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🔊 Listen to This Story

Stop telling me how inhumane my ideas about ending fossil fuel use is. The fact is, we have no choice because we created this disaster by failing to act for decades.

I often write about the necessity to end the use of fossil fuels because we are cooking the planet with them, and dooming our children and our species. It’s pretty straightforward and just a more forceful way of repeating warnings given to us by climate scientists.

Fossil fuel advocates and “realists” then attack me for being cruel to those who need and depend on fossil fuels. Which, since currently nearly everything is powered by fossil fuels, is pretty much everybody. We all depend on fossil fuels.

But THAT is the problem. That’s WHY we need to replace them with clean energy. Because we have remained dependent on the very thing that’s killing us. And we’ve gone on like this for far too long. Which creates consequences.

At this late date we can:

1. Continue on our current path, fail to do anything, and watch as our species collapses and dies in a horrible multi-faceted death, or
2. Make the maximum effort to fix the problem, survive, but go through extreme difficulties along the way.

There is no option to fix the problem without any significant pain or harm. The wasted decades, when our leaders decided to double-down on fossil fuels instead of listen to the scientists, brought us to this point.

Amazingly, the same leaders or similar successors are in power, even today. They are still making idle promises, telling lies, making excuses and — worst of all — protecting and promoting increased use of fossil fuels. They are complete failures and WE are failures for following or allowing them to continue.

We don’t vote them out of power because many of us are fooled by the various lies we are being told. And we don’t vote them out because money, and not voters, controls politics and policy. The system of so-called “representative” government doesn’t hear our voices — it suppresses them. The people in power are in power — they are not public servants.

We have bad leaders everywhere, all in the thrall of fossil fuel. This is true in Brazil, China, Russia, India. It’s true, of course, here in the United States. We can allow this to continue, or demand change. We have no guarantee of success, but without trying, we are guaranteed failure.

By failing to try we fail our children, our planet, our species, and the other species that share this lovely planet with us. We cannot afford to sit by. We MUST try.

I continue to expand on and promote a framework for change called A Climate Declaration. It calls for replacing failed leaders worldwide with young climate activists. The young are leading the climate movement. They understand what an emergency is and what is required. They are listening to the scientists. They and their generation is at stake — the old leaders will be conveniently dead when the young inherit their mess.

Please download, read, share and LIVE this guide for action, this framework.

Thank you.