vox--2020-11-11--How to have a safer — but not safe — pandemic Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2020 couldn ’ t come at a more dangerous time , or pose more serious risks for coronavirus spread .
We know Covid-19 spreads easily in households , among people who know each other .
We know Covid-19 circulation increases when people spend a lot of time together indoors , talking , eating , and drinking , like Thanksgiving .
We know there ’ s a risk in bringing together people from different generations , from different regions of the country , with different risk factors , to one location , as often happens at Thanksgiving .
We also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is higher when community transmission of the disease is spiking , as it is in so many places across the United States right now .
Plus , come the end of November , it will be cold outside in many parts of the country .
Eating outdoors or opening windows to increase ventilation in a home may be tricky .
So , the uncomfortable question : Should Thanksgiving be canceled — or postponed ?
It ’ s something to think critically on .
Yes , even a simple family gathering requires something of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or group gathering for the holiday should practice what epidemiologists call “ harm reduction.
” That is : If we ’ re going to celebrate the holiday this autumn , how can we make it as safe as possible ?
“ One of the ways that we can adapt is to have some flexibility around our traditions and rituals that are really important in our lives , ” Julia Marcus , a Harvard infectious disease epidemiologist , says .
“ I would encourage people to think outside the box.
” If the point @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that social connection , there are ways to do that without dangerously convening family members inside around a turkey .
A Covid-19 Thanksgiving requires a lot of planning , and time is starting to run short .
Thanksgiving in the US is now two weeks away .
If you can ’ t take many precautions with a planned gathering , it ’ s time to cancel it .
And if you ’ re traveling to a location that requires a two-week quarantine period ( or wish to quarantine regardless of the regulations ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that quarantine .
If people aren ’ t safe around Thanksgiving , the pandemic will grow worse .
“ The situation in two to four weeks is going to be grim , ” Andrew Pavia , the chief of pediatric infectious diseases , at University of Utah School of Medicine , said during a press briefing Wednesday .
“ If ... people gather as we all want to do , without taking precautions , we could see another acceleration [ of cases ] going into Christmas.
” It will be a repeat of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Labor Day .
People celebrated the holidays as usual , and then , cases surged .
Here are some questions to consider to potentially reduce Thanksgiving risk ( you can also check out California ’ s guidance for private gatherings , which will help decrease the chance of spreading or contracting the virus ) .
11 questions to ask ourselves if we really , really must celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday in person During the Covid-19 pandemic , there is no eliminating risk ; there is only reducing it .
Any one strategy — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ distancing , or increasing ventilation — is no perfect measure to prevent the spread of the virus .
So “ we need to invest in multiple intervention strategies instead of just one , ” Saskia Popescu , an infectious disease epidemiologist and assistant professor with George Mason University , says .
Consider the “ Swiss cheese ” model of infection prevention .
Each layer of prevention has holes .
But line up a bunch of layers together and you have yourself a better barrier .
So how many of the following 11 options @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it ’ s a lot .
And perhaps the number of things to consider is reason enough to avoid a Thanksgiving as usual . )
Can the holiday be remote ?
But it ’ s still better than nothing .
And it ’ s safe : “ Celebrating virtually or with members of your own household ( who are consistently taking measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 ) poses the lowest risk for spread , ” the CDC writes in its guidance for holiday celebrations .
And there are ways to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ togetherness during a Zoom meal .
“ If you want to make a big meal and you live around a lot of your family , make the meal , put it in some Tupperware , do a contactless handoff , and then you can all zoom in together and eat together , ” Popescu suggests as a workaround .
“ So you ’ re still eating the same food , you know , you ’ re still enjoying that together.
” If an in-person gathering is to be held , it ought to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We know outdoor spaces are vastly safer than indoor spaces and should be considered .
Again , there ’ s room to be creative here .
“ Is it possible to instead of a traditional Thanksgiving meal have like an outdoor fire pit party , ” Marcus suggests as a possibility .
She also suggests people be more flexible around when they celebrate the holiday .
If it ’ s warmer outside on November 12 , for example , maybe have an outdoor Thanksgiving then instead of on the 26th , when it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ isn ’ t foolproof : People still , ideally , need to be distanced several feet from one another , particularly while eating or drinking without masks on .
People also need to be careful to keep up social distancing and mask-wearing when preparing food or going inside to use the bathroom .
Can it be a very small gathering ?
It ’ s hard to put an exact number on the question of “ how many people is too many ?
” But know : More is more dangerous .
The state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more than three households , for example , but emphasizing “ the smaller the number of people , the safer.
” Other states have even stricter limits ; starting October 23 , Colorado reduced the limits on personal gatherings to no more than two households and no more than 10 people total .
If it ’ s indoors , can it be well ventilated ?
If a gathering is going to happen indoors , consider ventilation : opening windows , exhausting old air out of the space with a fan , introducing new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ running a HEPA air purifier .
Ideally , the volume of air in an indoor space should be replaced by outdoor air or filtered six times per hour ( though it can be hard to measure whether this has been achieved ) .
There are no perfectly safe indoor environments during the pandemic .
We can ’ t ventilate and air-purify our way out of the need to wear masks , reduce occupancy in indoor spaces , and physically distance .
But a well-ventilated space is at least somewhat safer than a poorly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
One of the big overlooked risk factors for Covid-19 spread is time .
The longer you spend with an infected person , the more likely the virus is to be transmitted .
The rule of thumb is 15 minutes : The CDC considers risky “ close contact ” to be spending 15 minutes or more with an infected person .
But this rule of thumb is just that .
“ That doesn ’ t mean if you spend 14 minutes your risk is zero , ” Muge Cevik , a physician and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Andrews , said earlier this year .
Overall : Shorter is better .
So what if Thanksgiving wasn ’ t a long event , but just a quick in-person reunion ?
Could you live with that ?
Does there really need to be food ?
Yes , the meal is the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving holiday .
But eating necessitates removing masks and encourages heavy mouth-breathing activities like shouting ( particularly if there ’ s alcohol involved ) .
If the point of the holiday is to bring the family together , perhaps @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meal ?
The fewer number of people each Thanksgiving guest can come into contact with before attending a gathering , the better .
If there ’ s long-distance travel involved , Popescu says people should ask themselves if they can build in some quarantine time at the beginning and end of the trip .
Many states are even requiring out-of-state visitors to quarantine or get tested ( find a list of state-by-state travel requirements here ) .
Can you arrive a couple of weeks before the holiday and quarantine before the day ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Will there be vulnerable people in attendance ?
Not everyone is at the same risk for severe Covid-19 .
Older people , and people with underlying conditions like diabetes and heart disease , might suffer the worst consequences if they are exposed to the virus during the Thanksgiving holiday .
