A weekly reckoning with life in a warming world—and the fight to save it |
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This morning at 9 a.m., five activists associated with the youth climate group the Sunrise Movement began a hunger strike outside the White House. Kidus Girma, Paul Campion, Ema Govea, Julia Paramo, and Abby Leedy intend to fast “until Joe Biden and Democrats pass the full scope of the Build Back Better Act to combat the climate emergency,” according to Sunrise’s press release. TNR’s Kate Aronoff talked to Girma earlier this week. He and the other volunteers decided to strike after learning that West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin has apparently succeeded in forcing Democrats to abandon the Clean Energy Payment Program, the emissions-reducing centerpiece of the reconciliation bill’s climate provisions, designed to encourage the power sector to replace coal and gas plants with renewable energy. “We’re here to highlight how dire this moment is,” Girma told Kate. “There’s an overwhelming sense of rage and grief, and we sort of expected this moment throughout this entire fight,” Sunrise advocacy director Lauren Maunus added. The strikers are asking others in the movement to join a 24-hour solidarity fast on Thursday and then go on strike from work or school on Friday and join demonstrations, including a rally at the White House. Hunger strikes are extreme measures. As Kate noted, they have a long history, as well as recent precedent. A climate hunger strike in Berlin in September ended with mixed success. Sunrise’s press release also emphasized that “fasting isn’t for everyone,” urging those considering joining the solidarity fast Thursday to prioritize “health and well-being.” But as several have pointed out, the situation these activists are responding to is, itself, quite extreme. As climate group Extinction Rebellion’s Boston chapter tweeted this morning, “A @HungerStr1ke is appropriate considering multi-breadbasket failure is just one of many devastating outcomes of the #ClimateCrisis.” Our breadbasket is indeed at risk. Several studies in the past few years have suggested grain yields will suffer due to climate change. Last month, a study reported drought and heat waves could cut global corn and soybean yields by 5 percent, with corn crops in Missouri, Kansas, and North and South Carolina being hit particularly hard. Barely a week later, another study in Science predicted children today will see 2.5 times as many crop failures as those born in 1960. Higher degrees of crop failure, as well as total agricultural collapse, are avoidable—but only if emissions are reduced as quickly as possible. (Novel and bioengineered crops, researchers think, may also help, but in addition to, not in place of, emissions reductions.) |
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This hunger strike falls into a season almost maniacally focused on the aesthetics of harvest—from jack-o’-lanterns to the groaning Thanksgiving table. This fall, Liza Featherstone recently wrote, with temperatures on the East Coast firmly in the 70s weeks into October, and autumn foliage rather obviously delayed, the cognitive dissonance between environmental reality and the autumnal fantasy is greater than ever: |
The most iconic fruits of fall are suffering. A 2017 government-funded survey of Northeastern apple farmers found that climate change was causing increasing uncertainty in their business. Pumpkins, critical to rituals of both Halloween and Thanksgiving, don’t thrive in heavy rain, which was all too plentiful this summer. When the weather is too wet, pumpkins are vulnerable to blight, which is one reason why, one hyperbolic headline yells, “A Pumpkin Shortage May Ruin Your Holiday, Experts Warn.” (Subhed: “The Item is in Limited Stock at the Worst Time Possible.”) While many people on Twitter are expressing nostalgia for the fall weather, most are doggedly trying to pretend that nothing is amiss. “BRING ON THE PUMPKIN SPICE!” a meteorologist tweets. “If you’ve been missing the fall weather, it will be back this weekend.” An article in USA Today on the decline in fall foliage was, on the newspaper’s website, bisected by promotions for articles urging fall activities (“It’s Fall, Y’All: Time to Leaf Peep”; “Apple picking, hiking, cider drinking: Find a socially distant escape in the Northeast”). Those marketing the WASP autumnal aesthetic are not going gently into the lukewarm night. Martha Stewart is (on Instagram, at least) making chili, pumpkin-swirl cheesecake, and roasted butternut squash soup. |
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This is dystopian stuff. As prior essays at TNR have pointed out, enjoying the present can be a healthy component of fighting for the future. But there’s a difference between appreciating the moment and normality theater. (Donning flannel at 75 degrees to hug price-gouged pumpkins in front of the one tree in the county with orange leaves for an Instagram pic is, arguably, the latter.) Politicians, much like autumnal lifestyle influencers, are deeply attached to business as usual. And that’s precisely what the hunger strikers say they’re objecting to. Whether their demonstration can overcome the powerful roadblocks offered by the U.S. political system and Joe Manchin’s financial interests remains to be seen. —Heather Souvaine Horn, deputy editor |
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The Environmental Protection Agency says that it’s going to set hard limits on the amount of toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in drinking water, and require manufacturers to do more reporting about the chemicals they’re producing. |
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Our writers and editors are bringing you vital reporting, explanation, and analysis to understand the current climate crisis—but they need your help. Here’s a special offer to subscribe to The New Republic. |
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—Heather Souvaine Horn, deputy editor |
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Elsewhere in the Ecosystem |
The New York Times has a good feature on how the residents of West Virginia are likely to suffer if climate change continues unchecked. Senator Manchin has emerged in recent weeks as one of the primary roadblocks to the proposed climate policies in the reconciliation bill. |
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Climate change is warming the air, allowing it to hold more moisture, which causes more frequent and intense rainfall. And no state in the contiguous United States is more exposed to flood damage than West Virginia, according to data released last week. From the porch of his riverfront house, Jim Hall, who is married to Mr. Manchin’s cousin, recounted how rescue workers got him and his wife out of their house with a rope during a flood in 2017. He described helping his neighbors, Mr. Manchin’s sister and brother-in-law, clear out their basement when a storm would come. He calls local officials when he smells raw sewage in the river. |
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