I’m a young professional living and working in DC. I’m a feminist, climate activist, and aspiring artist. I love reading, yoga, and gardening. I vote and participate in local politics. And last week, I disrupted a Hillary Clinton fundraiser in Washington, DC.
I disrupted Hillary Clinton’s fundraiser last week because we’re running out of time. We cannot afford to beat around the bush and take small baby steps to abate carbon pollution over the next four or eight years. If we want to survive climate chaos, our next president must be willing to make bold changes. And while Hillary Clinton is decent on climate issues – and is certainly better than the alternative – I just don’t trust her to make the right calls. All because of the campaign contributions that she’s taken from the fossil fuel industry. We all know that campaign contributions come with strings attached, and those strings will certainly prevent her from taking critical steps to address climate change.
The most frustrating part is that solutions to climate change are right at our fingertips! We have the technology, the skills, and the knowhow to make the changes we need to address this existential threat. There are countries all around the world are straight up kicking our asses when it comes to lowering their carbon emissions. What we are lacking here in America is the political will to take real action. And that’s in large part due to the fact that large corporations (like the fossil fuel industry) are able to buy elections with their large campaign contributions.
That’s why I was so frustrated when I found out that Hillary Clinton was sponsoring a fundraiser in Washington, DC last week called “breaking down the barriers,” targeted at young professional women like myself.
Words can hardly express how infuriating I find it when Hillary Clinton speaks about her progressive policies for women while she simultaneously supports fracking – which is known to cause increased rates in breast cancer in women that leave near fracking wells. And because I know that climate chaos affects women more than men, it’s frustrating to her lecture people my age about lifting up our fellowwomen, when I know her pockets are lined with money from the fossil fuel industry – which will likely prevent her from taking substantive action on climate change.
I know I’m not alone. So I needed to make sure Hillary Clinton heard our message loud and clear: that young women across the country are against fossil fuel funding. Young women are against the first serious female presidential candidate not putting money where her mouth is. We demand a better, safer future for all. The first step toward that future is saying no to fossil fuel money.
Lillyanne Daigle is an activist, feminist, and aspiring artist that loves spending time with people she loves, making friends with her neighbors, and gardening.