Commentary: We don’t want AI to threaten the way forward for humanity. We’ve obtained Trump’s local weather insurance policies

You want a lift, proper?

We’re dwelling below a darkish cloud, with a gradual downpour of graft, thuggery and baloney.

There’s the raffling of presidential pardons and the assaults on reporters for doing their jobs, the clownish commerce warfare with Canada, the bungled catastrophe in Iran, the petty obsessions with the ballroom and the Kennedy Heart, the hogwash a couple of stolen election, the assaults on immigrants and the shameless presidential profiteering whereas working individuals endure the price of Trump’s numerous damaged guarantees.

I might go on, and I’ll. However relaxation assured, I’ve not forgotten in regards to the enhance I promised.

For all of the affronts, nothing strikes me as extra sinister than the Trump administration’s formidable assault on the planet. Regardless of almost each day headlines in regards to the world calamity of overheated oceans, melting glaciers, stark climate transformations and species extinction, Trump retains shoveling extra coal onto a hearth that may rage lengthy after he’s useless and gone.

He’s gutted environmental protections and scientific analysis and dismantled clear power initiatives. Now his administration is rolling again limits on energy plant emissions, making an attempt to open the California coast to extra oil drilling and sabotaging the state’s formidable targets on emission controls and electrical automobile conversion.

We don’t want AI to threaten the way forward for humanity. We’ve obtained Trump.

It’s tempting to duck below the covers and look forward to the nightmare to finish, however the excellent news is that lots of people are standing up somewhat than rolling over, rebelling towards the ignorance and callous disregard that threatens our most valuable and fragile shared inheritance.

In August, tons of confirmed as much as defend California’s authority to control its personal coast at a Santa Monica listening to of the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Company, and 18,000 extra individuals filed feedback on-line.

The rollback of environmental safeguards is, for a lot of, a name to arms.

“Sure, I’m discouraged. … However I’m not despairing,” mentioned Invoice McKibben, an creator and environmental activist who’s organizing a worldwide occasion known as Solar Day for subsequent yr to advertise clear power. “We’re reacting to a number of crises, and we’re led by a pack of fools, so why would anyone not arise?”

McKibben launched a nationwide motion 5 years in the past known as Third Act, and tens of hundreds of individuals 60 and older have signed on to advocate for local weather motion, voting rights and civic participation. Third Act now operates in about 30 states, with a sturdy chapter in Southern California.

Former Occasions reporter Zan Dubin has labored as each a volunteer and a paid communications guide for Third Act, and I requested her what somebody might count on to do in the event that they turned a member of Third Act/SoCal.

“We do all of it,” Dubin mentioned, from selling climate-friendly candidates to operating cellphone banks and testifying at public conferences. She mentioned Third Act co-sponsors protests at Dodger Stadium, and she or he and others deliberate to fulfill at Vin Scully Avenue and Stadium Means for Sunday’s sport towards the San Francisco Giants. They need the Dodgers to cease doing enterprise with Massive Oil and bench their sponsorship cope with Phillips 66.

She additionally known as out Disneyland for its exhaust-spewing Autopia attraction, together with former Occasions local weather columnist Sammy Roth, and Disneyland responded by asserting in 2024 that it was switching to electrical vehicles starting in 2027.

Dubin, co-founder of Nationwide Drive Electrical Week, mentioned 170 volunteer-led occasions have been being held nationwide over the following month to advertise EVs, and she or he was main one Friday in Irvine.

“Motion is totally the antidote to despair,” Dubin mentioned. “I discover that regardless of the onslaught of those horrifying headlines … taking motion invigorates me.”

Claremont resident Margaret Davis is aware of that feeling. She emailed me in 2023, previous to taking part in a Third Act occasion, and mentioned many retirees have time on their fingers, which places them in a strong place.

“The local weather disaster is the best existential menace people have ever confronted, therefore we reside in a time after we could make the best change for the higher,” Davis wrote on the time.

Once I known as her a number of days in the past, Davis advised me she’s now a member of Senior Stewards Appearing for the Setting. She lives at Pilgrim Place — a senior group with a deal with justice, peace and surroundings — the place residents meet often to review, focus on and advocate for sustainability, biodiversity and environmental causes.

“Once I was in school in 1970, we had the antiwar motion and that was the primary yr of Earth Day,” Davis mentioned. “On the time, I assumed Earth Day was only a distraction from what was occurring on this planet.”

Later, she mentioned, “I got here to understand it was the most important challenge of all time.”

Like Davis, I went to varsity within the ‘70s, and there’s no denying that our aggressively consumptive era performed a key position in manufacturing a disaster for our youngsters and grandchildren. We’ve obtained matches in our fingers and smoke on the horizon, and if we’re trustworthy with ourselves, we’d see atonement not as a interest, however as an obligation.

As for the following era, local weather activist Sim Bilal, 24, mentioned he too shares the sense that that is each a wickedly horrifying time and a second of alternative.

“Within the final month, we’ve gotten extra younger individuals concerned,” mentioned Bilal, govt director of Youth Local weather Stewards 4 Native Motion. “We often have to succeed in out to them, however so many individuals have been desirous to get entangled, they usually’re so keen, and that’s been affirming for me. The insurance policies are miserable, however the truth that individuals are reenergized and need to struggle again is basically thrilling.”

Bilal mentioned religion in politics, authorities and companies isn’t excessive amongst his friends, however he’s making an attempt to develop a community of younger individuals to domesticate and assist future leaders.

“A mentor advised me there are two sorts of energy — organized individuals, and arranged cash,” mentioned Bilal, whose activism started when his grandmother died and he started questioning if her most cancers, and world warming, have been related to the oil drilling in his South L.A. neighborhood. “We don’t have the cash, however a variety of the work we do is political and civic training, demystifying energy, and making individuals perceive they’ve company.”

You wanted a lift, proper?

There you go.

No matter your age, don’t despair.

Get off the chair.

steve.lopez@latimes.com