Dear President Biden,

I am writing to insist that we as a country tackle the climate crisis. I am a teacher, and so I work with young people every day. You have lived a long and full life already, with certainty that there is a bright future ahead. These students do not have that luxury. Their climate fears impact everything they do -- whether they have the will to do their homework, show up to school, or apply for college. They have so little hope for our future, and it scares me.

But you cannot continue on the current path we are on, claiming to "address climate change." We need a Green New Deal for this country, without a doubt; we are one of the biggest contributors to the problem, and we need to dramatically (structurally!) lower our emissions through public works projects like building sustainable public housing and high-speed rail. We cannot continue to pretend that global capitalism, the cause of our climate crisis, will be the solution too. Market-based reforms move too slow, and are ultimately motivated by profits over people. Invest in us and our planet, not oil and gas companies.

But it is not enough to focus on policy within our own country. As Olufemi Taiwo wrote in his piece for the Financial Times, "There are two ways forward: climate reparations or climate colonialism." The United States has the resources to address the climate crisis right now, if we had the will. Other countries, who are far less responsible, do not have that luxury. Right now, we are squarely on the climate colonialism track. We are shutting down borders to refugees, hoarding resources, and largely ignoring the initiatives to radically reduce carbon emissions. We are heating the planet for everyone, and then excluding refugees whose homes and communities have been ravaged by our mess. 

What we need is to invest in climate policies at home AND to send a great deal of resources abroad to support mitigation, restoration, and refugees. How much money have we spent supporting a cruel and unusual war (that many would consider genocide) in Palestine? 14 billion this year, on top of the average 4 billion every other year since WWII? And yet how much are we contributing to the Green Climate Fund, or the CO28's Loss and Damage Fund? The Green Climate Fund has only 6 billion dollars total right now, while the US contributed a paltry $17.5 million to the total $650 million. This is reprehensible.

If we want a livable planet for our children and the children around the world, we need to change our climate policy immediately. Stop funding wars, and start funding climate reparations.