First they came for the Arctic sea ice, and I did not speak out—even though its volume is two thirds what it was thirty years ago.
Then they came for our mountain glaciers—Kilimanjaro, Glacier National Park, the Andes, and Himalayas—and still I didn’t speak out. My water supplies were not threatened.
They thawed the permafrost and continental shelves even though these areas could release planet altering greenhouse gases. Still I remained silent.
Then they came after the coral reefs, crustaceans and other ocean life with rates of warming and acidification we have not seen for millions of years. Even though our oceans are being devastated, I did not speak out.
Then they came after our winters, but I enjoyed the earlier springs, so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the boreal forests of North America with bark beetles and wildfires. They ravaged our tropical forests, the lungs of our planet and home to most of its species. I love and need trees, still I did not speak out.
Then they came for our coastlines, slowly, inch by inch. It adds up over the years, but like the fool on the hill I kept perfectly still.
Then they came after our wheat, corn and livestock in the record 2012 US drought and 2011 floods. Even when heat waves decimated grain harvests in Russia and China, my supermarket shelves remained full. I had no reason to speak out.
I did not speak out when thousands of species I’d never heard of began moving and vanishing each year, even though the rate of extinction could surpass anything we’d experienced in fifty million years.
Then they despoiled our gulf, farmlands and communities with drilling rigs and pipeline spills, fracking and mountain top removals, and dangerous storage ponds of toxic wastewater. It wasn’t happening in my neighborhood so I kept quiet.
They hijacked our water supplies to operate their nuclear and coal plants—for fracking and tarsand production. Even though a warmer planet will mean severe water shortages for hundreds of millions of people, I did not speak out.
When they came after the tribal lands of our Native Americans with their uranium and coalmining, I was speechless.
They’ve been coming after our governments for decades, manipulating politicians across the US and in other countries with money, lobbying firms and “grassroots” movements so our leaders won’t speak out.
Now they’re coming after our minds, distorting and reducing the amount of science in the news, even in our children’s schools and continue to attack climate scientists and their credibility to keep them from speaking out.
They’ve rebranded and treated those who did speak out as “terrorists” and I had good reason to be afraid of speaking out.
They continue to stall and undermine international negotiations and agreements, hoping that even if we speak out it won’t make a difference.
Now what they’ve done is threatening the habitability of the planet for our children and grandchildren. We must speak out for their sake while there is still time.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy