The answer is conditional.
Rather than declaring "we're fucked," I like to ask, "how fucked are we?" Because the answer is conditional.
In this monthlyish newsletter I'll share my work and additional insights into climate, politics and journalism.
Recent coverage:
In a Race Defining Party Identity, Oil Money Flows to a California Democrat.
Would Environmental Justice in California Survive a Second Trump White House? Doubtful.
What you need to know about Prop 4, California's climate bond. (Listen)
Donor Fighting "Woke Regime" Gave Millions This Election.
Climate denial and race baiting are standard parts of the Trump-GOP platform. I came across one conservative donor doing both.
Thomas Klingenstein, chairman of the hard right Claremont Institute, sent $3.35 million to a Super PAC called Club for Growth Action. The group is supporting MAGA Republican candidate Bernie Moreno in a toss-up US Senate race against Sherrod Brown in Ohio.
While researching Klingenstein as a subject in a story about anti-climate donors, I got sidetracked watching his talk, Racism in America Today: A Real or Manufactured Problem? His opening line: "When we speak about race, whether we admit it or not—and we usually don’t—we mean Blacks."
Black grievance, Klingenstein said, provides fuel for an "evil scheme of woke revolutionaries to destroy [America]." By evoking themes of revolution, war, and destruction, his rant becomes a call to action against an "anti-white" enemy:
The primary goal of the woke regime is group outcome equality. Most Americans, on the other hand, believe society’s goal should be merit...These irreconcilable goals make this struggle a war. It is, thankfully, a cold war, and we should hope it remains cold. But we should also not lose sight of the fact that the woke Left seeks total victory.
If "white males" don't fight back, "we will be brought to our knees. Thousands of years of building, possibly gone in a single generation."
According to the Guardian, Klingenstein spent $10.7 million of his personal wealth this election cycle, more than he spent on previous elections combined. This puts him at "the forefront of a class of donors who are explicitly supporting more extreme and polarizing politics in Trump’s Republican party."
Those extreme and polarizing politics include climate change denial.
In a Nov. 2023 interview with Vivek Ramaswany, who Klingenstein initially backed, Ramaswany repeatedly described the US as being in a “war” against a woke federal bureaucracy. Part of the bureaucracy's agenda includes climate change, which Ramaswany called "a hoax."
It's a perilous time. In 2023 the world set a grim double record for the hottest year ever and the most annual greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change denial only serves an ownership class that remains free to dump pollution into the atmosphere at virtually no cost.
ICYMI, my recent election feature:
California Cut $200 Million for Extreme Heat and Other Climate Disasters. Voters Can Reverse That.
"Why is the weather changing, why does it seem hotter than it’s ever been?” Michael Martinez said the day Downtown Los Angeles reached 112F. Months before, California cut millions from programs to help communities guard against extreme heat. But voters can reverse that.
At least the Dodgers won:
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