Fall 2020
Please vote.
I’ve always leaned considerably more left than right, but more and more I’m a single issue voter and I’d like anyone who reads this to at least consider voting Democratic because of that single issue: Democrats believe in climate change.
Maybe this sounds crazy depending on who you listen to, but it’s really the only issue that matters anymore.
By 2030 or so we’ll be seeing massive migrations out of the west and south west, and it’s probably already begun. And who cares, right? You don’t live there. But you live in the places that those people will live, and then maybe by 2040 you’ll live somewhere equally unlivable. It’s not going to just stop. There is no temperature at which it suddenly ends. It only gets hotter from here unless we work together to stop it.
Remember a few weeks ago when all of California was on fire? Remember earlier this year when all of Australia was on fire? That’s reality now, it’s going to happen again and again, and it’ll happen in more places and get progressively worse each time. I know some of us have been conditioned to hate California, but huge swaths of the state are very staunchly on the Red team, miles of farmers and military families and whatever other kind of person you might associate with conservatism. They’re all going to be forced from their land, they’re all going to run out of resources, and everything from there to where you live is going to be worse for it.
If you don’t feel like sleeping tonight, google the phrase “Wet Bulb Climate Change”. Wet Bulb conditions are the point at which the air is so humid, that the human body cannot effectively cool itself, meaning just existing outdoors could kill you. In huge swaths of the country, we physically will not be able to tolerate the outside world – by 2050. Which is soon. Do you have a 30 year mortgage? That’s the kind of time frame we’re talking about. It’s soon. Also, think about how old you’ll be then. Think about how much harder your life will be in general, climate change aside. Now add “I can’t go outside or I’ll die” to the list.
Also, how will food grow? Minor things like that.
The right has been calling Global Warming a hoax for years now, continuing to do that is profoundly dangerous in a way that’s difficult to process. Every aspect of human life is going to be harder, worse. Not pull yourself up by your bootstraps harder, not ‘it’ll be like the old west’ worse, it’ll be physically difficult to survive. It is not a Chinese hoax, it’s cause and effect. The more carbon we release, the more quickly the planet will be uninhabitable. There’s no mars mission to save us, there’s no amount of money that will save any particular individual. It’s we all prevent it or we all die. That’s it. It’s horrifying.
Climate change, global warming, whatever you want to call it, will impact every aspect of our lives in the next few decades, and every moment of the entirety of your children’s lives and their children’s lives. We should be working together to stop it, but we’re way behind schedule because of a very successful disinformation campaign, valuing profit over human life, and maybe the difficulty to process the sheer magnitude of the challenge we face. Continuing to vote for people who don’t believe, or people who are compensated to pretend to disbelieve, is directly endangering you and the people you care about. They are actively working against you for their own, very short term, very selfish interests. You should vote against them.
Disbelieving science and information isn’t a plan of action, it’s a way to do nothing, pretend to be under attack, and get paid for it. It’s not public policy, it’s how cults start. It’d be great if climate change was a hoax, but it’s not. It’s proven by people who study the reality of the world, which is an observable, knowable object and is dismissed by people who get paid to promote very specific agendas.
If you’re a single issue voter also, here’s a handy checklist for other single issues, as they pertain to Climate Change:
☐ Abortion – Abortion will still exist and will always exist as long as there is human life. Ending human life will end abortion, but being anti-abortion is about being anti-ending human life. This is a toughy.
☐ Financially Conservative – you cannot be financially conservative, if there is no longer a stock market, or money, etc.
☐ Law and Order – This is a code word for state-managed racism, but that aside, it is difficult to imagine a more lawless scenario than the end of civilization, water wars, etc.
☐ Literally anything else. This is an adorable list, but the point here is that climate change supersedes all other issues as it’s going to impact everything in life and actively working to prevent it is the only logical and moral path. We can fight about whether or not there should be a wall on the southern border later, we need to make sure we can still breathe outdoors first.
I am literally begging you to vote and vote democratic. We’re running out of time to tolerate people who think science is some sort of not-for-profit scam? I don’t know what people think science is, but it’s not a scam. It’s how we understand reality. It’s how you know the world is round, that you think with your brain, that your lungs process oxygen, etc.
Please think about what your life looks like in 30 years if we do nothing, then vote Democratic.
Book Update
The Loop, my first published book, is now available for sale. It is less important to buy my book than it is to vote, but it is a very close second.
I am very thankful to anyone who purchased the book and read the book and posted about it on social media, it’s been incredibly fun and humbling and weird to experience. I got to open a package one day and ten little blue books with my name on them spilled out. It was a good day that I will remember until the quickly approaching end of the world.
Again, vote democratic, that’s all I really wanted to talk about but felt like I should give some kind of book update but just like that the end of the world nosed itself in.
Anyway, thanks for reading, my pizza is here.
Dan Sanders 