Dumping the “Future Generations” Pitch on Climate Change and focusing on NOW

One of the worst pitches out there is trying to convince people to do something now to "protect our future generations".

Sorry folks, but that's not how human behavior works.

People may talk a good talk about wanting a better life for their kids and grandkids, but there is one problem: most aren't doing shit to walk the talk.

• A college savings plan is not ensuring a better life for them.

• Driving a gas-guzzling SUV and living in a house far bigger than is needed is not ensuring a better life for them.

• Feeding them processed foods isn't ensuring a better life.

• Spending money with infamous billionaire-run corporations who actively destroy our environment and turning a blind eye to their behaviors in the name of instant gratification disguised as 'convenience' is doing nothing to help them.

• Voting for local, state and/or federal candidates who actively work to undermine climate change action in the name of profit and power...not to mention simultaneously degrade the lives of women and girls? This is not ensuring a better life for future generations.

Know why? Because people are focused on the NOW. On their OWN lives. And for good reason - it's palpable. It's tangible. The present is, obviously, what we can see with our own eyes.

So why the fuck are 99% the politicians, nonprofits and media outlets focused on guilt/shaming humans about something they cannot see, about times when they will not be alive?

It's a goddamn waste of energy. People are not nearly as magnanimous as we like to think they are. People are, well, human. Self-preservation is the thing, y'all. If we want people to change their behaviors, we have to let them know that we need to Get Shit Done - for their own lives.

And we need to stop pussyfooting around the facts.

“Congress once passed major climate regulation every single year, only to hardly pass any over the last 25. With the EPA recently hobbled by the Supreme Court, the only way to reverse climate change is to reduce the rot in Congress." ~ Jane Jacoby

At the federal level, too many lost faith and opted out of using their voices in last week's election...and let some deeply destructive forces back into leadership. Is it the final nail in our coffin? Maybe.

But maybe not. And we still have power - if we don't cede it voluntarily in this next stage. If we refuse to obey in advance.

Tim Snyder described how Germans obeyed in advance:

"After the German elections of 1932, which permitted Adolf Hitler to form a government...the next crucial step was anticipatory obedience. Because enough people in both cases voluntarily extended their services to the new leaders, Nazis and communists alike realized that they could move quickly toward a full regime change. The first heedless acts of conformity could not then be reversed. The anticipatory obedience of Austrians in March 1938 taught the high Nazi leadership what was possible. It was in Vienna that August that Adolf Eichmann established the Central Office for Jewish Emigration. In November 1938, following the Austrian example of March, German Nazis organized the national pogrom known as Kristallnacht. In 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the SS took the initiative to devise the methods of mass killing without orders to do so. They guessed what their superiors wanted and demonstrated what was possible. It was far more than Hitler had thought."

We need to work to protect our communities from the violence of the climate crisis NOW. We need to get involved at the local level, the state level, and yes - still - pressuring elected officials at the federal level. Walking away from it is not an option. Thinking karma will solve everything pisses on those suffering right now. As Wes Moore reminded Hasan Minhaj in a recent interview, everything in our lives can be connected to a policy decision - and so many don't get that. It's time to fight for our TODAY - and stop pushing things off into a philosophical future that we cannot predict. We ALL deserve a healthy planet. We MUST put on our oxygen masks if we want to help future generations breathe.