On page one of the 2024 Democrat Party Platform, you’ll find a Tribal Nations land acknowledgment, a charming little nod to the fact that the United States is built on Indigenous soil.

The platform goes on to thank those “who have protected our lands, waters, and animals,” which is the kind of thing you’d expect during an election year when politicians start showering us with throwaway promises and statements.

The document also mentions that “Democrats continue to support tribes as they advocate for the United States to uphold treaty and trust responsibilities,” neatly sidestepping the pesky detail that most treaties have been treated with the same respect you’d give to a used napkin.

And while the Biden administration has indeed done some good for tribal nations, like returning millions of acres of land, they’ve also demonstrated a level of hypocrisy I didn’t think possible four years ago.

Remember Biden’s 2020 campaign pledge of “no more drilling”? It turns out that pledge was about as solid as a sandcastle at high tide.

The administration has overseen more oil and gas extraction from public lands than any other, putting native lands and water resources at risk.

By the time you hit page 34 of the platform document, you start to wonder if the Democrats really believe their hype about the urgency of the climate crisis, which includes telling us it was about life on Earth.

“For the first time in 100 years, we’ve increased the royalties that oil and gas companies have to pay to drill or mine on public lands,” noted the platform policy document, as if the extra cash somehow offsets the fact that more fossil fuels lead to more extreme heat, drought, and those ferocious wildfires that are currently turning everything west of the Mississippi into a hazy barbecue pit.

This week in The Meltdown, we’ll look at the dangers of wildfire smoke and dig into who’s benefiting from all that oil and gas money. Then we’ll look at the GOP’s platform pledge—so you don’t have to.

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Drizzle

The first thing we should acknowledge is that Native Americans are disproportionately exposed to wildfires and the vast amounts of toxic smoke billowing from them. While we know what short-term exposure does to humans, we don’t know much else.

The problem is that the nation’s Air Quality Index, a tool that warns us about unhealthy air nationwide, is not designed for wildfire smoke. It’s primarily based on urban pollution research.

There are plenty of studies about the short—and long-term—effects of pollution from diesel exhaust or power plants on, say, children or pregnant women.

But we don’t know the long-term effects of wildfire smoke, and scientists are a wee bit concerned.

“As our society comes to terms with this idea of living with fire and that fire and smoke are just in the cards for us moving forward, I think those questions are going to become more interesting and more important to address,” said Prof. Matthew Strickland, the chair of the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Environmental Health at the University of Nevada in Reno.

Why haven’t we done this research?

Follow the link to find out

Compost Dump

If you follow me on social media, which you can do at your risk on X and Instagram, you’ll notice that I’m obsessed with how much campaign money flows between corporations and politicians, especially in the oil and gas industry.

One of the best ways to find out how much a candidate is receiving is by visiting Open Secrets, where you’ll see a steady flow of vast sums of money flowing to Republicans and Democrats.

Mitt Romney, the former U.S. Senator from Utah, is the all-time congressional leader, raking in about $8.6 million from the oil and gas industry, for example. The top 20 list comprises 19 Republicans and one Democrat—former president and U.S. senator from Illinois, Barack Obama. He got about $2.5 million during his three years in Congress.

Before You Go

Don’t worry. I also looked at the 2024 Republican Platform document to see what references or promises were made to Native Americans.

I only needed to read the title of the dedication on page two: “To the Forgotten Men and Women of America.”

The doc does not mention Indigenous people at all.

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See you next week.

Chris Harress