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CALLING ALL MATRIOTS: THE WORLD NEEDS YOU!


Patriot: one who loves her country, from the Latin "patria," love of the fatherland.

Martriot: one who loves the motherland; Earth as a whole, derived from the Latin "mater," mother.

I love my country, no doubt about it. I vote, pay taxes, teach at a public school. And while Donald Trump prepares to wage war on the civil rights of millions of Americans, I want to focus our attention on the dire threat to the planet, and how the little progress we have made is about to be undone unless we act immediately, relentlessly, and forcefully, en masse, to protect the very home on which we all live inextricably connected.

Fresh assaults come daily from Trump and his transition team, while back home in North Carolina, the state GOP continues its coordinated campaign to attack voting rights, among other horrors. The calls to action go out: stop Steve Bannon, oppose Betsy DeVos and her plan to gut public schools, stop the abortion madness in Ohio. If these are your passions--as they are mine--please continue to act on them.

But please also consider that global warming is the single biggest threat to face us in our collective history. We are talking change on a scale the planet has not seen in millions of years, all happening in our lifetime, and devastatingly so in that of the next generation. And climate change is not the only threat to the environment we face: cities around the world from China to Europe to India are facing unprecedented and unhealthy levels of ground air pollution. Childhood asthma is on the rise. Extractive industries such as coal mining and fracking poison the groundwater and scar the land. Here at home, piles of toxic coal ash waste poison our state because our governor and leaders have ties to polluting industries such as Duke Power.

What can we do today? What is a call to action?

  • Support groups like the Environmental Defense Fund and the Sierra Club. Donations from you can be used to stop the worst abuses of the Trump administration and his polluting cronies in court and in the media. Give today!
  • Write and call your elected officials immediately and demand that they block the Cabinet appointment of Scott Pruitt to the EPA. He is a fossil fuel executive and an avowed opponent of the very agency he has been tapped to lead. Google him and read for five minutes and you will have all the talking points you need, or find one of the many scripts on line.
  • Encourage politicians, friends, and colleagues to stop talking about the false dichotomy of jobs vs. the environment. With the right government stimulus, we can have it all: good jobs that provide all the clean, green energy we need. Places like the Massachusetts Clean Energy Incubator, where private/public partnerships are sparking dynamic interactions between research science and the business community are on the forefront of sustainable energy technologies just being discovered.
  • Assess your own lifestyle. Do you need that extra bathroom? Is an SUV really necessary? Could you make life choices to live closer to work? Do you ride a bicycle? Have you thought about the impact eating meat has on the environment?
  • If you have kids, or even if you don't, show the next generation that you care. Join a river keeper group, adopt a stream, pick up trash in a park.
  • Consider running for office. If the specter of climate change causes you to lose sleep, what are you waiting for? The industry apologists in Raleigh and Washington aren't going to save the planet. It has to be YOU!

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