On Saturday, August 14th, dozens of Sunrisers and youth activists from our community rallied at Congressman Lou Correa’s District Office in Santa Ana to demand that he support a bold and robust Climate Corps.
The Civilian Climate Corps-as introduced by Senator Ed Markey and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez- represents the most significant public investment in our climate and in the people of this country since the New Deal. If funded adequately, we can create 1.5 million high-paying jobs, restore our climate, and redistribute resources to frontline Black and brown communities.
Our hub mobilized in recognition of a single, salient truth: if we are to combat the climate crisis and build a better world for all generations in the process, we need to be bold- we can’t afford to do otherwise. Together, we will continue to show up and remind our OC elected officials that the people not only need but deserve Good Jobs for All and a #GreenNewDeal! We will continue to demand a fully funded Civilian Climate Corps that meets the scale of the crises we’re facing and allows us the peace and security our communities have gone so long without.
The climate crisis is here, and it’s already impacting Orange County- it’s affecting our communities and causing harm that will prove to be debilitating unless we take action now. There is simply too much at stake. In the coming decades, the changing climate will decrease our supply of water, increase the risk of wildfires, and threaten coastal development and ecosystems.
This isn’t a hypothetical worst case scenario, this is the inevitable future unless our legislators stand with us and usher in an era of the Green New Deal now.
Now is not the time for half-measures or incrementalism- our futures are not negotiable.
And even when our elected officials are confronted with this undeniable truth, they dismiss us, time and time again- they tell us that our vision is unrealistic and too expensive.
To which we pose the response: forest fires are expensive, heat waves are expensive, droughts are expensive. Costing us much more than money, it’s costing us our lives.
Our message to Congressman Correa is simple: we will not stand down, because we are not a generation of business as usual. In the spirit of nonviolent, direct action, Sunrise OC will march, protest, rally, occupy, write, call, and organize and do whatever it takes to make our voices heard.
We need a bold CCC now.