Consider the guest list , and perhaps the idea of excluding those at high risk will be motivation enough to postpone the event until things are safer — or hold it remotely .
Can the number of people traveling from hot spot regions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ daily cases are rising in every state in the US , making any travel risky .
But the more the virus is spreading in a given area , the more dangerous it may be to travel from that area to another , increasing the chances of bringing the virus along .
If you ’ re holding Thanksgiving in a community that ’ s not seeing a big surge in cases but inviting guests from regions that are , maybe reconsider .
And if you are hosting anyone in an area of high transmission @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The more community transmission , the higher the chances someone will arrive for the holiday infected .
The CDC has a list of state health department websites , which , ideally should have current information on community prevalence to help guide your decision making ( though the data quality may vary by state ) .
But with the widespread current US outbreaks , granular data on how one county is doing compared to another may be less helpful .
When in doubt , assume cases are rising .
Is everyone attending on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and personal risk ?
An important step to reduce risk within a group is having a conversation about it and getting everyone on the same page in terms of the risk they expose themselves to in their daily lives .
“ Individuals who did not consistently adhere to social distancing ( staying at least 6 feet apart ) , mask wearing , handwashing , and other prevention behaviors pose more risk than those who consistently practiced these safety measures , ” the CDC explains in its guidance for holiday gatherings .
Popescu pointed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to help people set up quarantine pods ( groups of people who socialize among themselves but generally cut themselves off from broader social interactions ) as being a helpful starting point .
Families should ask one another , for instance , “ How often do you wear a mask , and where ?
” Getting everyone joining a gathering to reduce their personal risk reduces the risk for everyone .
“ I think one of the hardest things is having those conversations and both parties being on the same page about risk , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you know , what I view as high risk might not be the same as , like , my mom ’ s. ” Is everyone in attendance willing to be transparent and honest if they do get sick ?
In the case that someone at a Thanksgiving celebration does get sick , they must be committed to telling everyone else in attendance as quickly as possible so that they can quarantine and possibly get tested themselves .
Ideally , this can happen without the threat of judgment from other guests .
It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in one family from becoming a huge cluster .
Yes , thinking through all this is exhausting It ’ s okay if you read through all of that and thought : Wow , this is all so tedious .
Thinking about risk is really hard , and we ’ ve all been forced to do it more than we ’ d like .
Thinking through all the risk factors for Thanksgiving “ adds this layer of complexity and potential for conflict even , ” Marcus says .
“ These decisions are hard , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when they are being made around important traditions with other people.
” The desire to have Thanksgiving as normal isn ’ t entirely without reason .
The Covid-19 pandemic has , for many , meant months of isolation , of departure from life as normal .
Reestablishing some social , family connections around a beloved holiday is a normal , healthy instinct .
But if you ’ re not sure if you want to just skip Thanksgiving this year and are feeling very anxious about the decision , you ’ re likely not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and tragedy of the pandemic is that , yes , even a simple family gathering requires something of a biohazard assessment plan .
Marcus emphasizes that it ’ s important for us all to think hard about what really matters most to us .
“ What can I live with here ?
” she says .
“ And can I live with not having a traditional Thanksgiving ?
” The larger question : Can you live with a scenario where someone — or many people — at the gathering get Covid-19 ?
This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s different for a small family of young , healthy people than it is for a large one where multiple generations mingle .
It ’ s different for a person who has been painfully isolated for months than it is for someone who has had contact with their family .
It ’ s different for someone wondering if this might be the last Thanksgiving they have with a beloved family member than it is for someone whose relatives will all likely be around next year .
What ’ s the same for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decisions are easy .

Share All sharing options for: How to have a safer — but not safe — pandemic Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving 2020 couldn’t come at a more dangerous time, or pose more serious risks for coronavirus spread.
We know Covid-19 spreads easily in households, among people who know each other. We know Covid-19 circulation increases when people spend a lot of time together indoors, talking, eating, and drinking, like Thanksgiving. We know there’s a risk in bringing together people from different generations, from different regions of the country, with different risk factors, to one location, as often happens at Thanksgiving.
We also know the risk of spreading the virus is higher when community transmission of the disease is spiking, as it is in so many places across the United States right now. Plus, come the end of November, it will be cold outside in many parts of the country. Eating outdoors or opening windows to increase ventilation in a home may be tricky.
So, the uncomfortable question: Should Thanksgiving be canceled — or postponed? It’s something to think critically on.
Yes, even a simple family gathering requires something of a biohazard assessment plan.
Every family or group gathering for the holiday should practice what epidemiologists call “harm reduction.” That is: If we’re going to celebrate the holiday this autumn, how can we make it as safe as possible?
“One of the ways that we can adapt is to have some flexibility around our traditions and rituals that are really important in our lives,” Julia Marcus, a Harvard infectious disease epidemiologist, says. “I would encourage people to think outside the box.”
If the point of the holiday is to get back that social connection, there are ways to do that without dangerously convening family members inside around a turkey.
A Covid-19 Thanksgiving requires a lot of planning, and time is starting to run short. Thanksgiving in the US is now two days away. If you can’t take many precautions with a planned gathering, it’s time to cancel it. That’s because if people aren’t safe around Thanksgiving, the pandemic will grow worse.
“The situation in two to four weeks is going to be grim,” Andrew Pavia, the chief of pediatric infectious diseases, at University of Utah School of Medicine, said during a press briefing Wednesday. “If ... people gather as we all want to do, without taking precautions, we could see another acceleration [of cases] going into Christmas.” It will be a repeat of what happened with Memorial Day, and Labor Day. People celebrated the holidays as usual, and then, cases surged.
Here are some questions to consider to potentially reduce Thanksgiving risk (you can also check out California’s guidance for private gatherings, which will help decrease the chance of spreading or contracting the virus).
11 questions to ask ourselves if we really, really must celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday in person
During the Covid-19 pandemic, there is no eliminating risk; there is only reducing it. Any one strategy — whether that’s masking, social distancing, or increasing ventilation — is no perfect measure to prevent the spread of the virus. So “we need to invest in multiple intervention strategies instead of just one,” Saskia Popescu, an infectious disease epidemiologist and assistant professor with George Mason University, says.
Consider the “Swiss cheese” model of infection prevention. Each layer of prevention has holes. But line up a bunch of layers together and you have yourself a better barrier.
Let’s talk about the “Swiss cheese model” of combatting the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a classic conceptualization of how to cope with hazards, and it powerfully illustrates several features of what we are facing in the pandemic. #SwissCheeseModel (Image h/t @MackayIM) 1/ pic.twitter.com/CyYBlW2BVt — Nicholas A. Christakis (@NAChristakis) October 11, 2020
So how many of the following 11 options can you layer together? (Yes, it’s a lot. And perhaps the number of things to consider is reason enough to avoid a Thanksgiving as usual.)
