PROTECTING HOME
We need to innovate. I mean, c’mon. This one’s a no-brainer.
What are we doing here? Are we really arguing over whether or not we should prioritize protecting the only place we will ever be able to live? Because Erik Paulsen can’t accept science?
Humans are warming the Earth and that is affecting the climate. Every respectable scientist thinks it’s true. Every third grader thinks it’s true. Because, well, it is true. And if we don’t do something drastic and immediate to reverse it, we’ll lose our economic centers to flooding, we’ll
lose our agricultural land to drought and extreme weather, and we’ll lose the complex ecosystems of living things we share this planet with to whatever in God’s name is killing all the bees.
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So we need better ideas and better infrastructures that support an economy that works with our planet and not against it. That means democracy-funded research and experimental teams. We can do it. It’s how we put a man on the moon. We just need to treat staying on our planet this century as seriously we treated leaving it last century.
So no, corporations don’t get to dump waste in our natural resources to give better returns to investors. No, car manufacturers don’t get to keep making cars that get 15 miles a gallon. No, coal is not a solution. No, we don’t get pass the buck on this.
But those measures aren’t enough. Curbing our damaging habits doesn’t save us. We need more. We need to reinvent our systems. We need to ignite the fires of American ingenuity. And that’s why I’m calling for a moon mission for earth. A project that challenges the greatest human minds to work for humanity.
A democracy that funds insular think projects to follow through on our most inspiring ideas. The smartest scientists dreaming up and implementing new sources for energy, innovative methods for air and water purification, and infrastructural fixes for making these experiments and practical reality in our daily lives.
A public works project like we’ve never seen. One to save the world.
And once we’ve succeeded, and we will, we transfer the results to private industry and let the free market flourish.
We need big bold steps. Like Kennedy’s moon mission or Eisenhower’s highway system. The transcontinental railroad was an act of Congress, signed by Abraham Lincoln. Our economy’s biggest breakthroughs have come from American Democracy.
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And it’s time, once more.
Let Erik Paulsen keep his head in the sand through retirement because we’ve got work to do. The conversation is over.
So let’s face that challenging reality head on. Truly, we have no choice.
We can do it. We’ve done it before.
Let’s do something.