Commentary

COMMENTARY: Our Planet is Melting. Who Cares?

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Our world is melting. Glaciers are disappearing. Oceans are rising. Lowlands (mostly populated by low income and Black people) are disappearing. And, before Democrats took power in this term, few other than Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the New Green Deal have been able to address matters of climate change and, in the words of the New Poor People’s Campaign, “ecological devastation.”

Published

5 years ago

February 9, 2019

Oakland Post

By Julianne Malveaux, NNPA Newswire Contributor

The Right Reverend William Barber has revived Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign. He has reminded us that the triple evils of an age were racism, militarism, and poverty. But he has advanced the struggle for social and economic justice by including ecological devastation and the intersection between religion and morality.

Dr. King indicated that one of the evils could not exist without another. Racism, militarism, and poverty were intertwined. Moving it forward, capitalism, militarism, and racism have been responsible for much of the ecological devastation we have experienced.

Rev. William Barber has made it plain. His namesake son (William Barber III) has been involved in the environmental movement and took his dad to Alaska, where the melting of the glaciers was obvious. “We could see where they were five years ago, and where they are today. We are losing our glaciers”. The young Dr. Barber told his dad that we might see seismic changes in as few as twenty years.

Melting glaciers in Alaska. Melting glaciers in Antarctica. Government reports that were delayed because of the government shutdown, but a final report from the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (noaa.gov) says that 2018 was one of the four hottest years on record for the globe. The heat makes a difference. It accelerates storms and hurricanes. It places low-lying areas at risk. And trivially (but some of us live this) the fluctuations between cold and heat affect the quality of roads.

Many Republicans are oblivious to the challenges of climate change. That man who occupies the People’s House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue spent 82 minutes bloviating without mentioning climate change or global warming (or the 400th year since enslaved people crossed these wretched borders), but even as he ignored a pressing issue, there were official acknowledgments of the ways that global warming has shifted our climate realities. In the name of party loyalty, some Republicans are willing to imperil our planet.

Democrats aren’t much better. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been focused on climate change and has assembled a congressional panel to deal with the matter. The New Green Deal says that the Speaker’s focus is insufficient, and first-year legislator Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez (D-NY) has promoted a “Green New Deal” that addresses comprehensive ways to deal with social, economic, and environmental justice.

Leader Pelosi and Congresswoman AOC both care about the ways our planet is melting, although they approach legislative fixes in different ways. Pelosi would take a deep dive in environmental issues. AOC would connect environmental devastation to wages, education, and quality of life. The two dynamos are on the same page, but their approach is different. Pelosi is the more skilled leader and negotiator and will find her position enhanced if she can use the AOC agenda to advance her own.

The bottom line, though, is that our planet is melting. We hear a “State of Disunion” address that bloviated on for 82 minutes and mentioned climate change not once. In the days after the pathetic campaign speech masquerading as a State of the Union address, we saw Democrats lift the challenges of climate change, and Republicans to ignore those challenges. And our world melts on.

Our world is melting. Glaciers are disappearing. Oceans are rising. Lowlands (mostly populated by low income and Black people) are disappearing. And, before Democrats took power in this term, few other than Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the New Green Deal have been able to address matters of climate change and, in the words of the New Poor People’s Campaign, “ecological devastation.”

How does ecological devastation shape issues of social and economic justice? When folks choose to disrespect the environment, they mainly want to disrespect those who are most vulnerable – people who are at the periphery of the economy, those who have garbage dumps and toxic waste placed near their homes. There was a focus on environmental justice with the Environmental Protection Agency before this administration decided that there was no need to protect the environment. And there has been a stunning silence among civil rights organizations who don’t’ think that the melting of our plant is essential.

Our planet is melting. A few legislators care. What about the rest of us? Do we understand that, in the words of Rev. William Barber, that without a healthy planet, we have no platform to fight for social and economic justice, for our civil rights?

Julianne Malveaux is an author and economist. Her latest book “Are We Better Off? Race, Obama and Public Policy” is available via www.amazon.com for booking, wholesale inquiries or for more info visitwww.juliannemalveaux.com

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Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

Published

6 days ago

April 19, 2024

Oakland Post

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Commentary

Opinion: Surviving the Earthquake, an Eclipse and “Emil Amok.”

Last Friday, a 4.8 magnitude earthquake shook New York City, reported as the “biggest earthquake with an epicenter in the NYC area since 1884” when a 5.2 quake hit. A bit bigger. The last quake similar to Friday’s was a 4.9 in 1783.Alexander Hamilton felt it — 241 years ago. That’s why New Yorkers were freaking out on Friday. They were in the room where it happens.

Published

1 week ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

In New York City, the eclipse was about 90 percent visible. Good enough for me. Though a full solar eclipse is a celestial rarity, blockages of any sort aren’t generally celebrated. My one-man play is about growing up with the eclipsed history of American Filipinos and how I struggle to unblock all that.

By Emil Guillermo

I’m a Northern Californian in New York City for the next few weeks, doing my one-man show, “Emil Amok, Lost NPR Host, Wiley Filipino, Vegan Transdad.”

I must like performing in the wake of Mother Nature.

Alexander Hamilton felt it — 241 years ago.

That’s why New Yorkers were freaking out on Friday. They were in the room where it happens.

And it just doesn’t happen that often.

