Over the last few weeks, Hurricane Helene, Hurricane Milton, and their aftermath have claimed hundreds of lives, and displaced or destroyed the homes of thousands more, and left millions without power, despite a relatively robust government response.

Before reading on, if you want to contribute to the recovery, please consider making a donation to World Central Kitchen, Beloved Asheville, or the Florida Disaster Fund.

Here’s what we’re reading, watching, listening to, and otherwise paying attention to this week!

1. These mega-storms are fueled by the climate crisis

Warming ocean waters all but guarantee that tropical storms and hurricanes will continue to be more and more devastating.
Hurricane Helene:

• “while focused studies are needed to confirm this, it is likely that the unusually high heat in the Gulf of Mexico has contributed to Helene’s rapid intensification”
• the climate crisis “caused as much as 50% more rainfall during Hurricane Helene in some parts of Georgia and the Carolinas”

Hurricane Milton:

• “Without climate change Milton would have made landfall as a Category 2 instead of a Category 3 storm”
• “Nearly half (45%) of the loss in Florida of a “Milton” type can be attributed to climate change”

For more on this, check out the Shift Key podcast episode on Hurricane Helene

2. Hurricane Helene wrought havoc on regions thought beyond devastating storm damage

The Fifth National Climate Assessment had some sobering projections about the regions people consider “safe” from the effects of the climate crisis: there aren’t any, as Hurricane Helene has confirmed.

In the case of hurricanes, inland flooding is projected to become more frequent and intense, making hurricanes a serious threat to more than just coastal regions.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned of “catastrophic, life-threatening inland flooding”, a prediction that proved true not just in Georgia and North Carolina, but even in landlocked states like Tennessee

For more on this, check out this article from Inside Climate News.

3. This is not just a scientific problem; it’s a political one

We face a unique political field at this moment in history. Our political parties do not merely disagree on the solutions to key problems facing us. One party refuses to agree that those problems exist or could ever be addressed.

Whether it’s Vance only accepting the existence of the climate crisis “for the sake of argument”, and calling climate change “weird science”, or decades of Republican refusal to act on mass shootings, or the complete denial of COVID that Trump brought about, we are faced with one major political party which refuses to even acknowledge the existence of major problems countless people deal with every day.

Climate change denial isn’t the only misinformation festering and being spurred on by Republicans. After misinformation spread that the government caused hurricanes directly, including a post by Marjorie Taylor Greene saying “Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done”, meteorologists received death threats.

But that doesn’t make the other major political party tireless allies in our fights. On climate change in particular, Walz has celebrated record levels of oil and gas, while Harris has reversed her previous fracking ban support.
 

4. TakeAction Roundup

We cannot count on elections and the goodwill of politicians alone to win the changes we need and our communities deserve. We must organize to pressure our elected officials, to create the conditions for much-needed wins.

But we cannot do that organizing at all, cannot create any pressure on politicians who do not even accept the existence of these very important problems.

Today (and through November 5th) we vote to elect the leaders that tomorrow we can pressure to meet our demands.

And that's a wrap!

Send us what you’re reading, watching and listening to.

Until next time,

Mattias Lehman (he/him)
Narrative and Communications Director