WORLDFIRE - Chapter 20

Mission 11:11

Rocket trike at Houston’s Johnson Space Center following 2011 ride against Keystone XL pipeline

“Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation.” Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)

I have a thought experiment for you: try imagining a successful Moon landing without the expert guidance of the flight engineers and space scientists at NASA’s Mission Control. Maybe you can do it. I can’t. It took a huge team of experts to pull off a successful Moon mission. How big of a team? A NASA retrospective about Project Apollo tells us: “To realize the goal of Apollo under the strict time constraints mandated by the president, personnel had to be mobilized… by 1966 the agency's civil service rolls had grown to 36,000 people from the 10,000 employed at NASA in 1960. Additionally, NASA's leaders made an early decision that they would have to rely upon outside researchers and technicians to complete Apollo, and contractor employees working on the program increased by a factor of 10, from 36,500 in 1960 to 376,700 in 1965.”

So NASA recruited 412,700 of America’s best and brightest to get us safely to the Moon and back. Now think about how many personnel the federal government has mobilized for the many magnitudes larger mission of safely guiding spaceship Earth through the asteroid field of climate chaos. Shockingly, the answer is zero.

Yes, we have many highly-skilled personnel in mission critical agencies and research centers like the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR); National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); Department of Transportation (DOT); Department of Agriculture (DOA); Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC); Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); and Department of Energy (DOE)–along with 17 DOE national laboratories–all doing some work in the climate arena. Yet none of these agencies are singularly charged with the life-and-death mission of rescuing civilization from a coming climate crash. Without a Climate Mission Control to guide our efforts, America is foolishly flying blind.

Let’s look at the missions of the aforementioned agencies and institutions. NCAR’s mission “is to understand the behavior of the atmosphere and related Earth and geospace systems” and “to foster the transfer of knowledge and technology for the betterment of life on Earth.” NOAA’s mission is “to understand and predict changes in climate, weather, oceans and coasts.” The EPA writes regulations for environmental laws passed by Congress to “protect human health and the environment.” DOT’s mission is to “ensure our nation has the safest, most efficient and modern transportation system in the world.” DOA’s mission is to “provide leadership on food, agriculture, natural resources, rural development, nutrition, and related issues.” FERC “regulates the interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas, and oil.” FEMA’s mission is “helping people before, during, and after disasters.” DOE’s mission is “to ensure America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions.” All of these entities are doing work related to the climate, some more and some less, but none, as you can see, are specifically dedicated to safeguarding the thin blue layer of atmosphere that makes living on Earth even possible. It might interest you to know that the first line of NASA’s mission statement used to be “To Understand and Protect the Home Planet,” until NASA scientist James Hansen insisted on adhering to that mission, after which those words were struck from the agency’s mission statement in the early 2000s.

Try looking at it like this: our global house is on fire, yet we don’t have any first responders to put out the worldfire. In fact, we don’t even have fire trucks or fire hoses, let alone fire stations. An emergency as terrifyingly lethal as global meltdown demands an overwhelming global response, yet our response to date has been to spray it with a few garden hoses while we study the effects of the conflagration. This is what UN-sponsored climate conferences have been doing for decades. It’s delusional and it’s insane. Politicians just keep talking and dithering, while the world burns. The worldfire now raging demands an overwhelming international response backed by the full force of the United States government. America needs to respond to this four-alarm fire the same way firefighters respond to a family housefire. What this ever-worsening worldfire requires is a new U.S. superagency charged with the urgent mission of safeguarding the climate to protect humanity. What this emergency demands is a U.S. Climate Protection Agency.

It is no modest federal agency I am envisioning. I am proposing something akin to the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense. I am talking about a building rivaling the size of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Since it’s bigger, maybe we call it the Octagon. But the Octagon is not about building empire. It is about building a bridge to a livable future in a way that honors the Earth. In the face of the long climate emergency, we need a federal command center akin to a U.S. Climate Protection Agency to ensure that America sees the multi-generational mission through.

