 So climate change is one of those issues where it's so bleak and it's so dire that you feel like the only way you can feel any sort of comfort is to just ignore it, put it in the back of your mind. But with each passing year climate change is getting more and more difficult to ignore even if you care about it and you know we need to do something. So for example in 2020 in my home state of Oregon, we experienced horrific wildfires and our air quality literally became toxic for multiple days. I could smell the smoke through the windows even if we kept them closed and rarely opened the door. It was really horrifying. Outside the sky was orange. It looked post apocalyptic. It was just it was genuinely disturbing. And in 2021 we experienced a heat wave 115 degrees in Portland, Oregon, and it literally melted the roads more than 100 people died making it a mass casualty event. And I took pictures of my mom's backyard and her trees look like they were burned with a flamethrower. So this is the experience of more people everywhere, not just where I live, but around the world. Climate change is becoming impossible to ignore. And this summer Europe is experiencing an unprecedented heat wave with temperatures in the UK surpassing 100 degrees and more than 2000 people dying in Spain and Portugal due to extreme heat. In fact, Axios reports the deadly heat wave set or tied 359 daily high temperature records over the last week, along with 709 records for the warmest overnight low temperature. And in the past 30 days, 1403 daily high temperature records and 2856 records for warmest overnight low temperature have been set or tied. So climate change is here and it's impossible to ignore, but yet world leaders are choosing to ignore it. Because to them, short term profits are preferable to the long term survival of our species, the long term habitability of our planet. And now people across the world are continuing to protest, even if it seems like world leaders don't care what they say. But in the United States, something really interesting is happening with regard to congressional staffers. 165 staffers who usually don't make political statements like this signed an open letter to Democrats demanding that they take action on climate change because they have not done enough. Now we'll come back to this letter in a moment, but I want to talk about the 17 staffers who were arrested after they occupied Chuck Schumer's office demanding that he reopen climate negotiations in the Senate. And when it comes to the executive branch, I think that this headline from Common Dreams says it all. California Oak fire rages out of control as Biden mulls climate emergency. So just pause for a moment and think about this. The Biden administration for months now has been mulling a climate emergency declaration which would give him more power to unilaterally take action against climate change. But he just can't decide what he wants to do. I mean, the entire planet is giving him a sign. It's on fire literally right now and he's like, I don't know if I should declare a climate emergency. Useless, just completely useless. Now, because of his inaction, people within the White House, congressional staffers, as I alluded to earlier, they're sounding the alarms because they are tired of their bosses, Democratic officials doing nothing. So as Julia Rock and David Sarota of The Lever explains, President Joe Biden's surrender on climate policy amid the intensifying crisis has prompted his own agency experts to sound a rare public alarm about their boss's retreat according to a letter being circulated throughout the administration and Capitol Hill. The letter to Biden and Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer provided to The Lever by a House Democratic staffer is initialed by 165 staffers at federal health and environmental agencies and at 75 congressional offices. They're demanding the president use more aggressive tactics to pass his long-promised climate agenda through the Senate. So President Biden, you have an accident responsibility to reduce suffering all over the world and the power and skills to do so, but time is running out, says the letter, which is now being circulated throughout the administration for more signatures. You are the president of the United States of America at a pivotal moment in the history of the world. All we ask is that you do everything in your power. We've done our part. We implore you to do yours. The letter was provided to The Lever by Saul Levin, a House Democratic staffer and coordinator of the Congressional Progressive Staff Association Climate Working Group. The officials signed the letter anonymously with their initials to protect against political retribution. Another House Democratic staffer confirmed that the letter was being circulated to government officials for their signatures. Our house is on fire and mansion burned the stairs. Democratic leaders are walking away, Levin told The Lever. We cannot. We must test the fire escape, find the fire extinguisher, tie some sheets together if we have to. Our lives depend on it. And I really appreciate that analogy. Our house is on fire and mansion burned at the stairs. Exactly. And Biden, who's in a position of power to do something is just watching mansion burn the stairs. Not even using his bully pulpit to attack people in his own party who sabotage what he claims is his agenda. But what they're asking for is not even for him to call out mansion. What they're asking for is not even a Green New Deal. What they're asking for is very, very simple. One, they want him to declare a climate emergency. This is something that a lot of people are calling on him to do. It's the bare fucking minimum. But two, they also want him to intervene to reignite negotiations in the Senate. And three, they want him to stop drilling on federal lands. That's the bare minimum. And yet, who knows if he's going to do it? So, you know, something that Saul Levin said is really important there. Our lives depend on this. And that's exactly right. People are literally dying due to extreme heat caused by climate change. And we're still pretending as if we can sit around and wait years. Democrats have a couple of months of their majority left. Perhaps they expand that we're not necessarily sure, but we know they still have this slim majority for the next couple of months. For them to sit around and do nothing for Biden to not use executive action to treat this as the emergency that it is is downright criminal. So for staffers to come out and condemn their bosses, they wouldn't do something like that unless it was an emergency. And here we are. It is an emergency. So as much as we are trying to do our best to not think about climate change and push it away because it's just really difficult to think about, it's becoming increasingly difficult. Climate change is impossible to ignore. And every single human being on this planet has already been touched by climate change. But this is only the beginning. It will continue to get worse unless world leaders like Joe Biden take action. But it seems like they've already kind of chosen to not do anything. So it's difficult to not be doomer when it comes to this issue. But to give up and not fight means we're surrendering to inevitable doom. And that's something that I just can't accept morally. So we have to keep fighting even if our world leaders don't take this seriously. I don't know if it's because, you know, they're old and they're not going to see the worst of what climate change has to offer. I'm not necessarily sure if it's corruption that's fueling their inaction. Maybe it's all part of it. But either way, something has to be done and for Biden to sit around and continue to mull over a climate declaration is fucking criminal.