The High Cost of Doing Nothing

Lives lost and lives ruined are the price we pay for not meeting the climate challenge head on.

As we witness the shocking destruction and loss of life caused by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, we need to face the fact that the cost of doing nothing is far, far, greater than the cost of rising to meet the climate challenge, and that cost will be paid for in lives lost and lives ruined. “Doing nothing” is exactly what the oil and gas companies want, and why they pay Republicans to obstruct our continuing efforts to do what needs to be done.

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The Cost of Doing Nothing

What to say:

“We can no longer afford the high cost of failing to meeting the climate challenge with the magnitude of action it requires. In the Inflation Reduction Act, we invest $369 billion in the transition to abundant clean energy. Hurricane Ian cost more than $65 billion in damages. Hurricane Helene alone could cost $200 billion. We can’t even begin to put a price on the damage caused by Hurricane Milton. Lives are being lost and lives are being ruined. That’s a price too high to pay.

We can’t go back in time and do what should have been done before, but we can step up now and pledge to do whatever it takes to stabilize our climate, stop the increase in dangerous weather, and preserve the delicate balance of conditions necessary for us to thrive in this world. We simply can’t afford not to.”

I have spoken previously about framing the climate challenge in terms of right and wrong, as opposed to “what’s in it for you.” The whole “clean jobs” message strategy just doesn’t resonate with people. So when I talk about the cost of doing nothing, I want to make sure that we’re clear on what we mean by “cost.” We may measure the cost of hurricane damage in dollars, but those dollars represent the destruction of people’s homes, the loss of communities and their histories, and in too many cases, the loss of actual lives.

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It is in times of crisis that we discover what kind of people we are.

Some people love to criticize government, but what is government but the American people pooling their resources to help each other? Responding to natural disasters is the purest expression of solidarity between the American people, Democratic and Republican voters alike.

It is simply staggering that House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to call the U.S. House back into session to pass additional emergency funding for FEMA as it tackles back-to-back historic hurricanes. Passing more funding for FEMA at this time of unprecedented crisis should be a no-brainer for any human being with a heart.

This goes far beyond FEMA funding and disaster assistance. We all depend on the scientists and services that analyze and track weather patterns and predict storms. We depend on the people who plan and facilitate evacuations. We depend on the building of housing and infrastructure that meets high standards for resiliency. We depend on the Army Corps, National Guard and others to help us recover and rebuild.

There is no private profit to be made in preparing for future events or rebuilding after a natural disaster. That’s why it is one of the most important jobs of government at all levels.

Republican politicians not only do NOT see the value in learning about and preparing for the future, they are desperately trying to suppress the conversations we need to have about the continued destabilization of our climate and its relationship to this increasingly dangerous and destructive weather.

What does this tell you about the kind of people they are?

Oil and gas companies have known since the 1950s that their products seriously disrupt the balance of conditions we depend on in order to thrive in this world. They not only hid this information, but deliberately misled the public by funding fake science and sowing disinformation.

The oil industry now owns, lock stock and barrel, not the voters, but the politicians of the Republican Party, especially those in the state of Florida. 

Rather than respect their sacred responsibility to protect the people they were elected to serve, people like Ron DeSantis are not only trying to gaslight us by removing any mention of global warming in government agency communications, but they are actively placing us in danger by not allowing us to fully understand and prepare appropriately for the next imminent disaster.

Even worse, at the federal level, Trump and the Republican leadership will eliminate the National Weather Service’s weather forecasting operations and dismantle the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). They will drastically shrink FEMA and eliminate flood insurance, disaster preparedness grants and disaster recovery loans.

If you want a clear picture of why this is happening, you need only to look at Donald Trump’s blatant offer to sell his administration’s entire energy policy to the oil and gas industry for a billion dollars in campaign donations.

Trump has promised to eliminate every federal program involved in converting us to unlimited clean energy and freeing us from dependence on gas and oil, the price of which will skyrocket as supplies inevitably start to run out.

So when you hear politicians use terms like “climate alarmism” and the “climate alarmism industry” you need to recognize what you are looking at: politicians who put your lives and safety in danger in a desperate attempt to sell their votes to an industry that has been endangering all of our lives, price gouging us for obscene profits, feeding at the trough of government subsidies, and gaslighting us for 70 years.

That is what kind of people many Republican elected officials and candidates are.

If you want serious action on the climate, you must vote for Democrats in every office you can find, from the President to your local school board. Not because they are Democrats, but because they, like most of the American people, love their fellow Americans and want to work together to protect each other, and that means doing whatever it takes. That means meeting the climate challenge head on, with the magnitude of action big enough to get the job done.

THANK YOU, as always, for reading, subscribing, and all that you do to make our world a better place!

Contact me with any questions about language use and attribution or consulting at: antonia@antoniascatton.com or (202) 922-6647‬.

NOTES

I have written about framing the climate in the following ways:

• Talking about the “climate challenge” instead of the climate crisis, because the word “challenge” contains within it the moral imperative that you step up to meet that challenge, and confers judgment on those who “fail” to meet a challenge.

• Using phrases like “stabilize the climate” and “restore balance” so people can have a positive mental image what we are trying to do.

• Making the case, not about saving the climate or the planet, but about our own biological dependence on this particular balance of conditions.

• Using “human habitat” framing, in which the earth is our “common home” and fighting “dominion” framing, in which the earth is here for humans to consume.