Picture as the beating heart of this superagency a Climate Mission Control complete with operational control rooms housing the latest state-of-the-art technology to monitor, seven days a week, 24/7, every move the climate beast is making and to coordinate America’s strategic response. Imagine teams of experts tasked with monitoring permafrost melt, monitoring deforestation, and monitoring ocean acidification, with strike forces of specialized field researchers deployed at a moment’s notice to the world’s worst climate hot spots. Imagine a team tasked with overseeing the development of the renewable electricity grid, another with tracking the transportation transition, another with guiding the regenerative agriculture transition, etc. I am talking about an Earth defense strategic initiative rivaling the scope and scale of the U.S. military because that is what America, and humanity, needs.

Picture an infrastructure rivaling that of the U.S. Department of Defense. Because the U.S. Climate Protection Agency’s mission of ensuring our national survival is a bigger job even than ensuring our national defense, it will need to be funded at a level commensurate with the scope and scale of its mission. This will require reallocating resources from national defense to planetary defense. Just as massive government investments in scientific research were needed to win World War II, so are massive investments now needed to mount a climate mobilization at wartime speed. Just as with Project Apollo, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of employees and contractors will be needed to do the work of this superagency. Some might say we can contain the worldfire without a national command center–that the work can be accomplished piecemeal by refocusing and repurposing existing institutions scattered across the country–but how is that going to work? This isn’t an exact analogy, but it makes the basic point: imagine trying to coach an NFL team with your position coaches and players based in different cities across the country. Any football fan knows your team would get crushed on Sunday. Team humanity is currently getting demolished. If we are going to make saving civilization America’s top priority, we have to treat it as our top priority, and draw on the deep well of Earth wisdom possessed by Native coaches to help guide us.

To be sure, such a radical reorientation of our focus will require fine-tuning the missions of existing federal agencies to ensure their climate-related work is properly prioritized. These agencies and institutions will also require significant funding boosts to do more of their climate work in coordination with this new federal superagency. To name one, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory will need a ten-fold increase in funding, if not a 100-fold increase, to accelerate its mission critical R&D work to move renewable and energy efficiency technologies from lab to market. Some name changes will also obviously be required (e.g. renaming the U.S. Department of Energy the U.S. Department of Renewable Energy to reflect its new mission in the post-fossil fuel/nuclear era). Energy efficiency, solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy and countless other technologies and climate calming initiatives like regenerative agriculture and zero waste would all get a propulsion boost from a Climate Mission Control, with the U.S. Climate Protection Agency (CPA) working in close coordination with state and local governments to facilitate the speedy adoption of these climate crisis solutions. The U.S. CPA would be charged with achieving 100% renewables and zero emissions for the U.S., and naturally drawing down carbon, to restore a safe climate.

Unlike the way federal agencies like the U.S. EPA operate today–putting the burden on the public to prove that polluting industries are causing harm–the U.S. CPA will put the burden where it belongs, on industry, to prove it is not harming the climate. And unlike the Pentagon, the Octagon will be audited annually to guard against waste. The urgency of the climate emergency demands an entity empowered by Congress and the White House to oversee America’s wartime mobilization to restore a safe climate. With enough political will, we can create such a superagency. The Pentagon was built in response to the War Department needing a command center for winning World War II. The Octagon is our command center for winning the climate war.

Never in our history has America faced a threat as daunting as the collapse of our planet’s life support systems. We are not only wrestling with a wickedly complex challenge that touches every aspect of society. We are also tasked with uprooting a deeply embedded power structure. But there are historic precedents for the United States defying seemingly impossible odds. When destiny knocked during World War II, we initially refused to open the door, before charging out and leading the Allied forces to victory in the span of a few short years. The U.S. formally declared war on Japan on December 8, 1941. The war ended on August 15, 1945. When challenged by President Kennedy in 1961 to land a man on the Moon and bring him safely home before the end of the decade, we accomplished this herculean task ahead of schedule. Kennedy announced America’s moon shot goal to a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961. Our three Apollo 11 astronauts were given a clean bill of health and released from quarantine on August 10, 1969. Because both of these things happened so long ago, it is easy to forget that two of America’s proudest victories were achieved in a combined span of only 11 years and 11 months: World War II (3 years and 8 months) and the Moon mission (8 years and 3 months).

