Let's Trump Climate Change with Soils

With help from RFK, Jr. and MAHA

While some people are feeling down about last week’s US presidential election and others are elated, as an older person who has seen many US elections, it just seems like business as usual to me. Since my first vote for Jimmy Carter back in 1976, the pendulum has swung back and forth 7 times: Carter (D), Reagan-Bush (R), Clinton (D), Bush II (R), Obama (D), Trump (R), Biden (D) and once again, Trump (R). This is the nature of US politics where most people are in the middle. When the pendulum swings back and forth like that, it doesn’t actually reflect big changes in people’s belief systems. Instead, I see it as an indication that the people in the middle who eschew both extremes just need a bit more breathing room.

Yet many who are concerned with climate and the environment are feeling deep despair at the moment. Seeing the fossil fuel crew come back into ascendancy, they worry that Trump will pull funding from renewable energy projects, drop out of climate agreements and set back the overall environmental agenda they have worked so hard to advance and set into government policy.

I am not feeling that way.

I suppose you could call me cynical, but neither party has done much to move the needle on climate change, for basic reasons of physics and economics. Let’s take renewable energy as an example. Physics determines that solar and wind power will never amount to more than a tiny fraction of the industrial world’s energy needs. Economic realities determine that society as we know it simply cannot function without copious amounts of fossil fuels.

My theory of social change is that you need to meet people where they are and that dogmatic rhetoric, whether religious, political, or “science-based” is not going to convince anybody to change their minds. Instead, people respond to those who address real concerns, have personal integrity, and lead by example.

If we were really sincere about reducing carbon emissions, we would need something like a spiritual revolution to re-orient humanity away from consumerism and toward an ethic of simple living. That concept is not even on the table for consideration by political decision makers and environmental groups. Authors Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith, and Max Wilbert have exposed the hypocrisy of most environmental advocacy in their book Bright Green Lies. To give you a quick summary of the book, here is a review by filmmaker Jeff Gibbs:

“Bright Green Lies dismantles the illusion of ‘green’ technology in breathtaking, comprehensive detail, revealing a fantasy that must perish if there is to be any hope of preserving what remains of life on Earth. From solar panels to wind turbines, from LED light bulbs to electric cars, no green fantasy escapes Jensen, Keith, and Wilbert’s revealing peek behind the green curtain. Bright Green Lies is a must-read for all who cherish life on Earth.” ―Jeff Gibbs, writer, director, and producer of the film Planet of the Humans

From my point of view as someone whose top priorities are biological diversity, ecosystem health, and climate change, neither party has shown a willingness to do anything substantive to change our course.

But then RFK Jr. came along. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is a true environmental hero, recognized for his work with River Keepers to protect and restore the Hudson River. Kennedy has litigated against environmental polluters and toxic ag chemicals. He started Children’s Health Defense to address the growing epidemic of childhood diseases linked to toxic exposure from the environment, ultra-processed food, and pharmaceutical products like vaccines that include mercury, aluminum, and other neurotoxins. Kennedy and his running mate, Nichole Shanahan, started the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement that is resonating with many people on all sides of the political divide.

I supported Kennedy’s presidential campaign, and when he dropped out and threw his support to Trump, I realized that if I wanted to have any chance of seeing him in a position of power in our government, I would need to vote for Trump.

I do not fully trust that Trump will follow through on all of his promises to include RFK, Jr in his administration, but I think there is at least a chance that he will.

One reason that I feel hopeful is that children’s health, a clean environment, and regenerative agriculture are not partisan issues. I know this partly through my work with biochar. Support for biochar comes from all political points of view and is not at all determined by political beliefs. From red state farmers to blue state city dwellers, biochar enthusiasts are everywhere.

Bobby Kennedy understands that people power and corporate power are at odds and that both political parties are easily captured by corporate power. He understands that the environmental organizations have become disconnected from the environment and that people are motivated by the health and happiness of their children more than anything else. He explains this is an interview he had with Tucker Carlson a few weeks ago:

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.: There have been a series of realignments throughout American history, and there are history books that are written about the realignments about—I think there's about five of them. And, then one of those is clearly happening now because you see so many issues that you've had an inversion.

The Democratic Party has become the party of the elites. It used to be the party of the poor and the working class. In fact, there was a study that came out just recently that I saw that showed that 70%—that the people who voted for Biden own 70% of the wealth in this country, the people who voted for Trump own 30%. And, and so I believe that, right? So you're seeing this realignment happen where the elites, where Wall Street, or the big tech, big Pharma, the big banking houses are all now Democratic. And that the, and that the working class, the middle class, the cops, the firefighters—Sean O'Brien out of the teamsters, great guy, really love him—but he spoke at the Republican convention rather than Democratic convention.

So you're seeing this, just this big alignment, and even on environmental issues. It's so weird to me because the Democrats have become subsumed in this carbon orthodoxy. And you and I have talked about this, that the only issue is carbon. And what that's done is it's forced them to do something that you should never do if you're an environmentalist, which is to commoditize and quantify everything. So everything is measured by its carbon footprint, how many tons of carbon it produces. And you're putting everything in that kind of box of being able to quantify it and explain its value numerically.

And the reason that we protect the environment, it is just the opposite of that. The reason that we protect the environment is because there's a spiritual connection, and there's a love that we have. I got into the environment because I wanted this connection to the fishes and the birds and the wildlife and the whales and the purple mountain's majesty. And that, I understood that the way God talks to human beings through many vectors, through each other, through organized religion, through the great prophets or the wise people, the great books of those religions, but nowhere with the kind of detail and texture and grace and joy as through creation.

And when we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine, understand who God is and what our own potential is and duties are as human beings.

Kennedy has been very specific about his priorities, one of which is to restore and regenerate soils. Like me, he believes storing carbon through regenerative agriculture in our carbon-depleted soils is the best way to mitigate climate change while providing many more benefits to human and environmental health. He said: “Regenerative farming is not only the next, more advanced stage of organics, but indeed our last and best hope for drawing down and sequestering enough carbon and methane in our living soils to reverse global warming and re-stabilize the climate.”

We will see how this all plays out in the coming months and years, but I am feeling excited and hopeful about this true environmental hero having a significant role in the government of the United States of America. I think I need to send Bobby some biochar.

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