“Every time
a species goes extinct, a part of our life has been altered forever. You cannot
rip out one thread and not have the whole tapestry begin to unravel.”
The Trump administration has effectively killed the Endangered Species Act. By enabling the destruction of habitats, it
is putting several species at risk of extinction.
Expanding the burning of fossil fuels leads to a hotter planet and pollutes the air and water. Contrary to popular belief, it does not help the economy. It damages the economy. On the other hand, supporting clean, renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and geothermal makes energy more affordable, provides sustainable jobs and protects the quality of air and water. What is not to like about it?
Yet seventy-seven million people voted against clean energy in November 2024; they voted to increase the cost of electricity and water; they voted to make people sick, and make life more dangerous and unsafe. They voted to deny climate change and pollute the air and water. How can anybody make sense of this?
In
November 2024 seventy-seven million Americans voted to systematically attack
the laws that protect our National Parks and Public lands.
Let’s
make the message clear and concise: Trump and his officials are systematically attacking the laws that protect our National Parks and public lands.
Burning fossil fuels and sabotaging the development of clean, renewable energy sources have devastating consequences. Climate change is killing people every day. Wildfires are spreading in several places across the world. Floods are more common and severe. Even the greediest people will not be able to extricate themselves from the effects of environmental disasters.
How do we respond
when we face cruelty, abuse and destruction?
Politicians
are elected to protect the wellbeing of the people--not to sabotage it. There are politicians lining the pockets of the billionaires who fund their political
campaigns, and, in doing so, they make the climate hotter, take away jobs, pollute the air and water. Food is more expensive and
dangerous to consume; water is contaminated with cancer-causing toxins and it is
getting harder to afford.
When
Julia Butterfly Hill lived in a tree called Luna for two years, she was not
only protecting the life of the tree. She was standing up for the
communities whose survival depended on the forests. Why? Those forests gave
stability to the soil, not only because they preserved the nutrients there, but
also because they helped to protect the setting from floods and mudslides.
The story
of a mudslide that awakened people to the truth
On December 31, 1996 Mike O’Neal and his
family lost their home in the Stafford mudslide in California. Several families
lost their homes too. Irresponsible logging had created the conditions that led
to that disaster.
Three days after the mudslide, Governor Pete
Wilson flew over Stafford. Shocked by the devastation, he appointed a professor
of civil and environmental engineering from the University of Michigan to
investigate the cause of the mudslide. His name was Donald Gray.
The logging company, however, hoped that
professor Gray would agree with its position that the slide had been “an act of
God”, a natural consequence precipitated by the December intense storm, but the
professor explained that vegetation plays a role in absorbing excess moisture,
so the excessive logging had affected the mountain’s structural stability.
“Studies have shown that timber harvest sites
have a disproportionately high incidence of slope failures compared to natural,
undisturbed areas.”
Despite Professor Gray’s assessment, the
California Department of Forestry approved a plan to clearcut the slope
directly next to the slide where a tree called Luna thrived.
Reflections
I have been reflecting on how environmental
destruction is intimately associated with abusive behaviors and violence. I
have been pondering about the ways in which enabling and empowering abusers is also
connected to the rape of Mother Earth. It is not surprising that the words
“drill, baby, drill,” belong to the calls of pedophiles and rapists. It is not
surprising that when Julia was struggling to survive in Luna, an ancient
Redwood Tree, the loggers threatened to beat and rape her. They tried to starve
her as well.
There is a set of behaviors that belong
to the same thread. Hatred, cruelty and abuse come in the same package as
environmental destruction, but let’s build up our hope upon the behaviors and
guidance of those who choose the path of love, education and solidarity.
Julia Butterfly Hill’s book reminds us that
there is power in us and we need to use it: “It is our responsibility to stand
up for the life we recklessly squandered. So I’ll continue to hold the light
strong even in the midst of total darkness. I will continue to believe that
love is the answer; love is the power; love is the truth.”
How did
Julia survive living in a tree for two years?
When the
word resilience comes to my mind, I think of Julia Butterfly Hill surviving in
Luna. I think about what kept her up there, sustaining her life amid the
harshest conditions.
There is a kind of harmony and balance in her
communion with the ancient tree. Even her hands and feet changed to adapt to
her life there. The muscles of her hands and feet became strong and flexible to
ascend the tree and move from one branch to the other. She acquired a special
knowledge on how to do it with care and precision. She was even able to reach
the top of the tree.
Her bravery helped to spark the inspiration to
save the forests. It is still painful to read about the destruction around her.
The act revealed a total disregard and ignorance of the impact it caused. The
clear cutting of the forest had devastating consequences. There were some
animals she stopped seeing because of that, such as the marbled murrelets and
spotted owls.
The Web
of Life
Julia was not alone in her endeavor to stay
up in the tree. Other activists sat in the tree for a few days at the beginning
of the fight, but she was the one who refused to leave in the winter.
Therefore, she ended up staying for two years. However, her determination would
not have been enough. There was a team supporting her survival while she lived
in Luna.
