As if we hadn't been through enough -- the climate crisis season of 2020 is fully upon us now.
We are now seeing record breaking fire activity across the west -- with rare lightning storms, coupled with a heat wave and 20 year mega-drought, leading to over 1.3 million acres destroyed, at least 7 deaths, evacuations ,and extremely unhealthy air quality (at times the worst air quality in the world). Add to that the new normal of rolling blackouts imposed by Pacific Gas & Electric during fire season, as a result of decades of grid neglect. And the new twist: COVID-19 has so severely devastated our incarcerated population that the prison labor these states previously relied upon to fight these fires is now too sick to help, making it much more difficult to contain the fires.
Corporate rule is at the root of all of this -- from the fossil fuel companies fueling the climate chaos and pollution, to PG&E putting corporate profits above safety for decades, to our dependence on modern day slavery in a for-profit prison system. Help us continue building the movement to end corporate rule by sharing our petition, so we can keep flexing our numbers and racking up cosponsors for the #WeThePeopleAmendment.
Turning toward the Gulf, we watched Hurricane Laura become a powerhouse Category 4 storm, causing massive damage, power outages and over 20 fatalities in the Caribbean before making landfall in Port Charles, LA -- battering the coast, setting chemical fires that have made the air toxic, and killing at least 7 -- with the full effects of massive surge flooding still remaining to be seen. Climate change and decades of crumbling infrastructure are to blame.
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