Can the holiday be remote?
Ugh, I know, a Zoom Thanksgiving. Depressing, right?
But it’s still better than nothing. And it’s safe: “Celebrating virtually or with members of your own household (who are consistently taking measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19) poses the lowest risk for spread,” the CDC writes in its guidance for holiday celebrations. And there are ways to be creative around increasing the feeling of togetherness during a Zoom meal.
“If you want to make a big meal and you live around a lot of your family, make the meal, put it in some Tupperware, do a contactless handoff, and then you can all zoom in together and eat together,” Popescu suggests as a workaround. “So you’re still eating the same food, you know, you’re still enjoying that together.”
Can Thanksgiving be held outdoors?
If an in-person gathering is to be held, it ought to be in the safest possible environment. We know outdoor spaces are vastly safer than indoor spaces and should be considered.
Again, there’s room to be creative here.
“Is it possible to instead of a traditional Thanksgiving meal have like an outdoor fire pit party,” Marcus suggests as a possibility. She also suggests people be more flexible around when they celebrate the holiday. If it’s warmer outside on November 12, for example, maybe have an outdoor Thanksgiving then instead of on the 26th, when it may be colder.
An outdoor Thanksgiving isn’t foolproof: People still, ideally, need to be distanced several feet from one another, particularly while eating or drinking without masks on. People also need to be careful to keep up social distancing and mask-wearing when preparing food or going inside to use the bathroom.
Can it be a very small gathering?
It’s hard to put an exact number on the question of “how many people is too many?” But know: More is more dangerous. The state of California is prohibiting private gatherings of more than three households, for example, but emphasizing “the smaller the number of people, the safer.” Other states have even stricter limits; starting October 23, Colorado reduced the limits on personal gatherings to no more than two households and no more than 10 people total.
If it’s indoors, can it be well ventilated?
If a gathering is going to happen indoors, consider ventilation: opening windows, exhausting old air out of the space with a fan, introducing new air into the space, and perhaps running a HEPA air purifier. Ideally, the volume of air in an indoor space should be replaced by outdoor air or filtered six times per hour (though it can be hard to measure whether this has been achieved).
There are no perfectly safe indoor environments during the pandemic. We can’t ventilate and air-purify our way out of the need to wear masks, reduce occupancy in indoor spaces, and physically distance. But a well-ventilated space is at least somewhat safer than a poorly ventilated one.
Can it be quick?
One of the big overlooked risk factors for Covid-19 spread is time. The longer you spend with an infected person, the more likely the virus is to be transmitted. The rule of thumb is 15 minutes: The CDC considers risky “close contact” to be spending 15 minutes or more with an infected person. But this rule of thumb is just that. “That doesn’t mean if you spend 14 minutes your risk is zero,” Muge Cevik, a physician and virology expert at the University of St. Andrews, said earlier this year.
Overall: Shorter is better. So what if Thanksgiving wasn’t a long event, but just a quick in-person reunion? Could you live with that?
Does there really need to be food?
Yes, the meal is the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving holiday. But eating necessitates removing masks and encourages heavy mouth-breathing activities like shouting (particularly if there’s alcohol involved). If the point of the holiday is to bring the family together, perhaps it can be done without a sit-down meal?
Can guests quarantine beforehand?
The fewer number of people each Thanksgiving guest can come into contact with before attending a gathering, the better. If there’s long-distance travel involved, Popescu says people should ask themselves if they can build in some quarantine time at the beginning and end of the trip. Many states are even requiring out-of-state visitors to quarantine or get tested (find a list of state-by-state travel requirements here).
Can you arrive a couple of weeks before the holiday and quarantine before the day? Not everyone will be able to.
Will there be vulnerable people in attendance?
Not everyone is at the same risk for severe Covid-19. Older people, and people with underlying conditions like diabetes and heart disease, might suffer the worst consequences if they are exposed to the virus during the Thanksgiving holiday. Consider the guest list, and perhaps the idea of excluding those at high risk will be motivation enough to postpone the event until things are safer — or hold it remotely.
Can the number of people traveling from hot spot regions be reduced?
As of mid-November, daily cases are rising in every state in the US, making any travel risky.
But the more the virus is spreading in a given area, the more dangerous it may be to travel from that area to another, increasing the chances of bringing the virus along.
If you’re holding Thanksgiving in a community that’s not seeing a big surge in cases but inviting guests from regions that are, maybe reconsider. And if you are hosting anyone in an area of high transmission, you also might need to cancel. The more community transmission, the higher the chances someone will arrive for the holiday infected.
The CDC has a list of state health department websites, which, ideally should have current information on community prevalence to help guide your decision making (though the data quality may vary by state).
But with the widespread current US outbreaks, granular data on how one county is doing compared to another may be less helpful. When in doubt, assume cases are rising.
Is everyone attending on the same page in terms of masking and personal risk?
An important step to reduce risk within a group is having a conversation about it and getting everyone on the same page in terms of the risk they expose themselves to in their daily lives.
“Individuals who did not consistently adhere to social distancing (staying at least 6 feet apart), mask wearing, handwashing, and other prevention behaviors pose more risk than those who consistently practiced these safety measures,” the CDC explains in its guidance for holiday gatherings.
Popescu pointed me to this worksheet of questions intended to help people set up quarantine pods (groups of people who socialize among themselves but generally cut themselves off from broader social interactions) as being a helpful starting point. Families should ask one another, for instance, “How often do you wear a mask, and where?” Getting everyone joining a gathering to reduce their personal risk reduces the risk for everyone.
“I think one of the hardest things is having those conversations and both parties being on the same page about risk,” she says. “Because, you know, what I view as high risk might not be the same as, like, my mom’s.”
Is everyone in attendance willing to be transparent and honest if they do get sick?
In the case that someone at a Thanksgiving celebration does get sick, they must be committed to telling everyone else in attendance as quickly as possible so that they can quarantine and possibly get tested themselves. Ideally, this can happen without the threat of judgment from other guests. It’s how we can prevent an outbreak in one family from becoming a huge cluster.
Yes, thinking through all this is exhausting
It’s okay if you read through all of that and thought: Wow, this is all so tedious. Thinking about risk is really hard, and we’ve all been forced to do it more than we’d like. Thinking through all the risk factors for Thanksgiving “adds this layer of complexity and potential for conflict even,” Marcus says. “These decisions are hard, and I think they become even harder when they are being made around important traditions with other people.”
