Iran holds the fourth largest oil reserves in the world. The last thing the world needs now is another war over oil. Not only has the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) said that we need to reduce oil, coal, and gas by almost 50% by 2030, but war itself creates massive amounts of pollution, including massive climate disrupting pollution.
This bombing is also about distracting from the “budget bill” that has a lot of really bad things in it that threaten our democracy and our rights. So please read up on what’s in the bill and call your senators and ask them to vote NO!
The U.S. has a long history of waging war over fossil fuels—especially oil, gas, and pipeline routes. These wars were waged by using ultimatums instead of diplomacy—and this war is no different. Why use diplomacy when the goal is actually to create an excuse to use force to steal another country’s oil?
During his first term, Trump ditched a diplomatic treaty created under Obama that was working well. Iran was shutting down its incomplete nuclear capabilities in return for economic sanctions that were being lifted.
—But Trump’s goal of having an excuse to seize oil reserves was not achievable under the treaty. With Iran cooperating, Trump could not make Iran the bad guy, so Trump scrapped the treaty—a treaty that was WORKING peacefully. Trump’s goal is not to eliminate Iran’s nuclear capabilities. His goal is to create an excuse to use force to seize Iran’s oil reserves and possibly even control of Iran’s Strait of Hormuz because about 20% of the world’s oil flows through it daily.
Trump’s threats against Greenland are also about seizing Greenland’s oil and minerals. We cannot allow this. Trump’s talk about “protecting” i.e. seizing Greenland may seem like crazy talk, but he is always serious about anything that can make him money.
The U.S. Constitution says that ONLY Congress can call for war. The president of the United States does NOT have the power to call for war. If the president wants to bomb or use force, the president must come before Congress and ask Congress to vote on the action the president wishes to take. When Trump bombed Iran without Congressional approval FIRST—Trump—AGAIN—violated the U.S. Constitution. That is an action that he can and should be impeached for. There are numerous actions that Trump has taken since January that violate the U.S. Constitution—and the Republican-dominated Congress has not stood up to him. These actions threaten our democracy—as many of us are all too well aware. Any elected official who does not stand up for the impeachment of Trump is complicit in these crimes.
It is URGENT that we contact our members of Congress and urge them to impeach Trump now before things escalate further.
It is also critical that we vote in federal elections and state elections. Do an internet search to find out which candidates take money from corporations, super PACs, oil companies, and billionaires. Just do an internet search for “Joe Candidate campaign donations” and information will come up. There ARE candidates who do not take money from big corporations and the wealthy. It is critical that we find them and vote for them and READ their platforms to know if they stand for things that create healthy people, families, communities, wildlife, and ecosystems.
Our fossil fuels create sacrifice zones and “cancer alleys” for communities in the U.S.—mostly communities of color—which is tragic and horrific—and WRONG. We could be using renewable energies instead. Our fossil fuels ALSO turn places like South America, Africa, and the Pacific Islands into sacrifice zones—because they are heating up and experiencing sea level rise in many places, much faster than we are in most places in the U.S. This is also WRONG and horrific. So we need to care not just about our own comfort and our increasing heat, but also for others suffering under fossil fuel pollution—AND intense climate change droughts, fires, floods, hurricanes, etc. in our country and other countries. Most of the countries suffering the worst are not big fossil fuel polluters. The U.S. is currently the number 1 fossil fuel polluter in the world, with China close behind us.
According to Al Gore and the International Energy Agency, we have everything we need to convert to renewable energies EXCEPT POLITICAL WILL. It is “political will” driven by GREED—not politics. People in office who care more about money than human health, wildlife survival, community health, and Earth’s ability to sustain life. It is stunningly shockingly appalling.
As soon as we stop using fossil fuels, the temperature will start dropping right away. WE CAN GIVE YOUNG PEOPLE A FUTURE, Al Gore said at COP 28 last year!
In Georgia, our Public Service Commission is supposed to hold Georgia Power to be accountable for reducing pollution, properly lining and sealing cancer-causing coal ash ponds, transitioning to renewable energies, and reducing costs. It is doing NONE of those things effectively. It has been endangering public health for some time. Georgia Power is the main electric company in Atlanta whose rates also affect much of the state because GP maintains the electrical grid for other counties.
We have the chance to replace 2 people on the Public Service Commission during the late fall elections. It is critical that we learn which candidates care about reducing fossil fuels and shifting to clean energies. Who will stand up to Georgia Power? Which candidates care more about people and local communities—and are not in the pockets of large corporations?
Who makes decisions about where power comes from in your state? We have power in our states’ decision-making. There are many nonprofits, voter organizations, and environmental and citizen organizations that can come together to help voters know what is at stake and which candidates really care about reducing pollution, customer rates, and climate change.
The creation of fossil fuels requires a lot of money and power to come together. This concentration of wealth and powerful corporations and rich people tends to move nations toward authoritarian and dictatorships. That is now happening in the U.S.
The use of renewable energies like solar and wind power decentralizes money and power. People with middle class incomes are moving toward hybrid or electric vehicles, small solar installations, solar roofs with net metering, or small wind installations in different areas of the country. Solar and wind create permanent jobs—unlike oil, coal, and gas—because the sun and wind will never run out, and solar/wind needs maintenance over time—so they create jobs. No more boom and bust for local economies. No more “man camps” that are dangerous for local women and girls.
We are experiencing increasingly unnatural intense weather-related disasters. Solar and wind energies that are spread out throughout communities can offer islands of shelter, power, help, and community cooperation. A power outage of solar and wind might take out one house or a small area, while a power outage of oil, gas, or coal can take away power from thousands or more at a time. Schools with renewable energy can serve as local shelters that are more accessible and less crowded—unlike giant domes like the one in St. Petersburg, Florida that was set up to be a shelter but was ripped apart by the very hurricane it was staged to provide shelter from.
The move by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, corporations, and oil and gas companies to support Trump’s election is directly tied to their fight against reducing fossil fuels and their fight to prevent our county from moving to renewable energies. Many wealthy people and corporations are still heavily invested in oil, coal, and gas. Trump’s mantra of “drill baby drill” is about money. Fossil fuels make small numbers of people very rich. Greed seems to be powerful enough of an addiction for these people and corporations to not care about the future of billions of people on Earth, the current wildlife extinction crisis, the destruction of ecosystems that sustain our Earth’s climate, or their own future health and well-being—or even their families, children, and grandchildren. 2030 is only 5 years away and climate-related disasters are already more intense than many of the exaggerated tacky “disaster” movies of the 1970s. Some of those disaster movies even pale next to the real life horrific disasters happening now. Addiction to greed is another word for idolatry.
Native American concepts of caring for the Earth and treating all of nature as our relatives—offer real alternatives and more respectful caring sustainable ways of relating to nature and each other. Loving our neighbors as ourselves is the foundation of almost every major religion—empathy as emotions, thoughts, and actions toward others, the natural world, and ourselves—so we are all of importance and value. These are ways of living that are nonnegotiable if we are going to create ways of life that are life-giving and based in loving care instead of greed. Loving care for people who are different from us, loving care for nature and wildlife and ecosystems. Loving care that goes beyond what is easy, and convenient and familiar. Loving care that takes courage and takes time to really learn about others and about what is affecting them. Loving care that moves us to set boundaries and stop destruction. Standing up and speaking up for what and who we love is and saying NO—is LOVE!