Every week it is the same story though the places may be different. This week it's extreme heat up to 120F in the US Southwest, tens of thousands dislocated by wildfires in Washington state, continuing devastation and heat in western Europe, and 90F at the edge of the Arctic. Scientists announce that global warming has sped up.
The media shows the photos which look like all the others, though the suffering caused by heat is hard to make into readable visuals. Among the stories about celebrities, box office records, sports trades and the Chaos out of Washington, there are some "lifestyle" pieces about how to get a better night's sleep when its continuously hot and humid.
But maybe more than that is actually going on, and besides having their brains driven to mushy dullness by hot weather, at least some people are seeing the big picture. And this picture could hardly be bigger.
From The Guardian:
"Research makes clear that global warming is making extreme weather events more frequent and severe. Yet the climate crisis has largely disappeared from the political agenda, with many Democrats who once described it as an existential threat now shying away from talking about it.
Now US activists are pushing back against this trend of “climate hushing”, arguing it is misguided. During the summer’s federal recess, during which lawmakers leave the nation’s capital to work directly within their home states or districts, demonstrators organized by the environmental advocacy coalition Climate Action Campaign are calling on representatives to put climate back on the political agenda."
The article continues:
"The activists’ campaign comes as new polling challenges the need for “climate hushing”, a trend that took off as some policy wonks argued that talking about global warming could alienate voters and distract from the message of affordability. July research from the University of California, Santa Barbara found that emphasizing climate change was neutral to beneficial for Democratic candidates, suggesting that talking more about the issue does not alienate voters and can even increase support in competitive races.
Though the Trump administration frequently derides climate policy as a “scam” and a “hoax”, polling indicates most Americans are not onboard with that view. Another July poll from Data for Progress found that 61% of likely voters believe extreme weather has become more frequent over the past five years, including nearly half of Republicans. And one month earlier, a Yale survey found that roughly two-thirds of Americans are worried about global warming."
The upcoming actions involve coalitions organized by the Climate Action Campaign and its director Margie Alt. The coalition includes Sierra Club and NAACP chapters, as well as Bill McKibben's organization of elders called Third Act. There are events both large and small slated for at least 20 states. The Guardian article concludes:
“Smart politicians will grab on this issue,” said McKibben. “There’s perhaps no other question where the gulf between Maga and the general public is higher.”
Alt said she saw climate-hushing as “the climate denial of 2026”. “I don’t think that ignoring the climate crisis is smart politics,” she said. “I think that it is dropping the ball on the biggest threat the US and the world faces.”
Dropping the ball is an almost insulting understatement. Climate hushing must end. Climate crisis leadership is the wave of the future, if there indeed is to be anything worthy of the name of future.
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