The desire to have Thanksgiving as normal isn’t entirely without reason. The Covid-19 pandemic has, for many, meant months of isolation, of departure from life as normal. Reestablishing some social, family connections around a beloved holiday is a normal, healthy instinct.
But if you’re not sure if you want to just skip Thanksgiving this year and are feeling very anxious about the decision, you’re likely not alone. One part of the pain and tragedy of the pandemic is that, yes, even a simple family gathering requires something of a biohazard assessment plan.
Marcus emphasizes that it’s important for us all to think hard about what really matters most to us. “What can I live with here?” she says. “And can I live with not having a traditional Thanksgiving?” The larger question: Can you live with a scenario where someone — or many people — at the gathering get Covid-19?
This calculus is different for everyone. It’s different for a small family of young, healthy people than it is for a large one where multiple generations mingle. It’s different for a person who has been painfully isolated for months than it is for someone who has had contact with their family. It’s different for someone wondering if this might be the last Thanksgiving they have with a beloved family member than it is for someone whose relatives will all likely be around next year.
What’s the same for so many people: None of these decisions are easy.


vox--2020-11-11--Meet the professional memers

Meet the professional memers

Mac McCann had taken a beating in traditional media .
At 25 years old , he had already worked in three different offices — first interning at the Dallas Morning News , before being laid off from Complex , and eventually quitting an increasingly strenuous and poorly compensated job at the Chive — and was growing fatigued by the systemic depreciation of the blogging life .
McCann knew he was a capable writer , but the career opportunities in the press were increasingly sparse .
That didn ’ t leave him many places to turn .
Thankfully , there was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ form of chicken wings .
In college , McCann frequently patronized the Austin-based wings-and-beer joint Pluckers Wing Bar .
The restaurant had a promotion called the “ Tweet of the Day , ” which rewarded the pithiest comment in its @ -tab with a $ 10 gift card .
McCann was adept at generating his own bite-sized internet jokes , so he feasted on those gift cards throughout his studies .
Years later , as an adult burnt out by the austerity measures carving through the press , McCann sensed an opportunity to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he secured a position as Pluckers ’ social media strategist .
The job description is simple : make a bunch of chicken wing memes , and blast them out to Instagram , Facebook , Twitter , and TikTok .
In practice , that means McCann links to a video of a frustrated LeBron James after the fifth game of the NBA Finals , and captions it : “ When your man doesn ’ t get your wings.
” He posts a clip of a jaunty horse walking on its hind legs over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ going to get my wings.
” He blocks the notorious YouTube charlatan Jake Paul and tweets out the screenshot , drawing nearly 375,000 “ likes ” and an additional 100,000 retweets .
McCann is happier , better compensated , and feels more appreciated than he ever felt working in the media .
“ I was ready for a better salary and less stress .
You don ’ t have to be on top of everything , ” he says .
“ It ’ s like , ‘ What are we doing today ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ about chicken wings like we ’ ve done for the last two years.
’ ” It ’ s unclear how many Americans share McCann ’ s job .
“ Chief executive memer ” is not yet a formalized role in the marketing industry ; few people are hired to make Galaxy Brains and nothing else .
But it is indisputable that brands are valuing memes as a crucial part of their marketing portfolio .
So many major companies are attempting to create virality through shitposting — a catch-all term that refers to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dominates the average teenager ’ s social feeds .
Popeye ’ s , Chick-fil-A , and Boston Market kicked off a shade-laden Twitter war over chicken sandwiches in 2019 .
Hims , a male-focused self-care startup , is advertising its anti-hair-loss products through the power of Austin Powers stills on Instagram .
Slim Jim photoshopped its namesake beef stick into the black robes of death : “ You have been visited by the Slim Reaper , ignore to relive 2020.
” It ’ s a tactic so popular and a “ cool job @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that , in a social media ouroboros , the very idea of a meme maker offered one brand an avenue for internet clout .
In August , Anheuser-Busch posted a splashy job listing looking to bring on three creatives to make “ fire ” Bud Lite Seltzer-themed image macros .
But , the offer wasn ’ t full-time , and only consisted of a three-month , $ 15,000 contract .
As food writer Dave Infante points out in his newsletter , it ’ s difficult to call that position a “ job , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ care coverage and asks hirees to forfeit any IP ownership of their work .
Instead , the most successful agents in the business are the proprietors of highly trafficked Instagram meme pages , like FuckJerry or GrapeJuiceBoys , who routinely take brand deals to create what can only be described as “ sponsored memes.
” This was best illustrated during the 2020 primary when the Mike Bloomberg campaign canvassed prominent social media junctions with ersatz , pro-Mike material ( for example , Bloomberg quoting a 2004 song by The Game ) .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ media talent brought in-house by big brands ( Netflix has a dedicated team culled from online stars ) , many professional memers are young people who earned a run-of-the-mill job in social media management and slowly convinced their bosses that there is a bounty of influence for any company willing to turn their digital presence over to the forces of chaos .
In McCann ’ s case , that meant grinding away at the institutions until he had the credit to do whatever he wanted .
When he walked into Pluckers headquarters for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wings restaurant toying with a web humor that hadn ’ t yet internalized the style guide of modern Twitter anarchy .
“ It took me a while to convince them to embrace shitposting , ” he says .
McCann has since spangled Pluckers social feeds with the same aesthetic he uses on his personal account ; no punctuation , all lowercase letters , equipped with a hair-trigger ability to react to every microtrend on the timeline .
( For instance , he ’ s already offered the Pluckers ’ interpretation of the “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” format . )
McCann isn ’ t trying to sell wings , he ’ s trying to convert Pluckers into a fixture of the ambient internet — one of those accounts that ’ s intermittently retweeted into American life , even if the nearest location is three states away .
According to McCann , Pluckers has doubled , and even tripled , each of the restaurant ’ s various social media follower counts since he took the reins .
“ We ’ re not competing against Wingstop and Buffalo Wild Wings .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ whatever political stuff is going on , from whatever funny dog video is going around : Barstool , BuzzFeed , the Onion , whatever it is that ’ s getting your attention , ” he says .
“ We have to do what we can to get three seconds of your time.
” Most professional memers cut their teeth in the vicious fields of civilian shitposting , where every tweet — if deployed correctly — can open the doors to internet superiority .
According to McCann and others we spoke to , they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jobs ; they exist in a constant state of performance , and become paranoid , depressed , and insecure when it has been too long since they ’ ve blown up the timeline with a perfectly salient tweet .
McCann tells me he ’ s in the middle of a virality slump — it ’ s been a minute before one of his Pluckers tweets went truly nuclear — and as far as he ’ s concerned , there is no longer a palpable difference between his personal brand and his chicken wing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I made a bad joke on my personal Twitter , it ’ s like , ‘ Yeah I know , I ’ m chilling.
