We need all WIN--WIN candidates

If you look off to the right hand side of this page, you’ll notice a new announcement and an invitation to “take action.” The MN House Climate Action Caucus has a plan for the 2022 legislative session. It’s phrased in broad, general terms, sort of similar to the way the Green New Deal lays out its goals and objectives. In general, we concur with the overall approach. It wouldn’t be prominently displayed if we hadn’t looked at it and thought, at least briefly, about it.

We are a bit troubled that the strategy to “Create state and local climate adaptation plans that support tribal, county and municipal governments while prioritizing the needs of communities burdened by pollution and cumulative climate impacts.” doesn’t also specifically mention townships. But we suspect many townships have a hard time picturing what they can do. We would suggest each level of government, and each citizen of Minnesota, take a careful look at each of the strategies and look for ways to adapt the strategy to their daily life. [Here’s a list of 100 things you can do to help in the climate  crises.] We can and will effectively respond to climate breakdown and COVID pandemics if we take much, much more of a BOTH -- AND approach and get rid of the EITHER -- OR attitude.

I Voted for the Climate

Photo by J. Harrington

If you’re curious about whether climate change/breakdown is affecting your county, you can take a look at the USA Facts Climate in Minnesota web site. Play with it a bit and you can check on your own county (even outside Minnesota). Why is this important?

In 2007, Minnesota’s legislature passed ambitious statutory goals for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with bipartisan support through the Next Generation Energy Act (NGEA); however, we have not made sufficient progress to date. The executive order noted that Minnesota failed to meet its 2015 goal of reducing emissions by 15 percent, and the state is not on track to meet our future goals, either.

In fact, we strongly recommend approaching the upcoming caucuses with the idea of only supporting candidates who agree that it takes all of US, in all of our roles, to tackle the challenges we’re facing. It’s a variation of Senator Wellstone’s great concept: We all succeed when we all succeed. Can you say “WIN--WIN?”

Let Them Not Say

Jane Hirshfield - 1953-

Let them not say:   we did not see it.
We saw.

Let them not say:   we did not hear it.
We heard.

Let them not say:     they did not taste it.
We ate, we trembled.

Let them not say:   it was not spoken, not written.
We spoke,
we witnessed with voices and hands.

Let them not say:     they did nothing.
We did not-enough.

Let them say, as they must say something: 

A kerosene beauty.
It burned.

Let them say we warmed ourselves by it,
read by its light, praised,
and it burned.

—2014

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