Julia
put her life on the frontline to awaken people to the truth. In doing so, she confronted
all kinds of abusive behaviors from the logging company. She also had to deal
with extreme cold, intense winds, and frostbite. She endured severe thunderstorms,
hail and sleet.
Julia had to face the threats of the
abusers, but she knew that her purpose was bigger than herself, and the wisdom
of following the love of Creation guided her through the doubts, fears and
uncertainty.
“The more we stand up and demand change, the
more things will improve. I ask myself sometimes whether the destruction has
gone too far, whether we can really do anything to save our forests and our
planet. And yet I know that I can’t give up. We must do the right thing because
it is the right thing. I have to take it one struggle at a time. And just as
I’ve done with Luna when the struggle comes my way, I’ve got to fight it for
all I’m worth. Yes, one person can make a difference. Each one of us does.”
My
question is this: how do we help change things when fascism takes over a nation?
The people who agreed to vote for a
dictator do not seem to understand that their own cruelty is coming back to bite
them. They believe that scapegoating the most vulnerable people of their
communities is the solution to their insecurities and economic failures. The
opposite is true. Nazi Germany did not end up getting rich under Hitler’s “leadership”.
Italy did not do well under Mussolini’s dictatorship either. Supporters of
abusers suffer the consequences of their own cruelty.
This is
the simple truth: nobody can get away from the effects of hurting others,
because we are all interconnected in the web of life. Julia could perceive this
truth while she lived in Luna: “I learned first-hand how everything that we
can—or cannot—see is interconnected like strands in this web of life, from the
microorganisms in the soil helping feed nutrients to Luna, to the stars that
are billions of light-years away, and everything in-between. Living the way I
live, I’ve learned how each thread reached back to us.”
When
the abusers threatened and bullied Julia, she stayed strong in the solid
foundation of her purpose. That is the precious fortress that they could not
touch:
“I do not want to come down to a world where
clear-cuts are allowed, where herbicides are dumped on forests and people,
where logging continues on unstable slopes, where old-growth forests are
destroyed. Why should I come down to a world like that?”
The need
to act now. How do we do it when there is so much under attack?
The unrestrained spread of AI data centers is worsening the climate crisis. It raises gas and electricity costs. It makes your water bill more expensive while increasing climate emissions. It causes noise and light pollution that impact human health and threaten wildlife. It pollutes the water and the air, and now the Trump administration is using AI as an excuse to boost 19th century fossil fuels. It is keeping coal plants running, fast-tracking expensive methane gas plants and gutting health and environmental laws. The Trump administration is weakening environmental regulations and limiting your rights to have a say in what is being built in your community. You can sign this petition to speak up against this:
If you don’t
understand the need to act now, let me explain it further. By gutting the Clean
Air Act and the Clean Water Act, the Trump administration is doing the
following:
1) It is allowing the construction to
proceed before obtaining air permits
2) It is ordering the AI data centers to
run their dirty generators more frequently
3) It is letting certain power plants
not install any pollution controls for acid rain
Exposing the lies of the so-called MAHA
movement
The Trump
administration promised to make America healthy again. (My Writing Life warned
that there was no evidence to believe his empty promises before the November
2024 election). The EPA under Trump has
now approved fluoxipiprolin, epyrifenacil, trifludimoxazin and expanded the use
of chlormequat chloride, even though evidence links these chemicals to cancer,
endocrine disruption and serious risks to pollinators, wildlife and endangered
species. For example, floxipiprolin and epyrifenacil produced tumors in
laboratory animals, but the EPA declared both “not likely” to cause cancer.
Trump passed
executive orders to protect and promote the massive use of glyphosate despite
the well-known health risks to our communities. Glyphosate also affects the
uptake of nutrients and minerals in plants.
To learn more about what the Trump
administration is doing with pesticides and herbicides, you can visit the site
of the Center for Food Safety and take action:
https://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/take-action
Relevant links:
The
assault on science and democracy and a call to action:
https://wigreenfire.org/science-knowledge-and-democracy-a-call-to-action-part-2/
AI data
centers are taking away jobs, worsening the climate crisis, raising our utility
bills and using up massive amounts of water. What are the consequences of this?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/13/lost-jobs-inequality-ai-oligarchs
“Drill baby
drill” is a call to rape Mother Earth; it is a form of abuse:
Why are
Republicans in Congress voting to protect pedophiles?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83r7IdmQBmk
July was the
hottest month in history the United States of America:
https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/10/climate/hottest-month-record-july-noaa
How is this acceptable in the eyes of his
voters?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/13/trump-presidency-revenue-wealth
Some Trump
supporters are awakening to the corruption they vote for:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65NODmQIQV0
Next post
in My Writing Life: Awareness, Reflection, Inspiration
I mentioned
that I had the intention to read books by some of the writers included in the Italian
anthology put together by Jhumpa Lahiri. I am now reading A Silence Shared
by Lalla Romano. My next post will be about her book.
Thank you
for your visit. If you enjoyed this post, feel free to share it with your friends.
Till next
time.
