Dear Friend,
The fires that destroyed Maui’s Lahaina this week were an unspeakable tragedy. The apocalyptic scenes blasted across television and internet were literally hard to believe, the stories of people jumping into the sea to escape the flames – and some not surviving – too harrowing. One of the most beautiful spots on earth went up in flames.
Of course, the island will need to heal. But more than that must happen, as well. We must learn from this. The catastrophic weather we’ve been warned about for years is at this point no longer an abstract possibility; it’s here. Rivers are drying up. Arctic ice sheets are melting. People are dying from the heat. Wildfires are destroying whole towns.
We have known that this would happen, and we did next to nothing. We continue with our pretense of just and responsible behavior toward the earth, making moderate investments in green energy, yes, yet ramping up fossil fuel extraction when it’s imperative that we ramp it down. This is a sign of a species deeply out of tune with our own nature. Humanity is headed toward the proverbial iceberg, and our trajectory of incremental change does not mean we will avoid hitting it; it just means we’ll hit it a bit later, and at a different angle.
That is why I’m running for president. No, Mr. President, it’s not enough to put green energy investments in the Inflation Reduction Act, when approval of the Willow Project and granting more oil drilling permits than even President Trump did will nullify their effects.
We need a president who goes much further. We need a president who will declare a climate emergency. And I will.
