Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose
by Amy Boscov
When the high school football team faced a challenge on the acclaimed show “Friday Night Lights,” it would pull together with a now-familiar rallying cry: “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.” As humanity faces the greatest crisis in its history — the climate emergency — we will need to do something similar.
Clear eyes: We can’t solve this urgent crisis without being willing and able to look at what we need to do: We have to be able to accurately assess the risks and enact appropriate solutions.
For decades, the oil industry has made a concerted effort to throw dirt in our eyes. Exxon knew as early as July 1977 that fossil fuels are changing the climate in dangerous ways — indeed, the company’s own scientists were in the vanguard of climate research. Yet instead of acting to phase out fossil fuels, Big Oil engineered a massive misinformation campaign.
By polluting the media landscape with manufactured denialism and pouring money into the pockets of politicians to thwart climate legislation, a handful of corporations have successfully stunted public understanding of the climate emergency.
This strategic delay has had deadly consequences; the latest United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report stresses that hazardous climate change is now unavoidable due to our past inaction. All around us we are seeing massive flooding from rains that don’t let up, heat domes creating the largest fires in the history of the American Northwest, and record temperatures across the globe.
Decades wasted mean inevitable losses, but it’s not hopeless. It’s just that we now have a very narrow window of time to transition away from fossil fuels if we wish to avoid much greater suffering and death.
“Clear eyes” means we must act quickly and comprehensively. It also means that partisanship must not lead us to be satisfied with greener rhetoric. Many want to believe President Biden is addressing the crisis appropriately. However, the rate at which new fossil fuel projects on public and tribal lands are being approved, has not been seen since George W. Bush was president. Meanwhile, greenhouse gases continue to climb.
If this were “Friday Night Lights, we’d be in overtime now. We don’t have time for any more half-measures.
Full hearts: Once we see the problem clearly, it is easy to feel hopeless; the task may seem too great and the losses too many. But despair only serves the status quo. The antidote is action. You can join with others like the Sunrise Movement to work towards a brighter, more equitable and sustainable future.
We will not achieve our climate goals without compassion and justice. Any system based on infinite extraction from the Earth and production with no concern for the environment and people is doomed to fail.
We live in a finite and interconnected world and must demand an economy based on sufficiency that provides good paying clean-energy jobs that don’t destroy the environment, opportunities for the young, and health care for all. It’s all possible if we focus on the well-being of the many, not just the enrichment of a wealthy few. That is what the Green New Deal aims to provide. It’s a positive vision of the future, something we must work toward together, with full hearts.
Grieve if you must, but then join with others to work toward a brighter, more equitable and sustainable future. You’re welcome in the Sunrise Movement.
Lastly: Can’t lose. Really, we must do this. It is the only way to save ourselves.
Amy Boscov, Ph.D, is a Communications team member with Sunrise Movement Baltimore and president of Earth Rising Foundation.
Follow Sunrise Baltimore on Twitter (@SunriseBmore), FaceBook (@SunriseBaltimore) and Instagram (sunrisemovementbaltimore). Follow Earth Rising Foundation on Twitter (@earthrisingfdn), Facebook (@EarthRisingFoundation), and Instagram (earthrisingfoundation)..