If the U.S. could accomplish so much so quickly in the 1940s and 1960s, we can do it in the 2020s. In the face of climate calamity, timid visions and baby steps hold no real hope for humanity. Bold enterprises and giant leaps do. Rescuing civilization from the climate beast stalking our young demands a response equal to the immensity of the threat that we face. It demands an audacious answer worthy of America’s heroic potential. So I am proposing one. It is a vision that came to me years ago and would not let me go. The name: Mission 11:11. The aim: 11 years and 11 months to save civilization from collapse.

Mission 11:11 consists of two distinct, sequential phases. Phase I is the green energy moon shot (transitioning the U.S. to 100% renewable electricity in 8 years and 3 months). Phase II is the World War II-scale national climate mobilization (zeroing out U.S. carbon emissions in 3 years and 8 months). The first phase, like Project Apollo, is mostly a technological challenge. The second phase, like World War II, requires not only retooling our economy from top to bottom, but something from everyone. Achieving both goals in less than a dozen years will provide posterity with the best possible chance of long-term survival. If we can do it faster, all the better, but the outside boundary is less than 12 years. Drawing on the power of the historic precedent of these two heroic U.S. victories provides every citizen with real world timeframes to wrap their heads around grounded in actual U.S. missions accomplished. Embracing these two historic timelines also guards against any attempts by politicians and others to try to water down what we mean by a green energy moon shot and a World War II-scale climate mobilization.

Given the urgency of the climate emergency, you may be wondering why two phases? Why not just try to tackle it all at once? I’m trying to be realistic here. In our current hyper-polarized political environment, it is going to take years to elect more climate-awake Democrats, and to convince non-climate denying Republican lawmakers of the need for the Phase II emergency mobilization. Rather than waste precious years debating that, we can use that time instead to achieve the Phase I moon shot. As evidenced by my countless interactions on America’s Main Streets, the 100% renewable electricity goal is already popular with Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. If enough of those voters demand such a national mission, there is real potential for bipartisan support in Congress for renewing America with renewable energy. Accomplishing the moon shot mission first will also give the American people–and finger-to-the-wind politicians in Washington, DC–confidence that a more comprehensive national mobilization can be achieved at wartime speed. Accomplishing the first goal paves the way for the second.

The good news is we already know for the most part how to accomplish both of these vital endeavors, and what we don’t we can use our big human brains to figure out. Moreover–and this is important–because much of the R&D, technology, and infrastructure needed to achieve the 100% renewables goal will also be needed to move us beyond zero emissions, the emergency mobilization will already be effectively underway before it is formally declared. Think of all the technological spin-offs and natural drawdown solutions the moon shot mission will stimulate. But the most important thing is this: after the moon shot mission has been accomplished, and the World War II-scale climate mobilization is formally declared, the American people will be ready for it. The national declaration will also mean exactly what it says: that we intend to finish the job with an all-hands-on-deck national mobilization in the same timespan it took us to win World War II. Mission 11:11 is just the kind of bold vision that has united Americans in the past. It is the kind of daring mission America prides itself on.

I know what I am proposing may seem utopian to some. I can already hear the baying of the naysayers declaring such a national mission impossible, but how can they pretend to know when we haven’t even tried? America is the nation of innovation. But let’s say for argument’s sake the doubters are proved right and we fall short of our 11:11 goal. At least those of us who were part of that heroic planetary rescue mission can live with ourselves knowing that we gave it our all, and we end up with cleaner air, water, and food and countless lives and species saved at the end of 12 years.

