Crew Members on Spaceship Earth Vote – Are You Crew?
Regular readers of this weekly Crew Commentary know that we at This Spaceship Earth consider “save the planet” as a pointless phrase. The planet will be fine. It has been around for three billion years and will continue until the Sun blows up several billion years from now. Instead, we believe the phrase we should all use is, “We must save ourselves from ourselves.”
How to do that? In 2024, all crew members of Spaceship Earth must VOTE!
A few weeks ago, the Chief Content Officer at This Spaceship Earth, Bob Leonard, wrote about voting. He pointed out that it’s important for all crew members to not just vote, but to become deeply informed voters. If you are a regular reader of our Crew Commentary, you are more informed on this issue than most.
In his column, Bob highlighted some things that have appeared in the news recently that I find stomach churning. He wrote about how former President Trump invited top global fossil fuel executives to his home in Florida to tell them that, if they donated a billion dollars to his presidential campaign, he would undo any regulations on the industry and would not subsidize clean energy. Bob also highlighted how the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, signed a bill into law completely outlawing the use of the phrases ‘climate change’ and ‘sea level rise’. He did this as the Governor of the state rated number one in vulnerability to climate change.
Huh?!?
Unfortunately, these two enemies of clean energy don’t care about people and the other species living on Spaceship Earth. They are more interested in keeping the spigot of funding from fossil fuels groups open. Disgusting!
2024 is the year that democracies vote!
There are 64 countries that are holding national elections in 2024. These countries represent 50% of the world’s population. TIME Magazine called it the “Ultimate Election Year.
It’s estimated that two billion people will vote in elections this year. In many of those elections, climate action is an issue. Those who embrace “crew consciousness” think and act as crew members on Spaceship Earth. That means they are informing themselves around, not only what politicians say, but what they do. We have to let all politicians running for office – at any level – know that we will vote for them, or against them, depending on their commitment to decisively tackle our global climate crisis.
There are several countries that will not elect “climate candidates” as they are oil-exporting dictatorships (e.g. Russia). This author is not up on the various political parties running in all the countries shown, so I won’t give guidance as to who to vote for. I leave it to citizens in all countries to research which parties and candidates have the climate crisis as a top priority.
In the US, perhaps the most important country voting this year due to our leading the world in GHG emissions, I can give crew members guidance. It is simple:
Vote for the Democratic Candidate.
For some reason, the Republican Party has decided that the climate crisis is a political issue, and they are mostly against any “green initiatives”. Perhaps it was because Al Gore helped bring the “Inconvenient Truth” to the world. I don’t know why one party has decided that they want to be the anti-science party, but they seem to relish it.
“Drill baby, Drill!!” – Donald Trump
“Climate change is a left-wing idea.” – Governor Ron DeSantis
Since the Democrats passed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, the Republicans have voted 31 times to repeal that climate and clean energy plan!
Every Democratic candidate for Senate and the House, that I am aware of, supports accelerating our efforts to get off of fossil fuels. I have yet to learn of a Republican candidate for the President, the Senate or the House that supports clean energy and the phasing out of fossil fuels. [Please, if you think this is not accurate, send me the list of Republican candidates that side with the effort to address our climate crisis – I’m serious! david@davidhoule.com]
As Bob’s earlier Crew Commentary stated, humanity has driven Spaceship Earth past several tipping points, with more directly ahead. 2024 is the year that we have to vote as crew members of Spaceship Earth. In whatever country you live in, know the candidates that are focusing on clean energy and for the reduction of GHG emissions ASAP… and vote for them!
In the US, it is straightforward: vote for the Democratic candidate. Unless you’ve done your research and found the Republican candidate willing to buck her party, vote for the Democrat. Their party leader, President Biden, has done more to address our climate crisis than any other president.
With three to four billion people eligible to vote this year, maybe enough will to send a message to politicians all over Spaceship Earth: “We need to save ourselves from ourselves… from leaders who refuse to address the most dire situation humanity has ever encountered.
Please, do your part! Crew members vote.
