We’re All in This Together
DO SOMETHING!!!
By Kevin Butterfield
December 1997.
“Still Climate Emergency”. -Photo by Rose / Adobe Stock
First one, then two nephews, safely snapped into their car seats and we’re headed home. Playing uncle wasn’t so tough. The Muppets on Ice, Cracker Jacks, and lemonade. My brother’s two-year-old never looked more adorable than when his little pizza-sauced face cooed, “Uncle Kevin…” as he fell fast asleep.
What could go wrong now? Then the two-year-old finishes his sentence, “I gotta pee…DO SOMETHING!!!”
OK, got it, clear call to action.
July 1977.
One industry expert coos Uncle Exxon, “In the first place, there is general scientific agreement that the most likely manner in which mankind is influencing the global climate is through carbon dioxide release from the burning of fossil fuels…”
Fasten those seatbelts for a 44-year ride of denial and ineffectiveness from everyone– both the passengers and those at the wheel.
August 2021.
The IPCC, an international panel of the brightest scientific minds in history, whose predictions have already been proven to be horrifyingly accurate, screams, “CODE-RED FOR HUMANITY.”
March 2022.
The planet to you: “DO SOMETHING!!!” Your clear call to action.
Force a change in US federal policy. Support legislation like the Energy Innovation Act, which assigns an escalating fee on carbon at the mining or refining level and then returns it to citizens to invest in clean technologies. Technologies, by the way, which are already here! We can feed, transport, warm, and entertain ourselves without further contributing to the greenhouse gas blanket above us.
By enacting this legislation along with its border adjustment component, we’ll also be nudging the whole world along. In the same way that we each should make thoughtful individual choices, it’s even more important for us to insist on policy that will immediately move the whole world.
Global warming is just that: global.
Our senators are both on the US Senate Climate Caucus. That means it’s Mainers and West Enders, you and your parents, your kids, nieces, and nephews that are now at the wheel.
The path forward must begin with appropriately pricing carbon emissions right out of every economy in every corner of our warming planet. Time to ALL be adults on this one.
Endorse the bill, call King, Collins, and Pingree or Golden. Let your voice shake for a second, who cares about that. You’re borrowing this world, in what kind of condition are you going to hand it on? And please join our band of over 200k aunts and uncles at Citizens Climate Lobby. We have a clear call to action. Insist on policy that hits the brakes on fossil fuels and relieves our precious earth.
Kevin Butterfield
Kevin is a father, life-long Mainer, and West End resident who works in finances. He enjoys mountain biking, snowboarding, swimming, and learning Spanish from his children (who study at Portland Public Schools). And he loves walking his dog Hopper around our “great city full of wonderful world citizens.”
We’re All in this Together is a monthly Climate Justice column provided by the Portland chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
DO SOMETHING!!! -By Kevin Butterfield
We’re All in This Together
DO SOMETHING!!!
By Kevin Butterfield
December 1997.
“Still Climate Emergency”. -Photo by Rose / Adobe Stock
First one, then two nephews, safely snapped into their car seats and we’re headed home. Playing uncle wasn’t so tough. The Muppets on Ice, Cracker Jacks, and lemonade. My brother’s two-year-old never looked more adorable than when his little pizza-sauced face cooed, “Uncle Kevin…” as he fell fast asleep.
What could go wrong now? Then the two-year-old finishes his sentence, “I gotta pee…DO SOMETHING!!!”
OK, got it, clear call to action.
July 1977.
One industry expert coos Uncle Exxon, “In the first place, there is general scientific agreement that the most likely manner in which mankind is influencing the global climate is through carbon dioxide release from the burning of fossil fuels…”
Fasten those seatbelts for a 44-year ride of denial and ineffectiveness from everyone– both the passengers and those at the wheel.
August 2021.
The IPCC, an international panel of the brightest scientific minds in history, whose predictions have already been proven to be horrifyingly accurate, screams, “CODE-RED FOR HUMANITY.”
March 2022.
The planet to you: “DO SOMETHING!!!” Your clear call to action.
Force a change in US federal policy. Support legislation like the Energy Innovation Act, which assigns an escalating fee on carbon at the mining or refining level and then returns it to citizens to invest in clean technologies. Technologies, by the way, which are already here! We can feed, transport, warm, and entertain ourselves without further contributing to the greenhouse gas blanket above us.
By enacting this legislation along with its border adjustment component, we’ll also be nudging the whole world along. In the same way that we each should make thoughtful individual choices, it’s even more important for us to insist on policy that will immediately move the whole world.
Global warming is just that: global.
Our senators are both on the US Senate Climate Caucus. That means it’s Mainers and West Enders, you and your parents, your kids, nieces, and nephews that are now at the wheel.
The path forward must begin with appropriately pricing carbon emissions right out of every economy in every corner of our warming planet. Time to ALL be adults on this one.
Endorse the bill, call King, Collins, and Pingree or Golden. Let your voice shake for a second, who cares about that. You’re borrowing this world, in what kind of condition are you going to hand it on? And please join our band of over 200k aunts and uncles at Citizens Climate Lobby. We have a clear call to action. Insist on policy that hits the brakes on fossil fuels and relieves our precious earth.
Kevin Butterfield
Kevin is a father, life-long Mainer, and West End resident who works in finances. He enjoys mountain biking, snowboarding, swimming, and learning Spanish from his children (who study at Portland Public Schools). And he loves walking his dog Hopper around our “great city full of wonderful world citizens.”
We’re All in this Together is a monthly Climate Justice column provided by the Portland chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby.