Will Elon Musk fight climate change under the Trump administration?

People were clearly shaken after the election, and I saw a post online that said, “Goodbye America.”

No and never. There’s an old song called “Pick Yourself Up” that says you need to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start over. I found it on YouTube and it can lift our spirits and more.

We are always America, and those of us who individually belong to nonprofits and organizations doing exemplary work know this: We are Americans, and our business is business as usual. We will feed the poor. Champion the environment and best sustainability practices. Help communities devastated by climate change. We will continue to unite to save our oceans and our fresh water. And much more.

Yes, it’s a new day, but for many of us it won’t change a single step in our work to help our fellow Americans.

This morning I received a message from one of my environmentalists who said, “I am grateful for all the good people in my life and all the good work we have done. We did everything we could. So one thing We can continue to spread peace and trees.”

This suggested an immediate reversal of thinking. Thank you, dear friend.

I know that climate change is destroying our world. This won’t change. Hurricanes will continue to rage due to warming carbon dioxide and acidifying oceans. John Morales, a veteran meteorologist in Miami, was brought to tears as he watched Hurricane Milton approach Florida. “It’s just…horrible,” he said. Maintaining his composure, Morales spoke about the speed of the storm’s winds and how it was gaining strength as it passed over the “record hot” waters of the Gulf of Mexico. “You know what’s driving this, I don’t need to tell you,” Morales said. “Global warming. Climate change.”

Our country and all countries are financially buried after every hurricane.

But then I had a eureka moment. As a climate educator who was just in New York preparing his new COOL podcast project, I was also part of the press rush to get the word out about the Prince William Climate Earthshot Prize. There I was in New York, filming my first climate podcast and meeting people from all over the world, and I realized that one of the participants in the Prince William Earthshot Prize was Elon Musk.

Musk appears to have cleverly infiltrated an administration that is unfriendly to climate education. But Musk built the car to reduce emissions. I don’t think he’s going to turn around and change his efforts to cool our planet.

It occurred to me that if you were passionate about making a difference on climate change and wanted to get as much bang for your climate buck as possible, wouldn’t it make sense to get in the ring and support the person you could make money from? great successes within the administration?

I believe Musk’s long-term goal has been to make electric vehicles accessible to the mass market. I think Musk believed that sustainable energy was fundamental and that autonomous cars could save millions of lives. In his “Master Plan Part Two” note, Musk explained that Tesla’s goal was to demonstrate the capabilities of electric vehicles, energy storage systems and solar photovoltaic tiles.

I’m planning my next climate podcast, which will feature LEAF RELEAF’s locally exemplary work as part of Frontier Park’s urban forest infrastructure climate change program.

After this, I will be hosting the next podcast, Podcast Project COOL, with the Prince William Earthshot Prize. On November 6, the finalists received one million euros to continue scaling up their outstanding efforts to combat climate change. “We want to make this the decade in which we change the world forever, one decision at a time, from the ground up,” Prince William said in a speech on stage in a giant reusable dome that was set up for the ceremony near Cape Town Harbour.

So, remember the old Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers song: “Pull yourself together. Shake yourself off and start over.”

We are Americans and we are all part of this book of American history. You can bet we’ll continue to make amazing history!

Girard’s Diane Esser is a documentary producer; founder of Plant it Forward; and event coordinator for the Butterflies for Children programs and the environmental program Address Earth for Children.

This article originally appeared on the Erie Times-News website: Opinion: Erie environmentalist sees hope in Musk-Trump partnership