đşđ¸ The Conquistadors Are Coming: A Letter to Americans as You Vote
The conquistadors are coming againânot with armour and gunpowder, but with the forces of heat, imbalance, and a nation too distracted to see the real threat.
The conquistadors are coming up the hill. Theyâve been marching for weeks from the coast to the Inca capitalâ130 Spaniards against a massive empire of 20 million Incas with a thousand years of history. Nothing to worry about, surely? And yet, two weeks later, the Spanish had captured the Inca King and crushed the Empire. How did it happen?
Three things: horses, armour, gunpowder. And one more: the Incas didnât take them seriously. They saw just 130 men who could have been defeated at any moment. But they waitedâand by then, it was too late.
Fast forward.
The conquistadors are here again. Theyâre bringing hurricanes to one place, droughts to another. Just part of life? But this time, they wield three new forces:
- Heat Imbalance â The Earth is trapping more heat than ever. In the past 15 years, the imbalance has doubled.
- Heat Sensitivity â By 2045, the level of COâ in our air is set to double, pushing temperatures up by 4 to 8°C.
- Natureâs Carbon Sinks â The oceans, forests, and soil once absorbed more carbon than they emitted. Now, theyâre doing the opposite.
When the Spanish marched on the Incas, the Empire was in the grip of a civil war. Today, the US elections are our own civil conflict. Once again, the true threat goes unseen. We know that Trump will skyrocket emissions. And, in truth, Harris is hardly different. Oil and gas production reached new highs under Biden, and Harris now supports fracking.
Heat imbalance. Heat sensitivity. Carbon sinks. Any one of these forces could devastate America within two decades if we donât act.
Forever.
With 4°C of warming, half the world could become uninhabitable. Half of America could be gone. Those 130 conquistadors could have been stopped at any moment. But the Incas were distracted, unable to see the threat for what it was. They didnât understand it. It was too new, too strange.
This is how civilisations fallâby ignoring the unfamiliar, by looking away as new dangers emerge, by leaders refusing to see the world as it is.
Neither political party in America dares to look up. Only a new political force can save this country. Deep down, many of you already know this. You can feel the urgency. I am one of the worldâs leading campaigners, and tomorrow I will show you how we can create this force in months.
How to stop fascism. How to save America. How to save your souls.
Join Assemble US
Roger Hallam
Her Majestyâs Prison Wayland, UK, October 2024
As always, you can sign up for nonviolent civil resistance with Just Stop Oil in the UK or via the A22 Network internationally. If you want to get involved in the democratic revolution, join an upcoming Welcome to Assemble talk.
