How The Hell Did We Get Here

How climate change became the template for everything

Sep 25, 2026

I never thought in a million years that we would be living in a broken world. It wasn’t even a consideration when I decided to bring children into the world. Here we are though. The world is on fire, the systems are crumbling, and the richest amongst us are doing everything they can to cash in on it all. How the hell did we get here?

I can remember learning about climate change in school. Being taught that we were headed toward an uncertain future if we didn’t do something about it. It seemed logical. It seemed everyone understood and agreed. That was until the 80s, when inconsistent reporting, political propaganda, and utility companies funding both caused a major backlash. What was the thing fossil fuel interests and the politicians they fund hid from us? The fact that the utility companies were warned about climate change in 1968. They used this playbook for everything else that should have been a bipartisan issue. They used this to profit while knowing what it cost us without our consent.

They knew about it before we even had an Earth Day. For a while, both parties took it serious. That all stopped when it became more profitable to just look the other way and deny everything. Now we have an increase in catastrophic storms, potentially the largest El Niño in written history developing right now, and an entire ocean current system slowing down as scientist studying this warn of a future system failure. To say we are not okay is putting it lightly.

At least we all knew about this, and tried to help, right? Even with increasingly destructive storms, fires, and heatwaves, we still haven’t been able to even convince most people the propaganda against this is fake. We are working against a machine that continues to grow as it divides further.

This is when they realized they could take every single divided issue in our country and use it against us. Then we saw a man who claimed to be for the people use this for his own personal gain to a level unprecedented in American history.

The bottomline is we are all stuck in this together, and the only thing that can change direction is actually standing together. Not an easy task to ask when everyone has been conditioned to hate anyone who doesn’t think like you.

That was what they counted on when they decided profits are more valuable than people. That was what they counted on when they decided to campaign against our best interest for money. It’s also when we started to see our nation fracture in ways most generations only read about.

There are signs of progress for all us through unity though. We are seeing issues become bipartisan because we are standing together. We are starting to align on the things we know we don’t want for ourselves or our future. That is causing some of the biggest disruptions in their smash and grab grift that they never counted on.

Even now, they are clamoring to keep what little support they still have. Even attacking their own as a show of “solidarity” with the disenfranchised voters they betrayed. Don’t buy it. They don’t really care how things affect you, and the latest votes to keep the Iran war going are proof of that. We are all complex beings with our own beliefs and concerns. Our country was built to be honor that, and be changed to uphold that for all of us. A country built on the ability to better itself for all of its people.

We can’t go back. There is no back. That is a dead-end, and they keep trying to convince you it’s what you need. The thing is, they don’t get to tell us what we need when it clearly isn’t us they are looking after. We decide because that is who this country was built for. We can take back control, stop the propaganda, and force our elected officials to do the jobs we gave them.

Now is the time to stand up to those who have done nothing but create bigger messes for us and future generations. We own it to all of our children Call your senators to ask about the war and their vote. Have check every claim before sharing. No one should take anything at face value right now. Check out our free resources on our webpage for additional help.

Website: Speak Freely Studio

Sources:

Utilities Were Warned About Climate Change in 1968

https://energyandpolicy.org/utilities-knew-about-climate-change/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/watchdog-group-u-s-electric-industry-knew-of-climate-threat-decades-ago/

https://grist.org/energy/americas-electric-utilities-spent-decades-spreading-climate-misinformation/

First National Earth Day, April 22, 1970

https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/earth-day

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/earth-days-first-earth-day/

Organized Climate Denial Began in the Late 80s and Early 90s

https://climateinvestigations.org/global-climate-coalition-industry-climate-denial/

https://grist.org/accountability/how-the-global-climate-coalition-derailed-climate-action/