Hey @SenCollins, @SenAngusKing, @ChelliePingree & @RepGolden, What Part Of #ClimateEmergency Do You Not Understand?

Asphalt melting in New Delhi as reported in The Telegraph, UK yesterday. Photo credit: EPA/HARISH TYAGI

People are already dying in droves from heat that cannot sustain human life, especially in places that lack air conditioning that, ironically, hastens global heating.

For weeks now India has been reeling under extreme heat.

Today, this headline caught my eye: "'Hell is coming' Western Europe braces for it's hottest weather since a 2003 heat wave killed 15,000 people in France" says Alexandra Ma reporting for Business Insider.

And this one on how climate emergency is exacerbating the humanitarian emergency of people fleeing violence in Central America: "Seven Migrant Deaths Reported In 'Extreme Heat' At U.S. Border" by Andrew Hay in U.S. News & World Report. Among the dead were an infant and two toddlers. WTF?!!!

Yesterday I saw this news: "Canada's military feeling the strain responding to climate change" by Darren Major and Salimah Shivji in CBC News.

So, my question to Maine's congressional delegation -- Senator Susan Collins, Senator Angus King, Representative Chellie Pingree and Representative Jared Golden -- is this: What part of climate emergency are you not understanding?


Yes, I know that money talks and that regular people have long since lost any meaningful voice in our so-called democracy. But, aren't you worried about life on the planet for your own families?

Young mother Ashley Bahlkow was arrested along with me and 20 other people this week demanding that Bath Iron Works (BIW) convert from building war ships to addressing climate catastrophe bearing down on us.

Here is her explanation of why she, her partner and their 2 year old were in attendance as the four of you were inside "celebrating" the "christening"[sic] of yet another war ship built with U.S. tax dollars to make General Dynamics (which owns BIW) very, very wealthy.




In case you're not on Facebook and thus the See more link doesn't work for you, here's her entire statement as a screenshot:

Shouldn't you as Maine's elected officials care about alienating a young voter like Ashley? 

Or have you already decided it's game over?

Thirteen year old Anna Siegel told us in Portland last Friday that she blew out the candles on her cake this year and thought about the 11 years remaining until human extinction is irreversible. None of you showed up to our news conference for the Conversion Campaign, but you can still watch it on YouTube. Anna leads the Youth Climate Strikes movement in Maine, in case you didn't know.





I'll be honest. Based on your past performance, I don't hold out much hope for your leadership. But I will keep trying in every way I can think of to sound the alarm: turn the ship of state around now, before it's too late.

Here's a great article to ponder: "US military is a bigger polluter than as many as 140 countries -- shrinking this war machine is a must" 

by Benjamin Neimark, Oliver Belcher and Patrick Bigger on The Conversation. 

You are part of the problem every time you vote for another bloated Pentagon budget. A BIG part of the problem. Wake up!