Beyonce singing country music happens more frequently.

When I felt New York shake last week, it reminded me of a time in a San Francisco TV newsroom when editors fretted about a lack of news an hour before showtime.

Then the office carpeting moved for a good ten seconds, and the news gods gave us our lead story.

On Friday when it happened in NYC, I noticed the lines in the carpeting in my room wiggling. But I thought it was from a raucous hotel worker vacuuming nearby.

I didn’t even think earthquake. In New York?

I just went about my business as if nothing had happened. After living near fault lines all my life, I was taking things for granted.

Considering the age of structures in New York, I should have been even more concerned about falling objects inside (shelves, stuff on walls) and outside buildings (signs, scaffolding), fire hazards from possible gas leaks, and then I should have looked for others on my floor and in the hotel lobby to confirm or aid or tell stories.

Of course, as a Californian who has lived through and covered quakes in the 4 to 6 magnitude range, I tried to calm down any traumatized New Yorker I encountered by taking full responsibility for bringing in the quake from the Bay Area.

I reassured them things would be all right, and then let them know that 4.8s are nothing.

And then I invited them to my consoling post-Earthquake performance of “Emil Amok, Lost NPR Host…”

It was the night of the eclipse.

ECLIPSING THE ECLIPSE

For example, did you know the first Filipinos actually arrived to what is now California in 1587? That’s 33 years before the Pilgrims arrived in America on the other coast, but few know the Filipino history which has been totally eclipsed.

I was in Battery Park sitting on a bench and there was a sense of community as people all came to look up. A young woman sitting next to me had a filter for a cell phone camera. We began talking and she let me use it. That filter enabled me to take a picture of the main event with my iPhone.

For helping me see, I invited her and her boyfriend to come see my show.

Coincidentally, she was from Plymouth, Massachusetts, near the rock that says the year the Pilgrims landed in 1620.

In my show she learned the truth. The Pilgrims were second.

History unblocked. But it took a solar eclipse.

Next one in 2044? We have a lot more unblocking to do.

If you’re in New York come see my show, Sat. April 13th, 5:20 pm Eastern; Fri. April 19, 8:10 pm Eastern; and Sun. April 21st 5:20 pm Eastern.

You can also livestream the show. Get tickets at www.amok.com/tickets

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He does a mini-talk show on YouTube.com/@emilamok1. He wishes all his readers a Happy Easter!

Oakland Post

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Commentary

Commentary: Republican Votes Are Threatening American Democracy

In many ways, it was great that the Iowa Caucuses were on the same day as Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We needed to know the blunt truth. The takeaway message after the Iowa Caucuses where Donald Trump finished more than 30 points in front of Florida Gov. De Santis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley boils down to this: Our democracy is threatened, for real.

Published

1 week ago

April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

It was strange for Iowans to caucus on MLK day. It had a self-cancelling effect. The day that honored America’s civil rights and anti-discrimination hero was negated by evening. That’s when one of the least diverse states in the nation let the world know that white Americans absolutely love Donald Trump. No ifs, ands or buts.

By Emil Guillermo

In many ways, it was great that the Iowa Caucuses were on the same day as Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

We needed to know the blunt truth.

The takeaway message after the Iowa Caucuses where Donald Trump finished more than 30 points in front of Florida Gov. De Santis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley boils down to this: Our democracy is threatened, for real.

And to save it will require all hands on deck.

It was strange for Iowans to caucus on MLK day. It had a self-cancelling effect. The day that honored America’s civil rights and anti-discrimination hero was negated by evening.

That’s when one of the least diverse states in the nation let the world know that white Americans absolutely love Donald Trump. No ifs, ands or buts.

No man is above the law? To the majority of his supporters, it seems Trump is.

It’s an anti-democracy loyalty that has spread like a political virus.

No matter what he does, Trump’s their guy. Trump received 51% of caucus-goers votes to beat Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who garnered 21.2%, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who got 19.1%.

The Asian flash in the pan Vivek Ramaswamy finished way behind and dropped out. Perhaps to get in the VP line. Don’t count on it.

According to CNN’s entrance polls, when caucus-goers were asked if they were a part of the “MAGA movement,” nearly half — 46% — said yes. More revealing: “Do you think Biden legitimately won in 2020?”

Only 29% said “yes.”

That means an overwhelming 66% said “no,” thus showing the deep roots in Iowa of the “Big Lie,” the belief in a falsehood that Trump was a victim of election theft.

Even more revealing and posing a direct threat to our democracy was the question of whether Trump was fit for the presidency, even if convicted of a crime.

Sixty-five percent said “yes.”

Who says that about anyone of color indicted on 91 criminal felony counts?

Would a BIPOC executive found liable for business fraud in civil court be given a pass?

How about a BIPOC person found liable for sexual assault?

Iowans have debased the phrase, “no man is above the law.” It’s a mindset that would vote in an American dictatorship.

Compare Iowa with voters in Asia last weekend. Taiwan rejected threats from authoritarian Beijing and elected pro-democracy Taiwanese vice president Lai Ching-te as its new president.

Meanwhile, in our country, which supposedly knows a thing or two about democracy, the Iowa caucuses show how Americans feel about authoritarianism.

Some Americans actually like it even more than the Constitution allows.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He does a mini-talk show on YouTube.com/@emilamok1.