But America’s proud history argues strongly against the doubters and the cynics. It argues against those who say we cannot accomplish a feat as technologically challenging as transitioning to 100% renewable electricity in less than a decade. Remember that JFK didn’t give us 30 years to land a man on the Moon. He didn’t give us 20. He gave us fewer than ten. Then, despite not knowing how to safely fly to the Moon and back, America’s best and brightest figured out how to get the job done. Today, we know how to transition to 100% renewable energy. We just have not yet made it a national mission to do so. It’s time to unleash America’s ambition.

To those who say we cannot achieve an emergency national mobilization, or restructure our economy in the span of a few short years, history also proves them wrong. This is exactly how the United States led the Allies to victory during World War II. Much was demanded of every citizen to win that war, and the American people delivered. As FDR once famously said: "To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny." Current generations have been given much and much is now expected of us. We have a rendezvous with destiny. What better way to honor the Greatest Generation for saving democracy than for the Next Greatest Generation to save humanity? This is the kind of noble mission all caring Americans can embrace.

Picture in your mind a large illuminated digital clock at Climate Mission Control marking an 8-year and 3-month countdown, methodically ticking down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until our green energy moon shot mission is successfully accomplished. Imagine this followed by a 3-year and 8-month countdown marking the days until our zero emissions goal is successfully achieved. Then think about the pride you will feel when you realize we have collectively realized our green dream. Here is the news flash I want to read at the end of those 11 years and 11 months:

U.S. MAKES HEROIC LEAP IN COMBATING CLIMATE EMERGENCY

Reclaims Moral Standing in the World

Washington, DC – Rallying the American people around an all-hands-on-deck emergency climate mobilization, the United States government has accomplished in less than 12 years what many until recently deemed impossible by zeroing out domestic greenhouse gas emissions, providing newfound leadership for the world, and hope…

My point is we can write our own history. One of our greatest traits as Americans is our ability to dream big and realize those big dreams. Think about it. Our founders literally dreamed the United States of America into being. We dreamed of abolishing slavery; of winning women the right to vote; of outlawing Jim Crow; and of achieving marriage equality–and realized all of those dreams. We even dreamed we could land a man on the Moon and win World War II. It is time for America to dream big dreams again.

I am not blind to the political hurdles Mission 11:11 would face. To the contrary, I see those obstacles quite clearly. Nor do I harbor any illusions that such a mission will be painless or easy, but little worth doing is. As already mentioned, one of the biggest challenges of rapidly ramping up renewables in today’s fossil fuel-based economy is the unavoidable use of fossil fuels to enable the Phase I transition and the pulse of carbon emissions that will result. The best way to mitigate that pollution is by dramatically curtailing our consumption, as we did during World War II. This also makes it critical that the 100% renewable-powered Phase II emergency mobilization to zero out and draw down carbon be accomplished in years, not decades, to get as far below zero emissions as possible as quickly as possible. Accomplishing all of this will be hard work, but it is the kind of heart work that will add joy, passion, and meaning to our lives. Helping secure a habitable planet for our children will demand personal courage and shared sacrifice, yes, but it is the kind of loving labor of which we can all be proud. For the flip side of such personal sacrifice is the privilege of being part of the noblest mission in the history of humanity.

I harbor a deep love for America and her promise. Despite the coarse state of today’s public and political discourse, I retain a deep-seated faith in the ingenuity and drive of the American people, each of whom has their own unique talents to bring the table. This is how we have always advanced as a nation–by focusing on a common goal and unleashing those myriad talents. We can expect hiccups along the way, but we will learn from our mistakes. Once we set our minds on accomplishing a worthy national mission, as we did with the space race and with World War II, Americans have a unique knack for making the seemingly impossible possible. Current generations have simply not yet been called to serve.

If you are wondering how we convince a recalcitrant Congress and White House to get behind such a bold national mission, you are asking the right question. For it is one thing to know what needs to happen. It is quite another to make it happen. There is a reason why I have been a student of politics for all my adult life and it is not because I like politics. It is because I know the political arena is where change can most readily be made.