’ But when someone tells me I made a bad Pluckers meme , it ’ s like , you ’ re attacking my money there .
I take it more personally , ” he says .
“ If I blow up on my own , it ’ s cool , but my life doesn ’ t change at all .
There ’ s no monetary benefit .
But if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can go to my boss and say , ‘ Hey , we did good numbers.
’ ” Marketing is traditionally understood to be an indeterminate field — it ’ s impossible to know for sure how much car insurance the Geico cavemen sold — and the guesswork only gets more unwieldy when we ’ re talking about a relatively new medium like internet memes .
But Joe Gagliese , the co-founder of the influencer agency Viral Nation , is a believer .
His company represents hundreds of different meme pages and has organized @ @ @ @ @ @ @ savants .
( Some of Viral Nation ’ s past clients include the video game PUBG Mobile and the dating app Hinge . )
Gagliese tells me that meme-based advertising opens up a whole new dimension of awareness for any brand willing to put up the money , because — ironically — shitpost marketing has a far more detectable impact than billboards or TV spots .
“ If you give a brand a million impressions [ on a meme ] , those are individual people that you know saw the content , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sales through swipe-ups on Instagram Stories or Facebook meme pages .
We can track the clickthrough conversion on those channels.
” One national brand currently trying to capture the thunder is Dunkin ’ , which unleashed a smattering of Instagram meme page ads in September to celebrate “ National Dunkin ’ Day.
” Like McCann ’ s work with Pluckers , the company has adopted the language tics of the Logged On Generation whole cloth .
“ Who would win ?
Chilly boy ?
Steamy boy ?
” posted GrapeJuiceBoys underneath images of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dunkin ’ coffee .
According to Joslin Higgins , senior media manager at Dunkin ’ , it ’ s a priority to allow their collaborators to meme “ in their own voice.
” They believed that “ chilly boys ” would resonate with their customers with “ authenticity and relevance.
” It ’ s occasionally whiplash-inducing to see wholesome branded shitposting stacked up against the darker , stranger , more turbid inclinations of the average meme page — there is a clinical depression joke two entries above the Dunkin ’ post on GrapeJuiceBoys @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be the point .
“ Memes offer a valuable experience to consumers , ” says Higgins .
“ A sense of being understood , some comedic relief.
” One of the pages that made a sponsored Dunkin ’ post was Sonny5ideUp , which is run by an anonymous , legendary artist who goes by Sonny .
They ’ ve taken sponsored deals since 2015 and are responsible for a daily deluge of handcrafted , deeply nihilistic memes .
( Their Dunkin ’ post reads , “ Not to get political but , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was curious to know if Sonny bleeds for his corporate memes in the same way that someone like McCann does .
Do they take it hard when a promotional shitpost flops ?
Does memeing for Dunkin ’ ever make them feel like a fraud ?
Not at all .
If anything , Sonny is perfectly content with his mercenary status .
“ I ’ m a sellout , and that ’ s fine with me at this point , ” they tell me .
In the absurd , gleefully derisive world of pro @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shitpost is just an extension of the joke .
“ Sometimes they ask me to give them an estimate of how much engagement the meme will get and I just say I can ’ t guarantee anything , ” continues Sonny .
“ I do want what ’ s best for the brand , but I see it as work and it doesn ’ t bother me if an ad post doesn ’ t perform , especially when they didn ’ t approve the much better memes I made .
If you ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I don ’ t see the point of filtering them down.
” Still , everyone I interviewed for this story believes that their small corner of the marketing industry will continue to propagate in the years to come .
The upside is too difficult to pass up .
In 2020 , it ’ s impossible to participate in the global salon if you ’ re not shitposting .
That ’ s true for our elected officials , our football teams , and our fast food restaurants .
The public has little use for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it ’ s unwilling to get down and dirty with the masses .
We used to log on for coupons and patient customer service ; now we log on to see the person running the Kum & Go feed photoshop the 12-foot-tall skeleton towering over one of their suburban locations .
“ It ’ s so fundamental to the way we communicate on the internet , ” says Ariel Rubin , the man behind that post .
“ Having a really successful meme person , or meme chief , or meme specialist , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is brilliant.
” “ I think every company in the next six to 18 months will start doing it , ” he finishes .
“ Because it ’ s how you connect .
”

Mac McCann had taken a beating in traditional media. At 25 years old, he had already worked in three different offices — first interning at the Dallas Morning News, before being laid off from Complex, and eventually quitting an increasingly strenuous and poorly compensated job at the Chive — and was growing fatigued by the systemic depreciation of the blogging life. McCann knew he was a capable writer, but the career opportunities in the press were increasingly sparse. That didn’t leave him many places to turn. Thankfully, there was absolution to be found — in the form of chicken wings.
In college, McCann frequently patronized the Austin-based wings-and-beer joint Pluckers Wing Bar. The restaurant had a promotion called the “Tweet of the Day,” which rewarded the pithiest comment in its @-tab with a $10 gift card. McCann was adept at generating his own bite-sized internet jokes, so he feasted on those gift cards throughout his studies. Years later, as an adult burnt out by the austerity measures carving through the press, McCann sensed an opportunity to return to his roots. In 2018, he secured a position as Pluckers’ social media strategist.
The job description is simple: make a bunch of chicken wing memes, and blast them out to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok. In practice, that means McCann links to a video of a frustrated LeBron James after the fifth game of the NBA Finals, and captions it: “When your man doesn’t get your wings.” He posts a clip of a jaunty goat walking on its hind legs over a squelching dubstep loop: “Me going to get my wings.” He blocks the notorious YouTube charlatan Jake Paul and tweets out the screenshot, drawing nearly 375,000 “likes” and an additional 100,000 retweets. McCann is happier, better compensated, and feels more appreciated than he ever felt working in the media.
“I was ready for a better salary and less stress. You don’t have to be on top of everything,” he says. “It’s like, ‘What are we doing today? Oh, we’re making memes about chicken wings like we’ve done for the last two years.’”
It’s unclear how many Americans share McCann’s job. “Chief executive memer” is not yet a formalized role in the marketing industry; few people are hired to make Galaxy Brains and nothing else. But it is indisputable that brands are valuing memes as a crucial part of their marketing portfolio. So many major companies are attempting to create virality through shitposting — a catch-all term that refers to the unpolished, chaotic sense of humor that dominates the average teenager’s social feeds. Popeye’s, Chick-fil-A, and Boston Market kicked off a shade-laden Twitter war over chicken sandwiches in 2019. Hims, a male-focused self-care startup, is advertising its anti-hair-loss products through the power of Austin Powers stills on Instagram. Slim Jim photoshopped its namesake beef stick into the black robes of death: “You have been visited by the Slim Reaper, ignore to relive 2020.”
