An image from Irma but similar to where we are right now
I’m the Democratic candidate for Florida’s 12th Congressional District and the author of the Florida Green New Deal. I write this from a hurricane shelter with a few of my fellow Gen Z campaign volunteers. As we prepare for the storm, I want to take a moment and share the urgency of our situation.
I originally thought running my Campaign on the climate crisis would simply be an awareness campaign to benefit not only my future, but the outlook of my fellow Gen Z. As I look into the eyes of my student volunteers who have fled the storm (and calm my own beating heart), it now dawns on me:
This is life and death. Even as the storm begins to batter our roof outside, I fear what my state will look like in the coming decades, and feel seething anger at how Republicans such as my opponent are so carelessly tossing our future away as they reap the immediate benefits of fossil fuel campaign donations to get elected for just another 2 or 4 years. That’s not Democracy: that’s a death warrant.
Members of Gen Z we have spoken to have been galvanized by the storms into political action on climate change and are even more energized to avoid this fate.
Compounding our anger is the knowledge that Governor DeSantis refused a call from Vice President Harris not once, or twice, but five times. We are in the trenches. We are the ones who are actively suffering from these storms and helping storm victims to get by and rebuild.
I should be running my campaign and working on my PhD. My student volunteers should be working on their Bachelors and Masters programs. But our elected representatives use these events to play politics and go home to their multi-million dollar (and hurricane secured) homes while we wonder if we will have a home to go to tomorrow, or if we will be able to afford the cost of hurricane damages.
I have had the hard talks with voters on the campaign trail. I remind them that hurricanes like Helene—and the oncoming Milton—are becoming increasingly common as our waters warm. These two hurricanes alone will have costs of upwards of $200 billion.
I’m angry that this money could have been used to mitigate such disasters had we invested in climate solutions back in the 1990s when the first United Nations COP conference highlighted the urgent threat of climate change and fully predicted the situation we’re in right now.
The path we’re on now is a dark one, with a direction heading towards a 3.0C increase in temperatures and the worldwide disasters that number indicates. But it’s not too late. Seriously.
Even now as we shelter from a climate-intensified hurricane, I truly believe we can change course. We can turn these storms into our greatest wake-up call. Just as we could have acted decades ago, now is the time to invest in prevention rather than cure. A dollar spent today could yield significant returns for a brighter tomorrow. Advancements in solar, wind, geothermal, and other technologies suggest investment in smart and green solutions has never been cheaper.
IF we are willing to stop playing politics and listen to science.
It’s crucial that we stop the political games and unite for a common cause.. But I can’t do it alone. I really do need your help.
Here is my campaign’s ActBlue Page
I really do believe the hope I have is not misplaced. You, Daily Kos readers, have proven to me and my volunteer team we are not alone in trying to build this future. Thank you for reading my diaries and for your generous contributions to our cause. We’re going to keep up this fight no matter what.
