Extreme Weather Toolkit: Hurricanes

October 8, 2024

This toolkit provides key talking points, social media content, and a guide to writing “Letters to the Editor” to help frame the discussion around extreme weather events, their increasing frequency due to climate change, and the need to make polluters pay for the damage they’ve caused.

Make Polluters Pay Messaging

  • Climate change is making extreme weather events like Helene and Milton more frequent and intense, with the average household now losing $1,900 per year due to climate disasters.
  • While communities are left to rebuild, fossil fuel companies continue to profit from the very pollution driving these catastrophes, making $2.4 trillion in 2023 alone.
  • New research shows that tropical storms result in thousands of additional deaths over the 15 years following the event, highlighting the long-lasting impact on public health and community resilience.
  • It’s time for Big Oil to be held accountable for their role in the climate crisis. The Polluters Pay Climate Fund Act proposes creating a $1 trillion fund over 10 years to address climate impacts and build resilience.
  • State-level climate superfund legislation, like Vermont’s groundbreaking law, provides a model for holding polluters accountable and funding community resilience efforts. These initiatives ensure that those most responsible for climate change contribute to solutions.
  • The “Make Polluters Pay” agenda is about restoring balance and justice in our fight against climate change. It’s time for fossil fuel companies to bear the cost of the climate crisis they’ve fueled, rather than leaving taxpayers and vulnerable communities to shoulder the burden. By implementing both state and federal climate superfund legislation, we can hold these corporations accountable, fund critical climate adaptation and mitigation efforts, and build a more resilient future for all.

Election Talking Points

  • This election is between a climate denier and a climate leader. 
  • The devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton have made one thing clear: climate change is no longer an abstract issue—it’s a daily reality for millions of Americans. These back-to-back disasters have put the climate crisis at the forefront of this election
  • When it comes to climate, Trump lies while Harris leads. He denies there’s a problem, while she’s out there trying to solve it. 
  • Trump and his Project 2025 agenda would lead to more pollution, more global warming, and more extreme weather events like the hurricanes we’re seeing. 
  • Trump’s Project 2025 agenda would privatize the national weather service so you couldn’t get a reliable forecast to even know if you’re in the path of a hurricane. 
  • We need a President who believes in climate change and is going to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for the damage they’ve done.
  • Kamala Harris has the track record to take on Big Oil and make polluters pay for the damage they’ve done. 
  • Despite the devastation we’re seeing, Donald Trump refuses to take climate change seriously. In fact, his Project 2025 would make disasters like Helene and Milton even more likely by rolling back environmental protections, gutting climate regulations, and doing nothing to prepare our communities for the future.

Letter to the Editor

Letters must be directed to one news outlet that published the story and should be written within a few days of the publication date.

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