It’s a tactic so popular and a “cool job” so sought after by the youth that, in a social media ouroboros, the very idea of a meme maker offered one brand an avenue for internet clout. In August, Anheuser-Busch posted a splashy job listing looking to bring on three creatives to make “fire” Bud Lite Seltzer-themed image macros. But, the offer wasn’t full-time, and only consisted of a three-month, $15,000 contract. As food writer Dave Infante points out in his newsletter, it’s difficult to call that position a “job,” considering that it includes no health care coverage and asks hirees to forfeit any IP ownership of their work.
Instead, the most successful agents in the business are the proprietors of highly trafficked Instagram meme pages, like FuckJerry or GrapeJuiceBoys, who routinely take brand deals to create what can only be described as “sponsored memes.” This was best illustrated during the 2020 primary when the Mike Bloomberg campaign canvassed prominent social media junctions with ersatz, pro-Mike material (for example, Bloomberg quoting a 2004 song by The Game). But outside of the hired guns and social media talent brought in-house by big brands (Netflix has a dedicated team culled from online stars), many professional memers are young people who earned a run-of-the-mill job in social media management and slowly convinced their bosses that there is a bounty of influence for any company willing to turn their digital presence over to the forces of chaos.
In McCann’s case, that meant grinding away at the institutions until he had the credit to do whatever he wanted. When he walked into Pluckers headquarters for the first time, he found a wings restaurant toying with a web humor that hadn’t yet internalized the style guide of modern Twitter anarchy. “It took me a while to convince them to embrace shitposting,” he says. McCann has since spangled Pluckers social feeds with the same aesthetic he uses on his personal account; no punctuation, all lowercase letters, equipped with a hair-trigger ability to react to every microtrend on the timeline. (For instance, he’s already offered the Pluckers’ interpretation of the “How It Started/How It’s Going” format.)
McCann isn’t trying to sell wings, he’s trying to convert Pluckers into a fixture of the ambient internet — one of those accounts that’s intermittently retweeted into American life, even if the nearest location is three states away. According to McCann, Pluckers has doubled, and even tripled, each of the restaurant’s various social media follower counts since he took the reins.
“We’re not competing against Wingstop and Buffalo Wild Wings. We have to get your attention from whatever political stuff is going on, from whatever funny dog video is going around: Barstool, BuzzFeed, the Onion, whatever it is that’s getting your attention,” he says. “We have to do what we can to get three seconds of your time.”
Most professional memers cut their teeth in the vicious fields of civilian shitposting, where every tweet — if deployed correctly — can open the doors to internet superiority. According to McCann and others we spoke to, they carry that same instinct to their day jobs; they exist in a constant state of performance, and become paranoid, depressed, and insecure when it has been too long since they’ve blown up the timeline with a perfectly salient tweet. McCann tells me he’s in the middle of a virality slump — it’s been a minute before one of his Pluckers tweets went truly nuclear — and as far as he’s concerned, there is no longer a palpable difference between his personal brand and his chicken wing jokes.
“When people tell me I made a bad joke on my personal Twitter, it’s like, ‘Yeah I know, I’m chilling.’ But when someone tells me I made a bad Pluckers meme, it’s like, you’re attacking my money there. I take it more personally,” he says. “If I blow up on my own, it’s cool, but my life doesn’t change at all. There’s no monetary benefit. But if I go viral on Pluckers, I can go to my boss and say, ‘Hey, we did good numbers.’”
Marketing is traditionally understood to be an indeterminate field — it’s impossible to know for sure how much car insurance the Geico cavemen sold — and the guesswork only gets more unwieldy when we’re talking about a relatively new medium like internet memes. But Joe Gagliese, the co-founder of the influencer agency Viral Nation, is a believer. His company represents hundreds of different meme pages and has organized countless deals between companies and image macro savants. (Some of Viral Nation’s past clients include the video game PUBG Mobile and the dating app Hinge.)
Gagliese tells me that meme-based advertising opens up a whole new dimension of awareness for any brand willing to put up the money, because — ironically — shitpost marketing has a far more detectable impact than billboards or TV spots. “If you give a brand a million impressions [on a meme], those are individual people that you know saw the content,” says Gagliese. “We can track sales through swipe-ups on Instagram Stories or Facebook meme pages. We can track the clickthrough conversion on those channels.”
One national brand currently trying to capture the thunder is Dunkin’, which unleashed a smattering of Instagram meme page ads in September to celebrate “National Dunkin’ Day.” Like McCann’s work with Pluckers, the company has adopted the language tics of the Logged On Generation whole cloth. “Who would win? Chilly boy? Steamy boy?” posted GrapeJuiceBoys underneath images of an iced and a hot cup of Dunkin’ coffee. According to Joslin Higgins, senior media manager at Dunkin’, it’s a priority to allow their collaborators to meme “in their own voice.” They believed that “chilly boys” would resonate with their customers with “authenticity and relevance.” It’s occasionally whiplash-inducing to see wholesome branded shitposting stacked up against the darker, stranger, more turbid inclinations of the average meme page — there is a clinical depression joke two entries above the Dunkin’ post on GrapeJuiceBoys’ grid — but that also seems to be the point.
“Memes offer a valuable experience to consumers,” says Higgins. “A sense of being understood, some comedic relief.”
One of the pages that made a sponsored Dunkin’ post was Sonny5ideUp, which is run by an anonymous, legendary artist who goes by Sonny. They’ve taken sponsored deals since 2015 and are responsible for a daily deluge of handcrafted, deeply nihilistic memes. (Their Dunkin’ post reads, “Not to get political but, hot or iced?”) I was curious to know if Sonny bleeds for his corporate memes in the same way that someone like McCann does. Do they take it hard when a promotional shitpost flops? Does memeing for Dunkin’ ever make them feel like a fraud? Not at all. If anything, Sonny is perfectly content with his mercenary status. “I’m a sellout, and that’s fine with me at this point,” they tell me. In the absurd, gleefully derisive world of pro meming, accepting a check for a shitpost is just an extension of the joke.
“Sometimes they ask me to give them an estimate of how much engagement the meme will get and I just say I can’t guarantee anything,” continues Sonny. “I do want what’s best for the brand, but I see it as work and it doesn’t bother me if an ad post doesn’t perform, especially when they didn’t approve the much better memes I made. If you’re coming to me for memes, I don’t see the point of filtering them down.”
