I still believe that no matter how much we protest and march, this government will rush straight into increasing fossil fuels, and will thereby speed our descent into climate change hell. And I still believe that the most important and potent thing we can do is to just stop using fossil fuels.

If we, as individuals and communities, don’t buy any more oil and coal and gas, those corporations will just wither on the vine.

If there is a huge wave of people suddenly reducing their fossil fuel consumption to near-zero by switching to solar, wind etc, those who are invested in fossil fuels will pull out by the droves. But few will pull out as long as the use of fossil fuels continues to rise, and their profits continue to increase.

Therefore, each one of us needs to count up the number of gallons, BTUs and kilowatt hours we consume — and then reduce them as much as possible, as soon as possible.

The technologies are all available right now. We just need to figure out a financing system that gives investors a good enough return on investment when they provide financing for those who want to make the switch to clean renewables, while at the same time reduce the cost of heating, transportation and electricity for those people. Let’s put our heads together to devise such a system.

I am 100 per cent convinced that we will never get to where we need be by just marching and protesting. It will never happen for the simple reason that our government is owned and run by the fossil fuel corporations. Just look at how they stack up now. They will never vote to increase subsidies for solar, wind etc, and we know that they will decrease regulations and increase subsidies for fossil fuels as fast as they can.

Let’s face the fact: our government will go whole-hog into fossil fuels, no matter much how we protest against it.

It is now truly up to us, the people, to get up and do what needs to be done, as individuals and communities.

Perhaps we should thank President Trump for making this glaringly obvious to us.

Anna Edey
West Tisbury