The human cost from Hurricane Helene continues to rise, with
over 230 people dead in six states and hundreds still missing within a 500-mile path of destruction. Helene has had a devastating impact on poor, low-income, and rural people in underserved communities, where access to food, water, and emergency services has been cut off.
As the director of a national network of grassroots organizations, our members in groups like
Down Home North Carolina and Hometown Action are on the ground in many of these small communities, connecting people with the help they need. It always warms my heart to see neighbors help neighbors in the wake of a natural disaster.
But the truth is, devastating floods and hurricanes like Helene, which destroy the lives of more and more people, are anything but natural. They are the direct result of the warming temperatures and rising sea levels which are caused by our dependence on burning oil and gas. And this dependence, in turn, is caused by the insatiable greed of fossil fuel companies.
If Donald Trump is elected president, our dependence on fossil fuels, and the climate disasters they cause, will get far worse.
For half a century, fossil fuel giants like ExxonMobil have denied the evidence that our burning of oil and gas warms the planet, causing storms, droughts, and wildfires. Indeed, when
ExxonMobil’s own scientists warned them in 1977 that a climate disaster was comingdisaster was coming, executives suppressed the data to keep the truth from the public.
Scientists agree the only way to curb climate disasters like Helene is to end our dependence on fossil fuels, and to transition to cleaner sources of energy. The good news is wind and solar power get cheaper every year, and many nations have realized the transition to green energy improves their economy, too. Great Britain, where the Industrial Revolution was born, just
shut down their last coal-burning power stationpower station, two years ahead of schedule.
But not the United States. Over 25% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from using coal and gas to produce electricity. And if Donald Trump is elected president, our dependence on fossil fuels, and the climate disasters they cause, will get far worse.
At a closed-door meeting with oil executives in April,
Trump promised to gut the Biden administration’s environmental protectionsBiden administration’s environmental protections and allow oil companies to expand drilling, in exchange for $1 billion in contributions to his campaign.
This is not the first time Trump has scratched the backs of oil and gas giants: in his first term as president, Trump
wiped out more than 125 environmental rules and gave massive tax breaks to energy companies. As a result, the United States now pumps more oil out of the ground than any country ever has, and companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron are reporting record profits.
But now these massive companies and their executives want even more profits, and they know Donald Trump will give them what they want, for a hefty price. But the real price of what Trump has promised—to remove environmental protections and increase our dependence on fossil fuels—will be paid for in lives, by you and me, and all of us who find ourselves in the paths of superstorms like Helene. This is one of the many reasons I cannot vote for Trump, nor should any person who cares about the future of our nation, our planet, and our families.
