There’s nothing I can say to convince you we’re living in a climate emergency that is more persuasive than the headlines and disasters unfolding all around us. What’s left now is not to decide whether we will act, it’s to push our leaders to act at the scale the crisis demands.
All year we’ve pushed the Biden Administration to declare a climate emergency because that’s the key executive action that unlocks all kinds of tools for the US government and civil society to do what must be done. Now, with less than 12 hours left in 2021, we’re racing towards the end of our fiscal year and we’re still short of the funds we need to carry on fighting next year. Can you chip in $1.98 or more to help before midnight?
Last night a fallen powerline started a massive fire in drought-stricken Colorado. Hundreds of homes and businesses were burned in a climate-fueled disaster near Boulder. More tornadoes are expected in parts of the South-East that are still recovering from extreme weather that used to be unthinkable, but is becoming as predictable as it is deadly. While parts of California are grateful for snowfall it’s not enough to break their drought, and at the same time parts of Alaska are 67 degrees in December. And the massive Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is on the verge of collapse, threatening more than 250 million people worldwide that live within three feet of high tide lines.
This is an emergency, and we need our leaders to act like it. No more blah, blah, blah net zero platitudes — a national emergency declaration means we can mobilize at the scale and speed we need to shut down fossil fuels, and build a new economy on climate, care, jobs and justice.
But we’re still $5,000 short of our year-end fundraising goal. When we close the books, we’ll update our budget and see how many new projects and actions we can afford — starting with Congress’ first week back and the anniversary of the January 6 coup attempt by Trump and his fossil fuel cronies. But if we don’t raise enough now, we cant invest in new actions and events next year.
This is the last moment to act in so many ways: It’s the last moment to donate before the end of the year. It’s the last week to organize before our Jan 6 national day of action. And this is our last moment to recognize the climate crisis with the urgency it needs, and do what must be done to avert changes to our climate that will make the planet impossible for humans to live on.