My experience working on political campaigns and working on Capitol Hill taught me the difference between campaigning and governing. Declaring lofty campaign aspirations is easy. Delivering on campaign promises is hard. Governing is ultimately about relationships. It requires forging consensus with your colleagues. Getting anything done in Washington, DC requires some level of compromise. It also requires overcoming opposition from moneyed special interests to enact new legislation and implement new laws that are in the public interest. But history shows that huge societal shifts can occur at lightning speed when principled politicians dare to stick out their necks and go where the people lead. What gives politicians such courage is seeing large numbers of their constituents in the streets. Political will follows public demand. It always has and it always will. People power is how positive change has always been made in this country, and it is going to take extraordinary public pressure and political courage to inform the fossil fuel/chemical/agricultural/military industrial complex that business as usual is over. Think back to the way Earth Day ushered in a host of pro-Earth laws like the Clean Air Act and the Endangered Species Act, legislation that was crafted by politicians from both parties and signed into law by a Republican president.

Think back to the Women’s March the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017 when more than three million people nationwide poured into the streets. Maybe you were one of those people. That was the most inspiring march I have ever been a part of. It was also a powerful precursor to a record number of women being elected to Congress the following year. People power like the March for Our Lives movement dedicated to ending the infuriating epidemic of gun violence. People power like the Black Lives Matter movement dedicated to ending police brutality and eradicating the sickening plague of white supremacy. Remember all the Town Halls that sprang up across the country in 2017–sparked by the groups Town Hall Project and Indivisible–that saved the health care coverage of millions of Americans? What if climate emergency Town Halls were held in each of the nation’s 435 congressional districts with members of Congress invited to hear their constituents’ ideas on how America must respond? Maybe you are destined to lead such an effort. Imagine statewide Town Halls where U.S. Senators and governors are invited. If that’s not enough, picture constituent sit-ins at the offices of every member of Congress (and governor) who refuses to back a U.S.-led climate emergency response. Not just in Washington, DC, but in their home states and districts. Sit-ins like the Sunrise Movement led around the Green New Deal to such powerful effect. Can you see yourself being one of those constituents sitting in?

The way we get the White House and Congress behind a vision like Mission 11:11 is the same way we got all those Earth-friendly laws passed back in the 1970s: by setting aside petty partisanship and unifying our voices in support of a generational mission worthy of the spirit of America. This begins with tens of millions of Americans pouring into the streets–like on that first Earth Day in 1970–for a nationwide teach-in on the global climate emergency, with the goal being to exceed the 20 million people who turned out for the original Earth Day. History shows it only takes the active and sustained support of a fraction of a nation’s population for a nonviolent protest campaign to succeed. Some political science research pegs the number at which a government cannot withstand a challenge without accommodation at 3.5% of the population, which comes to roughly 11 million Americans. But let’s be conservative and double that. That still comes to only 22 million Americans. Irrespective of the magic number, if 20 million Americans could hit the streets in 1970, millions more can do it today.

Could Wall Street’s recklessness and Congress’ fecklessness be overcome by a climate-champion-in-chief–one who is backed by tens of millions of Americans in the streets–with the fortitude to actually stand up and fight for the future? Could the defenders of the dinosaur economy be overcome by a clarion call to renew America with renewable energy? I believe the answer to both of these questions is yes. My encounters in the heartland convinced me that the American people would rally around a president courageous enough to champion a green energy moon shot as Phase I of Mission 11:11. America needs a president brave enough to declare a climate emergency and then act on it. We need a president who will commence an honest national conversation and speak to the American people like adults, one who will skillfully use the bully pulpit to demand that Congress defend America, and the world, from climate breakdown. But none of this will happen without public pressure.

