After making landfall in Florida and traveling up through the Southeastern U.S. states,
Hurricane Helene has left nothing but devastation in its wake. As of the time of this writing
128 deaths have been reported; there is no doubt more will continue to come to light. Millions of people have been left without electricity, and countless others are struggling to find basic necessities like food and clean water.
People are still missing and regions like Western North Carolina have been largely cut off from the outside world. Hundreds of road closures have made it nearly impossible for people to get out or first responders to get in; wiped out cell phone and internet services have made it horribly difficult to get in touch with loved ones or emergency services.
Once the damage is assessed and response teams have been able to do their vital work, these communities will take months, even years, to rebuild.
The damage to infrastructure is unimaginable; the trauma for these people and the people that care about them around the country and world will never fully go away. We are witnessing a climate catastrophe in real time. The United States government is complicit in every death, every loss, every bit of damage and trauma that this storm has wrought because it continues to subsidize fossil fuels, approve new drilling permits, and ignore policies that would move us towards clean energy.
Sign the petition demanding meaningful action from the U.S. government to mitigate the worsening effects of climate change!The stories coming out of the areas hit hardest by Helene's destruction are agonizing.
A woman who was trapped on the roof of her Asheville home had to
watch helplessly as her
7-year-old son and her own parents were swept under the water when part of the structure collapsed.
Residents of Pinellas County are being found
drowned in their homes, unable to escape or be reached by rescue crews.
Entire communities have been wiped from the face of the earth,
before and after photos showing just mud and downed trees where businesses, homes, and roads used to stand.The list goes on and on. There is no way to capture every heartbreaking tragedy that has happened because of this storm.
Extreme weather events are worsening due to climate change, and they are becoming less predictable too. Asheville, located in Buncombe County, North Carolina where
devastation was at peak levels, is "2,000 feet above sea level and more than 250 miles from the coast." This is no longer just about coastlines.
The consequences of climate change will not stay within any understandable boundary, and we will not become more able to prepare for them. Other than evacuation, no one could have prepared for the ruin Hurricane Helene left behind.We cannot be reactive; we must be proactive. Governments and decision-makers across the world must do what climate scientists and policy experts have been screaming: slam on the brakes on climate change while we still have the chance.
But the U.S. continues to do the opposite. Spending billions of taxpayers dollars to subsidize, aka keep alive, the fossil fuel industry. Approving new drilling permits that keep fossil fuels flowing and the environment bleeding. Failing to properly invest heavily enough in clean energy that would both mitigate climate change and bring us into the future.
These are the actions that have direct consequences -- human life, people's homes, communities' stories, and iconic landscapes, gone forever.We demand better. Let Hurricane Helene be the end of our government's strange alliance with that which is hurting us. Let the victims of this tragedy heal knowing that U.S. politicians and lawmakers are doing everything they can to stop climate change.
Sign the petition and demand the United States government immediately turn on its heel; stop investing in fossil fuels, and start investing in a safe, beautiful future.