Local weather change killed a Swiftie – how will Taylor Swift reply?

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Yesterday, we realized that Ana Clara Benevides died because of excessive warmth whereas attending a Taylor Swift live performance in Rio De Janeiro final month. The incident occurred November 18, and the investigation by the coroner concluded yesterday that the reason for dying was the insane warmth that blanketed a lot of Brazil that week. And once I say insane warmth, I imply a warmth index of ~60 levels C, ~139 F. (Warmth index is a blended measure of temperature and humidity – mainly the way it impacts the human physique.)

Benevides was discovered to haven’t any pre-existing circumstances that contributed to her dying, in response to Rio’s Forensic Medical Institute.

The live performance venue didn’t assist the state of affairs, doing a poor job of warmth administration. They might/ought to have constructed extra shade buildings, supplied water refill stations, and allowed folks to convey their water bottles. However these are “regular” live performance venue administration practices today. What’s not regular is a warmth index of 60 C / 139 F.

And now, I ponder how will Taylor Swift reply to this announcement? Swift has one thing particular – a charisma that few others have. She has a legendary following. I truthfully needed to google it to search out out why she is so fashionable (hey, I’m a center aged man with out children…Swift may as nicely be some historic Russian writer with out an English translation – I’d know comparable quantities about each of them…the one motive she’s even on my radar is that she’s courting Travis Kelce, certainly one of professional soccer’s greatest gamers). Among the many issues I discovered in my curiosity journey was an NPR podcast the place one of many co-hosts defined, oftentimes by tears, Swift’s lyrics, the historical past, and Swift’s private journey. The TLDR model is that Swift is an unbelievable songwriter who has managed to seize each essence of the expertise of being feminine within the fashionable age.

My thought, although, is that Swift has an influence that few others have. Will she use that energy to assist us remedy local weather change?

Swift connects with millenials like few others do. She’s obtained over half a billion followers on a wide range of socials, and certain most of them are below 40 and feminine. This represents a number of political, shopper, and echo chamber energy. She will encourage her followers to dive into local weather change because the existential menace of our time, to be taught every little thing they’ll, and to do what they’ll do, whether or not it’s biking, gardening, or shopping for an EV. I hope that she finds true and correct sources of knowledge to unfold, as everyone knows there’s a number of purposeful misinformation on the market that advantages massive oil and different massive polluters who profit by the unfold of worry, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) about local weather options. (Madam Swift, please simply go speak to Invoice McKibben…he’ll information you in the best path, simply as he did to immediate Joe Biden to make a push for warmth pumps to remove monetary energy from petrostate Russia, and simply as he’s doing now to cease large pure fuel disasters within the making).

I’d then hope Swift will use her platform to advertise native meals, natural farms, photo voltaic, EVs, vitality effectivity, wind, and all of the issues we all know we have to do to unravel the local weather disaster. Pushing customers to vote with their {dollars} could be probably the most highly effective factor she will do.

She will additionally assist politically by aligning her followers with many nice teams – 350.org, and the like. The 12 months finish wrap on Planet Cash prompt that the US Presidential election subsequent 12 months could very nicely be decided not by the financial system, however by how folks “really feel” in regards to the financial system. And plenty of in Swift’s fanbase demographic are feeling down in regards to the financial system regardless of economists nearly universally describing the present financial system as doing very well within the US. All indicators present that it appears like we managed to tug off a “delicate touchdown” after COVID. However that’s not how younger folks really feel – primarily due to misinformation unfold on TikTok? And plenty of in that very same demographic solely know one factor about Joe Biden’s dealing with of local weather – and that’s the approval of the Willow oil drilling challenge in Alaska, a challenge that was cleared of all authorized hurdles by the earlier administration and would have simply wasted tax {dollars} to combat. In the meantime, Biden has arguably been the perfect local weather President we’ve ever seen (politicians simply observe political winds – and proper now, local weather is within the public consciousness like by no means earlier than, so I’m not going as far as to say Biden was a pacesetter on this, however I’d argue he has stepped as much as the problem of the day admirably). I’ve many 20 and 30 somethings in my life, and have been asking them what they consider the best piece of local weather laws ever signed within the US – the Inflation Discount Act…and guess what, none of them to this point have even heard of it. Biden will want youthful voters to beat a local weather denialist in 2024, and Swift holds enormous sway in that group.

And final, I’d love for Swift to return on CleanTech Discuss, CleanTechnica’s podcast, to speak about her local weather motion plan. Madam Swift, have your folks speak to my folks – we’ll make it occur.