Sign-On Earth Day Letter to Governor Cooper, Senator Berger, and Speaker Moore

Governor Cooper, Senator Berger, and Speaker Moore

Please join us in sharing an Earth Day message to our North Carolina state leaders by signing on.

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To: Governor Cooper, Senator Berger, and Speaker Moore
From: [Your Name]

Dear Governor Cooper, Senator Berger, and Speaker Moore,

As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, our country and our world faces a global pandemic. Many underlying issues in our society are coming to light. North Carolina has faced economic, societal, and political issues for decades that the residents of this state still face on a daily basis. COVID-19 is going to affect the working class, people of color, indigenous communities and our most vulnerable first and worst. While all will feel the impacts of these crises, frontline communities are and will be dealing with the greatest compounding impacts of multiple crises.

As we are coming into warmer weather, there is a climate disaster season that awaits us—from fires in the west, flooding in the midwest and the threat of hurricanes in North Carolina later this year. Both of these crises are not just happening parallel to each other,, and disaster season will only exacerbate a global pandemic. What will happen when thousands are displaced due to a climate change fueled disaster during a global pandemic?

These dual crises highlight the massive social and economic inequality in our country and our state. Prioritizing access to healthcare, housing, good paying jobs, and a just transition away from fossil fuels is an investment in our communities and our people, and is necessary to address the current crisis to protect our people now and in the future.

We need relief for the people of North Carolina now and a long term plan for economic relief that gets people back to work in the post-COVID era. We stand with the NC United for Survival and Beyond Coalition that is urging you all to respond to our most vulnerable communities.

To highlight the cruciality of swift and equitable responses, take a look at other countries as an example. Governments that focused on extensive and organized programs including citizens being tested for free at 5200 per million inhabitants (over 70 times that of the United States), placing infected individuals under quarantine, and contact tracing saw a huge difference in cases and death. Italy has exceeded 150,000 cases and 16,000 deaths while South Korea has only had around 10,500 cases and 220 deaths. Not acting swiftly is detrimental. The lesson learned from this pandemic is that the more we take a crisis seriously and act proactively, the better it will be managed and the less harm will come to the public.

Another major issue which comes with unequitable systems is climate and environmental racism. Unfortunately, North Carolina has been the grounds for this issue. The most prominent example of this comes from Duplin County, North Carolina--a county with a large population of African American/Black and Hispanic Americans. The presence of the hog farming industry here created unlivable conditions for many citizens in this county. A teenager from Duplin stated that he did not have access to clean water from September to December 2018. Moreover, as groups such as The Center for Sustainable Economy and Dogwood Alliance have pointed out, the logging industry in North Carolina has yielded the third highest amount of CO2 for any industries in this state. The point here is that major industries in North Carolina are not respecting the environment, citizens, and especially citizens of low socioeconomic status. On the other hand, we also understand that as North Carolina is an up and coming major economy, the presence of industries is important, but we need to put the health and wellbeing of residents and workers first. We are able to have a booming economy that puts people first, it doesn’t have to be one way or the other.

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed unequitiable systems and what happens when we do not promptly listen to the science. However, this pandemic should further act as a catalyst enacting a paradigm shift—a paradigm shift into a political environment where combating climate change is the top priority at all levels of government. As stated by our governor himself, “We can’t afford not to take urgent action to fight climate change. It is not too late, but it soon may be.” We hope Governor Cooper and legislative officials in North Carolina will hold responsibility for their constituents and the future of this very state and urge them to pass progressive climate legislation. Coming out of the crisis, we don't want to return just to how things were, but create a more sustainable, equitable world that puts justice and people first. Therefore, we urge you to meet the demands of the United for Survival and Beyond coalition.

Respectfully,

Organizers of Triangle Earth Day Live and North Carolina residents.