Still, everyone I interviewed for this story believes that their small corner of the marketing industry will continue to propagate in the years to come. The upside is too difficult to pass up. In 2020, it’s impossible to participate in the global salon if you’re not shitposting. That’s true for our elected officials, our football teams, and our fast food restaurants. The public has little use for a brand’s Twitter account if it’s unwilling to get down and dirty with the masses. We used to log on for coupons and patient customer service; now we log on to see the person running the Kum & Go feed photoshop the 12-foot-tall skeleton towering over one of their suburban locations. “It’s so fundamental to the way we communicate on the internet,” says Ariel Rubin, the man behind that post. “Having a really successful meme person, or meme chief, or meme specialist, whatever you want to call it, is brilliant.”
“I think every company in the next six to 18 months will start doing it,” he finishes. “Because it’s how you connect.”
Correction, November 12: Vox previously misidentified the animal walking on its hind legs in a Pluckers’ meme; it is a jaunty goat, not a jaunty horse.


vox--2020-11-11--Why the Biden administration should establish a Department of Climate

Editor ’ s note , November 11 : This article was originally published in July and has been updated following election results .
In their acceptance speeches on November 7 , President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris included combating climate change on their to-do list for healing the nation .
After a campaign filled with climate change-related policies , committees , speeches , and commercials , the Biden administration has what many experts are calling a mandate to act on the climate crisis .
Before the administration can start making large , meaningful strides in this mandate , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ play catch-up , repairing the damage done by the Trump administration .
Much of this work will include repealing harmful executive orders , reversing regulations that hinder science , and reinstating research policies , budgets , and advisory boards .
It will also include the enormous task of rebuilding public trust in science , restoring a culture of scientific integrity , reviving the morale of discouraged federal workers , reconvincing scientists that public service can be a rewarding and honorable career path , and re-staffing agencies with a new generation of diverse talents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lot of hard work , and it won ’ t all be done by January 21 .
But the incoming administration can make progress on all this needed restoration and move forward on the goals outlined in Biden ’ s clean energy and environmental justice proposal right now : by laying out plans for a new , Cabinet-level Department of Climate .
In fact , rumblings about the creation of a “ White House office for Climate Mobilization , ” similar in structure to the National Security Council , started circulating in early @ @ @ @ @ @ @ executive body focused on climate is not radical .
Countries around the world — from Austria to Australia , Pakistan to Portugal — have created dedicated departments or ministries specifically to address climate change threats .
Establishing new Cabinet departments in the US isn ’ t that unusual either .
In fact , more than half of the government ’ s 15 active departments have been formed in just the past 75 years .
But among these executive-level departments and in all the hundreds of federal agencies , not one has a mission @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There isn ’ t even one with the word “ climate ” in its name .
To meet the threat of climate change , one of the first actions of the Biden administration and the 117th Congress should be to create a Department of Climate .
Its mission would be to mitigate global climate change , reduce America ’ s vulnerability to climate impacts , build resiliency to the impacts that do occur , and strengthen the nation ’ s infrastructure by forging a sustainable , thriving , and just economy .
Here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this new agency , how to do it , and why now is the time to start building one : 1 ) Climate change is a threat to our security — and we need a unified structure to fight it Climate change is a critical national security challenge that will not be resolved over the course of one administration .
In a report published earlier this year , the nonpartisan nonprofit Center for Climate and Security identified several major ways in which climate change puts national security at risk .
These include : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and water stress , damages to military bases and infrastructure from rising seas and increased flooding , and detrimental effects on force readiness and health caused by more frequent heat waves and wildfires .
But perhaps the greatest risk to national security is the fact that climate change threatens our health , social equity , and economy , weakening the nation ’ s resilience .
Current and future climate impacts put our very life , liberty , and pursuit of happiness at risk .
It is well past time we defend against such @ @ @ @ @ @ @ security threats in the past , it rose to those challenges by reorganizing the executive branch .
For instance , after World War II , Congress enacted the National Security Act of 1947 and it was signed by President Truman .
The Act reorganized military and intelligence branches , established the National Security Council and Central Intelligence Agency , and merged the War and Navy department into what became the Department of Defense .
Following the terrorist attacks on September 11 , 2001 , the Department of Homeland Security was established , integrating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one unified Cabinet department .
In a message to Congress on June 18 , 2002 , President George W. Bush wrote : “ History teaches us that new challenges require new organizational structures .
History also teaches us that critical security challenges require clear lines of responsibility and the unified effort of the US Government.
” Although there is currently no one department or agency focused solely on climate change , there are many people spread across the federal government working on climate-related issues .
In fact , one would be hard-pressed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work on some element of climate change : from monitoring current environmental conditions to projecting climate impacts , from creating innovative energy solutions to building climate-resilient communities .
But this legion of civil servants , who have devoted their careers to combating climate change , are fragmented and lack that clear line of responsibility President Bush described as necessary to address critical security challenges .
These leading experts could be convened under one broad mission , with the potential for producing unified actions and outcomes far greater than the sum of their disaggregated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Homeland Security promises “ relentless resilience ” to attacks against the United States , a Department of Climate could deploy this same mindset , ensuring the US has the foundation it needs to take on the threats climate change poses to this nation and to future generations .
2 ) Climate change is a threat to our health — and we need dedicated resources to respond to it In the US , Americans are already experiencing more frequent extreme heat days , increases in wildfires that lead to poor air quality ( which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) , more severe storms with long-term , devastating health impacts , and longer seasons for disease-carrying mosquitoes and ticks .
Rising carbon dioxide levels means longer and more severe allergy seasons and less nutritious crops .
Not to mention the impact on our mental health .
As the House Select Committee points out in its Climate Crisis Action Plan , “ the United States currently lacks a comprehensive national strategy to respond to the health risks and harms of the climate crisis.
” Their plan calls for Congress to strengthen such planning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ action on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) .
However , federal health agencies ’ ability to focus on climate-related health impacts is currently inadequate .
This is in part due to leadership that is dismissive of climate change — and in part because their attention is , understandably , on the Covid-19 pandemic .
And the 2018 hurricane season before that , and Zika before that , and Ebola before that .
While the CDC and other health agencies are full of experts working to mitigate climate-related health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ driven by the next new global health crisis — and by each new administration ’ s political whims .
A new department would not be completely immune to the same geopolitical winds that tug on other federal agencies ’ attention ; but a dedicated budget and clear language in its mission mandating action on climate change would better position it against such winds .
Instead of each new administration interpreting whether work on climate falls within the scope of an agency ’ s mission , there would be no question that addressing climate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Department of Climate .
While there are many offices or divisions across numerous agencies engaged in work related to energy or transportation , these cross-cutting topics nevertheless have Cabinet-level leadership and congressionally determined budgets to ensure their missions are met regardless of who sits in the White House .
As with education , labor , or agriculture , we should have a Department of Climate so that our nation always has the clear dedication of resources it needs to concentrate on crucial issues .
