By Philip Favero
Originally Published Nov. 17, 2016
The election results on November 8 shocked me, and I'm sure they did you too.
Before we focus on the Presidential race, there were three Congressional contests in Maryland, the results of which should please us:
1) Jamie Raskin, with whom Climate Stewards have visited in his office and consider a friend, was elected to Congress in the district that was vacated by Chris Van Hollen.
2) Van Hollen, to whom we have presented an award for his efforts in the House of Representatives to pass legislation to price carbon, was elected to the Senate.
3) John Sarbanes, with whom we have also visited and found to be insightful about climate change matters, also won re-election after gaining the endorsement of the Annapolis Capital and Gazette, primarily for his views on climate change.
OK. Onto President-elect Trump, who denies the science of climate change and has surrounded himself with aides on energy policy who come from the fossil fuel industries. I have seen varying versions of a theory that his energy policies will be so dreadful that the result will be a political backlash.
Any backlash effect, however, depends on you, me, and others in the climate change movement. We will need to help our fellow Americans connect the dots between climate change events -- like flooding, super storms, and -- to global warming. We will need to articulate sympathetic stories about impacts of climate change on people. We will need to explain the science of global warming in clear and compelling fashion.
My take-away from the election of Donald Trump is that it should energize climate stewards to work harder and smarter to: (1) convince Americans that global warming is not only real and caused by humans but that it should also have a high priority on their personal political agendas; and (2) mobilize advocacy efforts by building coalitions with like-minded people and organizations.
Thank you for what you are doing about climate change.
Onward!
The opinions expressed in this blog entry are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Climate Stewards of Greater Annapolis.