areas.
Luckily, there’s an administration in place that wouldn’t even think of withholding emergency disaster funds. The Biden-Harris administration enacted same-day support dedicated to the ongoing response and recovery efforts for Hurricane Helene’s victims, who are in a daily struggle to survive, find food, clothing, and shelter. The other party’s leader went to hurricane ravaged Georgia for a photo op, and told lies, which the Governor of Georgia called him out on.
After seeing how a hurricane ramped up to a Category 4 superstorm within a matter of hours, climate science should now more be easily understood by anyone. The much warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico contributed to creating this Category 4 hurricane and was a direct factor in causing all the death and destruction, loss of property, and the loss of entire towns.
Why don’t everyday people still not understand what’s happening to our planet’s climate? Not talking about the weather, folks, but the climate. I partly blame the outdated language being used. What going on isn’t Global Warming which makes it sounds like The Gulf of Mexico is a body of lukewarm bathwater. We are in fact, now living in a time of Climate Crisis and a Climate Emergency. Calling it Global Warming is so retro. Not to mention, out of touch with everyday life. Same is true for referring to what is happing on a regular basis as Climate Change. Seems this is why people think the words climate and weather are interchangeable. They’re not. The sooner newscasters and media spokespeople alter their language to reflect these essential truths, the easier for people to finally understand the severity of what just happened, and will continue happening. And will get worse.
Words matter, as we’re reminded of daily by far-right politicians spewing hate speech and lies from our devices and TV screens. They seem to think calling them out on lies and hate speech is somehow censorship. Once more, accurate language matters. Asking for someone to speak the truth is a far cry from censoring them. It’s asking them to answer the question truthfully. To understand and relate directly to human suffering with empathy. Words and language matters. Accurate language is essential. The words around our Climate Crisis aren’t a matter of semantics. It’s about clearly understanding the science of what’s already been happening for many years. We’ve got to call what’s happening planetwide, what it is. A Climate Emergency.
The first person I heard use the terms Climate Crisis and Climate Emergency was Danielle LaPorte, a Canadian author and philanthropist, based in Vancouver, B.C. I went to see her give a talk at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle, in 2019. She began by talking about how if we lived on planet earth, we were already in Climate Crisis and Climate Emergency mode. She had our attention.
To have the American media establishment, and many members of the Republican party act as if we aren’t already in Climate Crisis mode is bordering on insane. One political party supports a leader who considers the Climate Crisis a hoax, and the other political party takes it seriously. It’s a stark difference. Why are Climate Science Deniers often the same people as Election Deniers? Just asking. As I’ve mentioned in other essays on this topic, they’re acting as if we aren’t all residing on the same planet. I see massive flooding, death and destruction, happening in North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, and Georgia. I don’t see this as a political football to be kicked back and forth. I see it as a time to save lives. And tell the truth. We’re living in times of Climate Crisis and Climate Emergency.
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