As I hope I have made clear, just because a president is a Democrat does not mean that president is going to expend his or her political capital on mobilizing a climate emergency response. President Obama didn’t. President Biden isn’t. Most presidents wouldn’t. And don’t get me started on Republicans like Presidents Bush and Trump. Going forward, we need all of them to. America needs the energizing inspiration of an FDR. The planet needs the towering moral courage of a Lincoln.

A 2021 Yale poll found 63% of Americans support a president declaring global warming [heating] a “national emergency” if Congress fails to act. Congress is failing to act. Every U.S. president going forward needs to utilize every tool at their disposal, like the Defense Production Act, to kick-start a renewable energy revolution. When U.S. national security is threatened by “natural or man-caused disasters,” this federal law asserts that to “assure the adequate maintenance of the domestic industrial base, to the maximum extent possible, domestic energy supplies should be augmented through reliance on renewable energy sources… more efficient energy storage and distribution technologies, and energy conservation measures.” Did you know that? To its credit, the Biden administration has invoked the Defense Production Act to accelerate the domestic production of solar panels and heat pumps. But a sledgehammer may be the tool we really need. If Big Oil cannot be brought to heel, we may have no other choice than to nationalize the oil giants. Before anyone cries socialism, consider our nation’s long history of nationalization during times of crisis. President Wilson nationalized railroads; President Franklin D. Roosevelt nationalized manufacturing plants; President Nixon nationalized passenger rail; President H. W. Bush nationalized airport security; and President Obama nationalized auto manufacturers. Even President Reagan, who I don’t think anyone would ever accuse of being a socialist, nationalized a large bank.

Then there is the matter of focus. The first step to electing an unabashed climate leader president is holding nationally televised climate debates. Consider that not a single climate question was asked during the 2016 general election presidential debates. Nor were any of the 12 debates held during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary season dedicated to addressing the climate crisis. It was not for lack of effort. In the summer of 2019, frustrated by this lack of focus, I penned an open letter to Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Tom Perez insisting on a DNC-sponsored debate on the climate emergency. Climate leaders and even several presidential candidates signed the open letter. Sunrise Movement activists even camped out on the front steps of the DNC demanding such a debate. But the Democratic Party, like the climate-denying Republican Party, remains too addicted to fossil fuel contributions to quit them. Less than five minutes were dedicated to the climate crisis during the 2024 presidential debates. None of this will change until enough of the people who make up the two major parties demand change.

I know how unrealistic it is to hope that the current Congress, captive as so much of it is to the fossil fuel lobby, would back such a national mission. It will only happen if significantly more climate champions are elected to Congress. This begins with climate conscious voters requiring candidates to ground their platforms in climate reality. In 2018, the Sunrise Movement and its allies threw down a green gauntlet by challenging all Democratic candidates to prove their climate bona fides by refusing to accept campaign contributions from Big Oil, Coal & Gas. More than 1,000 candidates responded that year by taking the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge. Many more have taken the pledge since. In 2022, a coalition of green groups, including Sunrise, released the next iteration of the pledge–the Green New Deal Champions Pledge. This pledge to champion legislation fulfilling “the vision and ambition of the Green New Deal” should serve as a foundation for all local, state, and federal elections going forward. Climate cowardice must yield to climate courage.

Imagine what would happen if more candidates ran for office with their eyes on the prize of a single term–not a political career–knowing that they might only have one term in office to shake things up. I mean going in there and fighting to do everything they promised they would do. Many of these candidates would not only win their races; they would end up serving more than one term for the simple reason that they would be heroes to their constituents back home. Try picturing yourself as one of those candidates. If you can’t picture yourself running for public office, maybe you support the candidacy of a courageous family member or friend. We need candidates to inspire those who have given up on voting a reason to do so. Brave leaders with bold visions drive participation in the democratic process.

