Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week.

Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue

Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!

Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter.

Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week.

Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue

Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits.

Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine?

Summer 2012 has broken thousands of heat records so far, bringing misery to millions of Americans. The United States is suffering its worst drought in fifty years, leading the Department of Agriculture to declare 1,000 counties—one of every three in the nation—natural disaster zones. Meanwhile, President Obama, writes Mark Hertsgaard in the new issue of The Nation, has remained shamefully silent on climate change, refusing to say a word about what is fueling these disasters. Ad Policy

TO DO TO DO

There’s still time to trigger the reaction that would make the 2012 heat wave a landmark event, but the impetus will have to come from citizens rather than mainstream politicians. Implore your elected reps to support the End Polluter Welfare Act—sponsored in the House by Keith Ellison and in the Senate by Bernie Sanders—which seeks to end the $11 billion annual subsidy that taxpayers give the richest industry in history. After you’ve weighed in, share this post with friends, family and your Facebook and Twitter communities. And, if you have children, sign on to Climate Parents, a new initiative co-founded by Hertsgaard and longtime organizer Lisa Hoyos to demand action on behalf of a huge, yet largely voiceless constituency: America’s youth.

TO READ TO READ

In a sweeping essay for Rolling Stone, seminal climate change writer and activist Bill McKibben calculates global warming’s terrifying new math and calls for the climate movement to begin a divestment campaign against Big Oil, similar to the divestment drives that helped end apartheid in South Africa.

TO WATCH TO WATCH

Hertsgaard recently joined Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! to talk about how Climate Parents might be able to marshall the moral authority to increase the national urgency to curb fossil fuels.

Download Video as MP4

A weekly guide to meaningful action, this blog connects readers with resources to channel the outrage so many feel after reading about abuses of power and privilege. Far from a comprehensive digest of all worthy groups working on behalf of the social good, Take Action seeks to shine a bright light on one concrete step that Nation readers can take each week. To broaden the conversation, we’ll publish a weekly follow-up post detailing the response and featuring additional campaigns and initiatives that we hope readers will check out. Toward that end, please use the comments field to give us ideas. With your help, we can make real change