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It doesn't matter whether you're talking about heat (staggering records continue to be set across the American West) or storms (Category 5 hurricane Milton just followed Category 4 hurricane Helene over the ever-hotter waters of the Gulf of Mexico and clobbered Florida).
If only, in terms of the weather, everything were indeed parenthetical. Sadly, if that was ever true, it no longer is, not on a planet that's growing hotter by the year. You know, the very planet on which we just discovered that the worst of the fossil fuels, coal, may not be the worst after all, that the production and use of natural gas may actually emit even more devastating greenhouse gases than coal. So, while Antarctica may be -- yes! -- greening, the rest of our world, you might say, is reddening, as the temperatures of this planet's surface and oceans hit all-time highs. You remember that old saying about red sky at night being a sailor's delight, but who then considered the possibility that red skies during the day -- as areas of this planet burned at record rates in these years -- could mean significant parts of humanity experiencing a growing hell on earth, up close and personal? Oh, and even more of us may be experiencing the very opposite, a stunning increase in flooding.
Remember when "the new world" meant America? Now, it increasingly seems that we're all living in a new world in anything but the best sense. Yes, whether we care to admit it or not, as hurricanes Helene and Milton only recently made clear, we are -- all of us -- on a distinctly new version of Planet Earth and, as TomDispatch regular and co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign Liz Theoharis makes clear today, it's a new world in which one thing hasn't changed: those who suffer the most won't be this planet's billionaires. Tom
Billionaires Are Not Going to Save Us
Looking for Hope in Hard Places and Hard Times
It was William Shakespeare who, in Troilus and Cressida, wrote, "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." And yet, in the polarized news cycle since Hurricane Helene ravaged the southeastern United States and the hurricanes have kept coming, we've heard a tale not of shared humanity, but of ruin, discord, and political polarization.
Hundreds are dead from that storm -- the deadliest to hit the mainland U.S. since Hurricane Katrina in 2005 -- hundreds more are missing, and hundreds of thousands of residences are still without power or clean water. And in addition to the staggering human loss and physical damage, a hurricane of misinformation and division has continued to pummel the region.
There's Elon Musk's politicized deployment of Starlink satellite internet access, which he's used to credit Donald Trump less than one month before the November election, while undermining the legitimacy of federal recovery efforts. Indeed, listen to Fox News or read Musk's claims on his social media platform X, and there's no mention of the pre-arrangements the federal government made with Starlink through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide internet access -- for local governments and the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation.
Then, of course, there's Donald Trump falsely claiming that the federal government's response to Helene was delayed and insufficient because the funds that might have gone to hurricane victims are instead being used to house undocumented immigrants. (FEMA does spend some money on migrant housing, but through an entirely different program.) With this outrageous fearmongering, he's fanning the flames of anti-immigrant hate that are already raging during this election season. His racist and xenophobic rhetoric has also forced FEMA and the White House to spend precious time and energy trying to counter his lies, rather than focusing their full attention on saving lives and rebuilding broken communities.
And don't forget Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who insisted that the government actually controls the weather. This ludicrous claim is taken from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones (notorious for arguing that the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax), who suggested that the government directed Helene towards North Carolina "to force people out of the region so it could mine the state's large reserves of lithium, a key component in the batteries that power electric vehicles and store renewable energy."
Such hateful lies and conspiracy theories (and there are more like them!) conveniently ignore the fact that conservative Republican lawmakers passed a funding bill that failed to allocate additional money to FEMA just days before Helene hit, even though the country was entering peak hurricane season in a time when the weather is growing ever more extreme. And it's no surprise that these lawmakers are backed by billionaires who own some of the very companies most responsible for climate change. Through their scare tactics and anti-government misdirection, they have also provided rhetorical cover for the Christian nationalists and other extremists who were some of the first responders after the hurricane. The Southern Poverty Law Center confirms reports I've heard from local sources that "far-right militias and white supremacist organizations are moving into the region to provide assistance -- and, if past disasters are any indication, drum up sympathy for their cause."
Those Who Are Hit First and Worst
Hurricane Helene (like Hurricane Milton that followed it in a devastating fashion) should be a brutal reminder that none of us are truly safe from the worsening effects of the climate crisis. For years, local officials and real estate developers marketed Asheville, North Carolina, as a "climate haven." With its temperate weather and mountain vistas 300 miles from the ocean, many falsely believed the area would be shielded from storms like Helene. No such luck.
Meanwhile, the last few weeks have also served as a stark reminder that the climate devastation increasingly coming for all of us is experienced most intensely by poor and low-income communities. Just look at the (lack of) full-scale evacuation plans for Hurricane Milton in Florida and it's clear that those who cannot afford a $2,400 flight or have access to a car and enough gas money to wait out the massive traffic jams of those fleeing such storms may just be out of luck.
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