But it is not enough just to vote the right people into office. Voting is the least of our democratic duties. Given the powerful countervailing forces politicians face upon assuming office, we must also hold their feet to the fire after they are elected. This begins by refusing to treat members of Congress like royalty and treating them like the public servants they were elected to be. Public service means serving the public, not serving the special interests. Part of our civic duty is to guide the focus of those we elect by communicating with their offices (the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121 will helpfully direct your call). There are countless other ways to make your voice heard, from writing letters-to-the-editor to climate striking to participating in town halls to engaging in nonviolent direct action. As the saying goes, democracy is not a spectator sport. We need everyone on the field.

Freeing civilization from the death grip of K Street lobbyists will also require a counterforce of citizen activists in the nation’s capital to compel climate action from what James Hansen calls our “well-oiled” and “coal-fired” Congress. Having participated in some of them myself, I can tell you that lobby days and lobby weeks organized by green groups are no match for the legions of corporate lobbyists swarming Congress year-round. The planet needs an army of full-time Earth lobbyists working to pass legislation dedicated to healthy people living on a healthy planet. Maybe you feel called to enlist in, or help lead, such an army of Earth lobbyists. From 2000-2016, fossil fuel corporate sectors outspent the conservation and renewable energy sectors by a ratio of roughly 10:1 lobbying Congress on climate legislation. In just 2023, the oil and gas industry spent $133 million lobbying, augmenting their successful, multi-decade effort to block climate action. That’s more than $350,000 a day. The agribusiness sector spent $179 million that same year, similarly paralyzing our ability to develop a regenerative, climate restoring food system. All that money buys a lot of political influence. A powerful counterforce is desperately needed.

In a 2016 interview in The Sun magazine, consumer advocate Ralph Nader said all that really needs to be said on this topic: 

"The NRA, to my knowledge, has never had a mass demonstration or march. You know why? Because, like all the most effective lobbies in this country, it focuses on just 535 human beings called senators and representatives. That's where its efforts begin and end. The NRA knows everything about these politicians: who funds them, what primary challenger they're most afraid of, who their doctor is, who their lawyer is, who they play golf with, what their personality and character weaknesses are, whether they are susceptible to flattery and like to be taken on junkets. That's why the NRA is so powerful. Add to that the NRA's political action committee, which rewards obeisant public servants on Capitol Hill with campaign contributions. And the NRA knows how to punish, too. If a politician stands up to the NRA, it will back a candidate in a primary to try to beat him or her. Members of Congress are afraid of people who are extremely energetic on a single issue. That's the secret. Activists usually hold mass rallies against war or climate change in Washington, D.C., on a weekend, when members of Congress aren't there. All this energy that it takes to put together a rally sort of goes up into the ether. The event doesn't get that much coverage either, because there are not as many reporters working on the weekend… We have to be smarter in the way we lobby.”

To Nader’s final point, I checked and the original Earth Day in 1970 was held on a Wednesday. So was the famous 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his historic “I Have a Dream” speech.

We have our work cut out for us before the United States can boast a climate champion-in-chief and climate awake Congress, but I am holding the vision of a presidential address to Congress requesting appropriations to launch Phase I of Mission 11:11, backed by a U.S. Climate Protection Agency, to coordinate our all-American sprint to the 100% renewables finish line. I invite you to hold that intention with me. Every great achievement began as a vision. We didn’t just land on the Moon. A courageous president boldly declared it our mission to do so. Then we faithfully held that vision until the against-all-odds mission was accomplished. With a loud enough public outcry, some president someday will make some such speech. As the worldfire burns ever hotter and the green fire rises ever higher, a strategic initiative like Mission 11:11 is inevitable if we are to have any hope of saving civilization from collapse. The only real question is will it happen soon or will it happen when it is too late to matter? It will take a president possessing uncommon personal courage and prophetic political vision to throw down such a green gauntlet. But once the gauntlet has been thrown, there will be no turning back. Only forward. For America does not shrink from challenges. She bravely rises to meet them.

NOTE: The written form of WORLDFIRE is the authoritative version. Any inadvertent errors in transcribing the recordings are mine and mine alone.