Peter Walks for Democracy

Yesterday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day for 2025 and Inauguration Day for Donald Trump for the second time. I accept these facts, their juxtaposition and paradox. All I know is that I am in control of myself, that I am called to something greater than myself, and that the climate action and ecological citizenship movement has choices to make.

May I be wise as the mountain.
May I be as accepting as the lake.
May I be as dynamic as the river.
May I wear like a stone.

We live in a nation whose President has taken bold and dangerous moves where environment, climate, and energy are concerned. Yesterday, Donald Trump spoke about energy during his inauguration speech and signed executive orders intended to unleash fossil fuel production and pull the United States back from the previous four years of climate action leadership.

Trump signed an order to eliminate all diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in government. Section 2 (b)(i) says: “terminate, to the maximum extent allowed by law, all DEI, DEIA, and “environmental justice” offices and positions (including but not limited to “Chief Diversity Officer” positions).” At this time, the EPA’s EJ Screen is still up. Earthjustice has announced it will fight the Executive Order in court.

As you may know, I co-direct a program that works with municipal, city, and county governments as well as one state agency to conduct greenhouse gas emissions inventories and effect climate planning. The two largest emissions source in our community and local government operational inventories are energy and transportation. Burning fossil fuels as well as their extraction and transport leads to an inordinate amount of greenhouse gas emissions that heat the planet and drive climate change. The amplified greenhouse effect drives record heat, record hurricanes, and record fires. The tragedy of modern ages is plain to see all around us.

During his speech yesterday, Trump said, “America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have: the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth. And we are going to use it.” It doesn’t matter that under President Biden manufacturing has rebounded and that the United States already became the world’s leading producer of oil and gas. But confusion from Trump and company is a feature, not a bug. Later in the day, Trump signed executive orders declaring a national energy emergency and also withdrew the United States from Paris Agreement. He also signed orders aimed at promoting oil and gas development in Alaska, reversing Biden’s efforts to protect Arctic lands and U.S. coastal waters from drilling, revoking Biden’s target for EV adoption, suspending offshore wind lease sales, and lifting a freeze on LNG export permitting. 

As I wrote on Bluesky yesterday, “The Executive Order withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement handed China global leadership. This is a massive moral, diplomatic, strategic, technological, & financial failure that will echo for generations.” With climate and environmental risks occupying two of the top ten two-year risks and five of the top ten ten-year in the 2025 Global Risks Report of the World Economic Forum, the vacuum created by America’s exit will have to be filled by others. Sadly, it looks likely to be filled by the top two-year risk, “Misinformation and Disinformation” and will exacerbate and be exacerbated by societal polarization, inequality, state-based armed conflict, and the erosion of human rights and/or civic freedoms.

What does this mean for us? I encourage you to do these three things: develop your own mindful dynamic will, communicate often, clearly, and with good intent about the challenge with one another and your community partners, and focus on what you can do with others. I will take those in reverse order.

Those of us in the climate action world do things together. It’s the whole point. We know that the historic focus on the individual has been a calculated move by industries to isolate us. But individuals can’t do nothing. Inaction breeds complacency. Complacency removes agency. A lack of agency makes way for obedience in advance and acquiescence. I am not calling for you to be a revolutionary. I am asking you to stay on the task at hand and show up for your community partner. You will be showing up for your yourself.

When you have the chance, speak about climate change. As Janet Swim and Nathaniel Geiger point out, people want to talk about climate change. But we have a kind of “pluralistic ignorance” that makes us clam up and keep our mouths shut. Don’t. When we speak in a values-based, scientifically-informed, and solution-oriented way, we build efficacy. Cultivating this practice and skill cultivates what Michael Mann calls “agency with urgency.” 

Finally, use this challenge to be mindful of your feelings and thoughts and turn them toward what Dr. King called “a dynamic will.” Some of us may be feeling despair. That is natural and okay. So I encourage you to take the moments to recognize the fact that you’ve had those feelings. Once you see them, take the next moment to respond to the feelings and turn the reaction toward something constructive. My friend and colleague Jeremy Engels has created a “Mindfulness Survival Kit” that begins with simply taking three mindful breaths, includes reaching out to others, and developing practices of mindfulness over entire weekend mornings. More of these lessons can be found in Thich Nhat Hanh’s and Sister True Dedication’s Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet. When you intentionally and mindfully connect to yourself, you can engage your “dynamic will” and find “the courage to be.”

May we be wise as the mountains.
May we be as accepting as the lakes.
May we be as dynamic as the rivers.
May we wear like stones.

It’s a new day. I don’t have magical words or actions that will make anything go away. Neither do you. We are in the condition we are in. Like Frodo says to Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring, “I wish it need not have happened in my time.” Gandalf replies, “So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”