Everyday I see apocalyptic photos coming out of Gaza and the West Bank on my instagram page but imagine my surprise when I saw everyone reposting photos coming out of Los Angeles, California. California has always been prone to wildfires due to droughts, overall dryness, and strong winds. All of which continue to become more violent and destructive as climate change worsens. Some interesting conversations happened on this topic that were definitely worth a summary.
Deduction + Comparing Funding
How ironic is it that Californian Governor Gavin Newsom decided to cut government funding to climate change programs by more than $3 billion dollars for the 2025-2026 state budget proposal according to the Sierra Club Organization. Is that not crazy timing? It’s definitely not surprising, but it is crazy. Funding for programs battling Climate Change are always on the decline. This is the same for any public services benefiting the people such as education, public transportation, etcetera, etcetera, I’m sure none of this is a shock for you. However, it is very important that we also note that at the same time, funding for wars and genocide keep going strong.
Biden is at the end of his term and has decided to send almost a farewell present to his buddy Netanyahu. $8 billion dollars in arms. I mean, WOW. They don’t even try to hide it and STILL people are just ignoring the fact that our government has always cared more about killing people than the people of their own country. And when you think about it, our governments is out to get everyone by paying this much towards bombs.According to TRT World News, from October 2023 to February 2024, Israel released somewhere between 420,265 to 652,552 tonnes of CO2. Again, only within 5 months. Now imagine what the numbers are now since bomb droppings have significantly increased since that time. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a good source stating how much CO2 has been released till now since October 2023. Maybe I’m bad at researching, but the numbers I just gave you have been used by several sources. Afterwards, the numbers vary from source to source and me wanting to be reliable stuck with the one most people agree on even though its only the stats for 5 months. But the reason we don’t have a concrete answer for how much CO2 has been released from Israhells bombing since October 2023 till now is because Israhell has simply bombed so much. The indiscriminate carpet bombing that has been going on for the past year and three months is the reason we don’t even have a proper death toll count, let alone CO2 in the atmosphere. Reminder: Israhell has been bombing Gaza for far longer than a year and three months but the amount of bombs dropped within a single day has increased astronomically. All thanks to the blood hungry west.
Furthermore, I wanted to bring your attention to Bidens role in the LA fires. Our lovely president has promised to donate $77,000,000 million dollars for the victims of this wildfire. Thats a LOTTA money, right…? A Forbes article writes that wildfire victims are eligible to $770 each. People lost their homes, jobs, even people close to them, but yeah at least they get a one time payment of $770. But, listen, our government doesn’t have enough money to pay their citizens enough money to get them out of the trouble they’re in. We are in soooooooo much debt…is what people with no hearts would say. According to the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), since October the 7th of 2023 to now, Biden has given Israel $26,700,000,000 billion dollars. A genocide is being paid for by our tax dollars but the people of this country who actually need help get bread crumbs. Let that sink in.
Disclaimer: I have heard that there are (allegedly) other things people can apply for to get more money. However, the amount of money one could get by applying to these separate programs have not been stated, there are probably many things stopping/restricting people from being able to receive the money (which is why Biden is asking people to apply rather than just giving it to people suffering), and so on. Argue with me all you will, but never will any victims of a natural disaster get enough money to get them out of devastation. At least not from out government.
Slavery
A topic that has come up when talking about the recent LA fires is slavery. Why, you ask. It has come to the publics knowledge that incarcerated people are being sent out to fight the raging fires. Because they are prisoners, they get paid “as little as $5.80 per day” according to End The Exception. About 1,000 people are working to extinguish the destructive fire for $5.80 a day. Furthermore, sending people into raging fires who don’t have proper training, doesn’t it seem VERY wrong? And, in case you were wondering, this is legal because slavery itself is still legal. You may have heard this before that under the 13th amendment, slavery is technically still legal. It says, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States”. In our constitution, it clearly states that slavery is still legal as a “punishment for crime”. It’s a fancy way of saying that they couldn’t let go of slavery so here’s the next best thing. And as you probably also know, majority of those incarcerated are black people. Now, you can say that they are being punished for doing something wrong. However, when you look at the amount of people “punished” for something they didn’t do, and then you take race into account, you can clearly see a pattern.
Greenwashing
To talk about the climate crisis and not mention the ongoing genocide happening in Gaza is the textbook definition of greenwashing. For those who don’t know what greenwashing is, here is a definition from the United Nations: “greenwashing promotes false solutions to the climate crisis that distract from and delay concrete and credible action.”
So, how do we see this presenting itself in this scenario? Well I’m glad you asked. The idea of greenwashing, along with pinkwashing, (and plain and simply, liberals) really describes us a society. Performative activism, more now than ever, has taken over. Recently, I have seen almost every celebrity post something for victims of the wildfires. Those same celebrities who have not said a single word about Gaza. This goes for anyone who has said anything to support those affected by the fires but has not said anything for Gaza. After reading this article, I hope you realize why I am saying this. By pretending to care, we are allowing ourselves to ignore the root of a problem which doesn’t help in any way. Just look at Greta Thunberg as an example. She was the Person of the Year in 2019, spoken about on every news channel in a positive way, told about in schools. And now? Suddenly, there is radio silence from the media about her. She’s been arrested twice already for speaking up for Gaza. Because she addressed one of the leading causes of climate change, no one talks about her. It was all fine before because everyone can agree on the fact that climate change is bad and we should save our planet. Once you say why climate change is happening, they drop you.
Conclusion
There are so many things to take away from the situation in LA. It is undeniable that what is happening on the west coast is apocalyptic and awful. My heart goes out to all those affected. Just as it is not controversial to say that, same should go for speaking up for Palestinians. Humans dying and watching their world be destroyed is terrible whether it’s here in the United States or in Gaza. We must still understand that the situations are different, but the comparison with reactions has to be done. Keep those hurt from the fires in your hearts. Those who had to flee from the fires in LA and those stuck in burning hospitals in Gaza.