BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 14, 2024
Last semester, as a professor of German and European studies, I taught two courses — one on European perspectives on climate change, and another on antisemitism on social media. After the attacks on Oct. 7, I realized that, in comparison to the conflict in Israel-Palestine, the climate crisis seems utterly solvable. And that these crises are, of course, connected. If we invest meaningfully in changing course away from fossil fuels, we also make wars driven by feuds over land and resources less attractive and less profitable. The United States has spent more than $14 trillion on military engagements since 2001. Imagine if we invested those trillions of dollars in a just transition away from fossil fuels instead of continuously feeding the violent terror that then comes back to haunt us. ~ Sabine von Mering, Public Voices Fellow on the Climate Crisis, Yale Program on Climate Change