This week, the 234 scientists at the United Nations released their report on the state of climate change, for the first time since 2013. I don’t need to tell you why science is important, or why the IPCC is the unequivocal authority on climate. In fact, I’m not even going to tell you what is in it – because either you’re reading every news article online like me, or because it’s technical and complicated and as busy working people and parents, you don’t have time to translate this @#*%. But it’s bad, it’s really bad.

When I was 18 years old graduating from Howell High School on my way to the University of Michigan, I wanted so much to be a high school English teacher, inspired by my own teacher, Ms. Linda Garr and her love for language. She wore shamrock green suits and bright red lipstick and talked about Bronte with the illustrative glory of a Renaissance portrait. In college, I was exposed to great American writers like Toni Morrison, Gloria Anzaldúa, Junot Diaz, Jamaica Kincaid, James Baldwin, Joy Harjo– and they blew my mind. But by my fourth year of college– I learned about something else, global climate change and my dream of poetry-pizza Fridays were vanquished.

Everyone I know has been following the incidents at Uvalde, Texas with horror, dismay and utter despair, followed by rage, and deep, existential pain. What can be done? I wish Texas Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke was dragged from that press conference kicking and screaming “You are complicit!” instead of exiting quietly. I wish the gun manufacturers like Daniel Defense and Remington would be dismantled, and all their profits given to mental health facilities for communities impacted by gun violence from Columbine on. 

I live in Detroit. And no, Detroit is not in the 11th Congressional District. But I am talking to you, who may live in the newly drawn 11th District or anyone who might have some extra cash to donate to Levin. Because we ALL need Andy Levin in the 11th District seat to make progress on climate. To illustrate, I pulled a map from Ballotpedia– on the left is the old 11th District, and on the right is the newly drawn Congressional District. The area circled in purple is that which may be affected by climate. So yeah, everybody.

Yesterday’s news of Sen. Joe Manchin’s about-face on a climate spending package capped a summer of disappointing and depressing events for climate justice activists. For the first time, Manchin’s deal sets the stage for some real climate legislation and investment toward carbon reduction. And although the surprise turn of events is cause for some celebration, it comes against a backdrop of recent court decisions that have removed our fundamental rights, weakened our government’s ability to protect us and failed to hold power accountable. 

At the Democratic National Debate in 2019, thousands of people poured into the streets under the banner, “Make Detroit the Engine of the Green New Deal.” What did that mean? Work, good wages, union jobs. A safer future for youth, now. Regenerative agriculture, good abundant cheap food. Housing and transit. Community-owned energy.

Two legislators NOT taking DTE money are State Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor and state Rep. Abraham Aiyash, D-Hamtramck. Both represent customers in DTE’s service territory who are subject to the company’s constant rate hikes, shutoffs and mass outages every time the wind blows. While DTE raises rates and donates to our politicians, they rake in the profits, seek to block renewables development, and shut power off to poor people, then sell the debt to make more money.

To meet the challenges of the global climate crisis, we need bold ideas and to speak truth to power. That’s the idea behind Climate/Justice, a Planet Detroit opinion column written by Detroit-based environmental justice activist Michelle Martinez. Martinez writes not only as an activist but as a mother and fourth-generation Detroiter

What’s more insidious is that climate makes access to outdoor “recreational spaces” a critical human right. As epic heat waves bake our Detroit brick homes, splash pads help keep us cool. And if you lost power from DTE’s decrepit infrastructure last week, you might be barbecuing your fridge’s contents in a park.