And So It Begins

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LISTENING: to Latin Mafia on repeat ahead of their concert next month
FEELING: so goddamn pissed
SEEING: my beloved Thich Nhat Hanh meditation cards my boo gifted me

President Donald Trump has begun his planned mass deportations, ripping individuals from their families and the communities they've come to call home. The Trump administration has said it is targeting "criminals," but let's not forget that the president himself has 34 felony convictions.

I'm a U.S. citizen, and I'm scared. I told my mom to carry her green card everywhere. I'm going to begin carrying my passport whenever I leave my house. I texted a cousin who's undocumented to make sure he knows his rights. One of my best friends shared that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were outside her brother's job this morning. They are U.S. citizens, and they're scared, too.

In Newark, New Jersey, ICE detained U.S. citizens in a raid last week. In Arizona and New Mexico, law enforcement agents are clearly practicing racial profiling, even reportedly targeting citizens of the Navajo Nation. On Wednesday, Trump announced plans to develop an immigration detention center for 30,000 people at the notorious Guantanamo Bay.

If the dehumanizing realities of deportation aren't enough to move you, let me remind you that immigrants are the bedrock of our food systems, disaster recovery, diverse culinary scene, culture, and more.

Mass deportations are a climate story. This attack on immigrant families is the climate issue that needs support and attention right now. This is how the left and environmental organizations build their base: by showing the most vulnerable that they're with them when the right tries to erase them entirely.

As this chaos unfolds in American cities, Trump has tried to pause funding for federal grants and loans. A court blocked him for now. The administration has left little to the imagination, making clear who its targets are in the internal memo the Office of Management and Budget sent around earlier this week to agency staff: "The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve."

Sigh. So whom does the government aim to serve then? Clearly, not people like me. Not immigrants or the children of immigrants. Not 2sLGBTQ+ people. Not people who need affordable housing or healthcare. That's what the Green New Deal, which never came to fruition, was supposed to be all about. Building a clean, green economy that also helps the average American. Incentivizing a transition away from fossil fuels that doesn't abandon the industry's workers. Finding new jobs for those folks (and others!) that can also reduce the cost of living and improve the quality of life for everyone else. Investing in a future where people have cleaner air and easier access to transit.

The Green New Deal was about actually making America great again by reinvesting in social infrastructure and projects like President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal did during the Great Depression. The Green New Deal never even happened, but the seeds it planted were scary enough to the right-wing racist nuts running this country that they're doing whatever they can to stomp out its promise.

I'm pissed. I'm so angry that this is the reality we're in. That there are people in this country who agree with all that's happening. The wildfires in Los Angeles are finally nearly contained, per CAL FIRE, but we know now via an attribution study that climate change made the fires more likely. What we're seeing today is only the beginning of what's to come.

In Palestine, families are finally returning home to Gaza, where they'll soon have to contend with the devastation of their ecosystems and waterways (along with all the trauma that comes with surviving a genocide). Trump is already suggesting that these families should go elsewhere in the Middle East where "they can maybe live in peace for a change." He invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the first official foreign leader to visit the White House under his leadership. Netanyahu is scheduled to visit Feb. 4.

There's so much happening right now beyond the attacks on clean energy policy and investments. It's all connected. Drawing those links is what this newsletter is about. Possibilities is a creative climate newsletter on the possibilities that lie where crisis meets community. Climate change has shown me that community can lean only on community during periods of crisis. We're in an active crisis now. We have only each other to lean on.

How are you tapping into your community? How are you building support networks as we learn to navigate the polycrisis of this moment?

I'm reporting and asking hard questions to find connections between climate change and immigrants, as well as links between climate change and queer rights. I'm writing with the hopes of informing and influencing the public and policymakers. I'm leading the CARES Media Initiative alongside Rebecca Weston of the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America to develop resources and support for other environmental and climate journalists because the world needs us now more than ever.

(If you're a journalist on this beat: Take our survey if you haven't please!)

It's never too late to figure out your role. Find your superpower. Engage. Create art. Share it. Talk to the Trumpers in your life. Try to convince them to think differently! But only if doing so won't hurt your mental health. Hit the streets. Divest from the assholes who don't deserve our money. Delete Instagram. Cancel your Amazon Prime subscription. Ride your bike. Take the train. Dance. Eat dinner with friends and share revolutionary dreams. Write poetry.

Kiss! Love! Live before they make that illegal, too!

This is the moment to do something. Anything! We can't sit this one out, y'all. The stakes are too damn high. 🌀

If you're looking for some relief, I put together all of the songs from last year's newsletters and created a playlist on Spotify. (Ugh, I know Spotify is also evil, and I'm sorry I can't find perfect solutions to avoid all these Big Tech villains.)

I am very happy with the mix in the playlist, which features songs in the order they were included in the newsletter. You can see the clear progression of my emotions throughout the year. I hope you all enjoy. I made this for you!

Please save, listen, and share. 🩵

Rest in Power

While we can't say for certain that climate change led to these specific weather events (we need attribution studies for that), we do know that the Earth's rising temperatures are already creating more disasters like these.