November 13, 2016
As I write this, it’s the day after the election and I’m still processing what just happened and what it means for the environment.
I have three main observations.
First, we’ve been through this before. America doesn’t always elect the most environmentally enlightened candidates for president.
Ronald R
eagan and George W. Bush both came to office at a time when America would have benefitted from and desperately needed brilliant environmental leadership. Neither provided it.
Remember James Watt and Anne Gorsuch? Both headed important agencies under Reagan and used their positions to try to actively ruin the country’s environment. Remember how Bush tried in various ways to hush up scientists and stop efforts to cut climate pollution?
This is not to say that either was as horrifying in personal moral challenges as the soon-to-be-inaugurated Donald J. Trump. But it is to say that we’ve survived presidents who didn’t really care much about science or the environment. We found a way to overcome their sometimes overtly hostile actions.
We’ll find a way again.
Second, we’re lucky to be in California. From here, we can keep making progress on environmental policy. Indeed, we need to keep making progress because the rest of the country needs to know what can and must be done to address climate change, air pollution, and drought, and protect wildlands and wildlife.
One of the things we Californians almost universally agree on is that we are a state of innovators and leaders. That’s true for technology, entertainment, and a range of areas. It’s true, too, for environmental policy.
For instance, we invented a mandate that has forced the auto industry to make clean electric cars. We set targets that have forced a decline in climate pollution. We have one of the most aggressive goals for renewable energy generation in the country. We also have political leaders who are committed to the environment.
We don’t wait for someone else to solve problems; we dig in and solve them ourselves and then encourage others to follow suit. This is a good place to be at this point in history.
Third, we aren’t alone. This afternoon I attended a regular meeting of representatives of progressive organizations. It’s called Building the California Dream Alliance. We discussed the actions the Trump Administration is likely to take to roll back progress in various areas. The list is long and the impacts those actions will have on so many Americans is distressing.
But there’s strength in numbers. As Sierra Club California volunteers and staff have realized in recent years, it pays to have large, broad coalitions work to advance environmental goals, and it is right and just for us to be part of large, broad coalitions that advance social justice issues that might not have been strictly defined as “environmental” several years ago.
The presidential election results were bad. No doubt about it.
But we’re ready.
With our allies who work on health, immigration, affordable housing, civil rights, LGBT rights, and social justice, we’ll find the strength to advance big policies in California that will make a difference here and beyond.
It will happen no matter who is in the White House.
Sincerely,
Kathryn Phillips
Director
Sierra Club California is the Sacramento-based legislative and regulatory advocacy arm of the 13 California chapters of the Sierra Club.
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