Dear Trump Voters (Part 3)

Closing arguments before I head to the polls for my shift as an election judge.

I appreciate those who have taken time to speak to their reasons for their vote. Everyone has their own reasons.

When I was in high school on the debate team we had a person who would judge whether my side or the other side had won the debate. As a “negative” it was my job to refute every point and provide evidence from a credible source to back up my refutation.

I don’t think real life debates work like that anymore, if they ever did. Instead, people have issues that are “deal-breakers” for them and they are willing to accept ambiguity about other issues, or think the best about their candidate or party based on their stance on the deal-breaker issues.

It is clear from the responses that different people have different deal-breaker issues and I respect that.

My deal-breaker issue is the climate.

Scientists have been talking about the potential effects of climate change for decades. I did a report on it in 6th grade, 42 years ago.

They have been saying that on a warming planet, we would see greater evaporation from the surface of the planet, which would lead to more intense and longer droughts and more storms (hurricanes, tornados, severe thunderstorms) and more intense storms. They were saying that the droughts would lead to more and more intense wildfires and the storms would lead to more flooding.

I hate to say it, but what we are seeing in the last ten years is an acceleration of the effects of a warming planet. It is undeniable.

The choice is clear in this election. Harris believes in climate science and will take action. Trump famously is anti-science and pro-oil and coal.

The climate affects every issue that voters care about.

1. Immigration. Many of the displaced people around the world are “climate refugees.” In Central America, where I visit every year, the coffee farmers are struggling with the effects of climate change. The droughts and floods are part of it, but the warming temperatures also increase diseases and pests. When crops fail, people need to move to find work. The civil war in Syria started after five years of unprecedented drought.

2. War. The geopolitics of fossil fuels are one of the forces driving the war in Ukraine.

3. The economy. The costs of climate change are measured in many different ways. First, food costs are related to the success or failure of various crops around the world. Droughts and floods make farming harder. Ask any vegetable farmer or gardener about the summer of 2024. Too wet in June. Too dry in September and October. Too hot sometimes. Too cold other times. Climate change means weird weather and we saw it all. Likewise, the costs of rebuilding after hurricanes, tornados, hail storms, wildfires, and flash floods are putting a strain on all of us because insurance premiums are going up.

4. Health Care. In a warming planet, more people are at risk from heat-related health issues. We see this in heat waves when the news reports on the deaths of people who didn’t have access to air conditioning. But something we are starting to see more is reports of tropical illnesses in the United States. These are things like Dengue fever, which is transmitted by a tropical mosquito. We also need to mention asthma — which is made worse by wildfire smoke in the air.

5. The oceans and forests. The coral reefs are dying because of the warming water. We have seen massive die-offs of crabs, manatees, starfish, and some of our most important food species. The Amazon forest is burning in places it has never burned. Bark beetles are destroying pine forests around the world (fueled by droughts and warmer temps).

6. Equal rights. When we have an economy that is straining under the weight of all of this, it makes everything else harder to achieve, including equal rights and human rights.

Unfortunately, addressing climate change will not fix it. The effects we are feeling now are the result of carbon released into the atmosphere over a long time, and carbon stays in the atmosphere for a long time.

But we have to start somewhere. 2028 is too late. Trump will make the climate situation worse.