OtherWords
Alliyah Lusuegro, Lindsay Koshgarian
09/20/2023
As the hottest summer in human history approached its end, tens of thousands of climate marchers rallied in New York to call for bold climate solutions. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Washington lurched toward another fight over the federal budget.
More than ever, the U.S. needs to get serious about climate. And to do that, we need to re-prioritize what’s in that budget.
As it stands, more than half of the discretionary budget that Congress allocates each year goes to the Pentagon. Until the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act last year, the average taxpayer gave $2,375 each year to the military — and just $6 to renewable energy projects.
The Inflation Reduction Act marked the most significant commitment to reducing fossil fuel emissions in U.S. history. But it still falls far short of the need if we are to avoid the most devastating effects of climate change.
Those ravages are already on display. In the United States, summer was a boiling cauldron of heat domes and wildfire smoke and awash with floods and tornadoes — all worsened by climate change. The deadliest wildfire in U.S. history claimed hundreds of lives in Maui.
The rest of the world suffered too.