The department could take the lead on addressing climate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the CDC and other health agencies to strengthen , not further tax our health sector — and obviate the seasonal question of whether the US is making climate change a priority or not .
3 ) Climate change is a threat to equity — and we need to build the capacity to do better Climate change threatens our health , but it does not threaten it equally .
Certain communities are disproportionately vulnerable to climate change , including children , older adults , people with pre-existing health conditions , low-income communities , certain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many communities of color .
As we see with Covid-19 , discrimination leads to disproportionate rates of illnesses and deaths from environmental health hazards among Black , Hispanic , and Indigenous peoples .
Climate change does not just exacerbate the impacts of racism , it is also caused by white supremacy , a snake eating its own tail .
As Hop Hopkins wrote for the advocacy group the Sierra Club : “ You can ’ t have climate change without sacrifice zones , and you can ’ t have sacrifice zones without disposable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have disposable people without racism.
” And people of color — who , as the writer and podcast host Mary Annaïse Heglar points out , have faced their own existential threats for hundreds of years and have unrivaled experience building activist movements — often do not have enough seats at the table when it comes to developing or implementing environmental policy .
The Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) and the Department of Justice ( DOJ ) work to enforce health and safety rules and pursue criminal anti-pollution cases , efforts Biden ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But even providing more resources to these existing government structures won ’ t be enough to guarantee meaningful involvement of all people to address climate change .
We need to build out additional capacity and create more jobs in the environmental justice field .
One way to do this is by building divisions in the Department of Climate that , in addition to helping the EPA and DOJ prosecute violators of environmental protections , work to prioritize those communities made most vulnerable to climate change and ensure diverse voices are part of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more people with social movement-building experience and new voices from communities often unheard , we could accomplish so much more — and more quickly .
This is important because the world has a lot of lost time to make up for in terms of fighting climate change and systemic inequity .
The threads of these two existential threats are intricately and tragically interwoven ; the most effective way to unravel them is to solve them together .
A Department of Climate , not just working for the people disproportionately affected , but made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in social justice and the most knowledge of their communities ’ unique needs and strengths , would give the US its best chance of implementing creative , long-lasting , and just solutions to climate change .
What the future could hold in the Biden administration The United States has faced crises in the past , as we do today , and will again .
We don ’ t need to look very far back in history for examples of how effective federal restructuring can provide the means to meet such challenges .
Try @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Create the Department of Homeland Security with the words “ climate change ” swapped in to see just how easily a Department of Climate could be proposed : And the power of a Climate Department would go beyond even its ability to take meaningful , sustained action .
It would also signify a new , permanent prioritization of the climate crisis among the country ’ s top concerns , a move that has been sorely missing .
It would be an immediate acknowledgement to millions of voters that the Biden administration is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seriously .
It would be a clear signal to our country ’ s youth and to the communities most at-risk that they don ’ t have to take on the entire burden of addressing climate change themselves .
And it would be a loud message to the rest of the world that the United States is finally ready to be a leader among the global community fighting climate change .
We have the urgency of the crisis to drive us , the mandate to move us forward , the precedence to guide us @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the experts to unify it , and the leaders to enact it— everything we need to create a response commensurate to the size of this huge task .
Allison Crimmins is a climate scientist in Washington , DC , whose research focuses on the impacts of climate change on human health .
The views expressed here are her own and do not represent those of her employer .

Editor’s note, November 11: This article was originally published in July and has been updated following election results.
In their acceptance speeches on November 7, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris included combating climate change on their to-do list for healing the nation. After a campaign filled with climate change-related policies, committees, speeches, and commercials, the Biden administration has what many experts are calling a mandate to act on the climate crisis.
Before the administration can start making large, meaningful strides in this mandate, however, it will first need to play catch-up, repairing the damage done by the Trump administration. Much of this work will include repealing harmful executive orders, reversing regulations that hinder science, and reinstating research policies, budgets, and advisory boards. It will also include the enormous task of rebuilding public trust in science, restoring a culture of scientific integrity, reviving the morale of discouraged federal workers, reconvincing scientists that public service can be a rewarding and honorable career path, and re-staffing agencies with a new generation of diverse talents and expertise. It will take a lot of hard work, and it won’t all be done by January 21.
But the incoming administration can make progress on all this needed restoration and move forward on the goals outlined in Biden’s clean energy and environmental justice proposal right now: by laying out plans for a new, Cabinet-level Department of Climate. In fact, rumblings about the creation of a “White House office for Climate Mobilization,” similar in structure to the National Security Council, started circulating in early October.
The idea of a high-level executive body focused on climate is not radical. Countries around the world — from Austria to Australia, Pakistan to Portugal — have created dedicated departments or ministries specifically to address climate change threats.
Establishing new Cabinet departments in the US isn’t that unusual either. In fact, more than half of the government’s 15 active departments have been formed in just the past 75 years. But among these executive-level departments and in all the hundreds of federal agencies, not one has a mission solely dedicated to the climate crisis. There isn’t even one with the word “climate” in its name.
Related How Joe Biden plans to use executive powers to fight climate change
To meet the threat of climate change, one of the first actions of the Biden administration and the 117th Congress should be to create a Department of Climate. Its mission would be to mitigate global climate change, reduce America’s vulnerability to climate impacts, build resiliency to the impacts that do occur, and strengthen the nation’s infrastructure by forging a sustainable, thriving, and just economy.
Here are three reasons why the US needs this new agency, how to do it, and why now is the time to start building one:
1) Climate change is a threat to our security — and we need a unified structure to fight it
Climate change is a critical national security challenge that will not be resolved over the course of one administration. In a report published earlier this year, the nonpartisan nonprofit Center for Climate and Security identified several major ways in which climate change puts national security at risk. These include: social and political instability due to drought and water stress, damages to military bases and infrastructure from rising seas and increased flooding, and detrimental effects on force readiness and health caused by more frequent heat waves and wildfires.
But perhaps the greatest risk to national security is the fact that climate change threatens our health, social equity, and economy, weakening the nation’s resilience. Current and future climate impacts put our very life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness at risk. It is well past time we defend against such threats.
When the US faced grave security threats in the past, it rose to those challenges by reorganizing the executive branch. For instance, after World War II, Congress enacted the National Security Act of 1947 and it was signed by President Truman. The Act reorganized military and intelligence branches, established the National Security Council and Central Intelligence Agency, and merged the War and Navy department into what became the Department of Defense.
Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Department of Homeland Security was established, integrating 22 different federal agencies and offices into one unified Cabinet department. In a message to Congress on June 18, 2002, President George W. Bush wrote: “History teaches us that new challenges require new organizational structures. History also teaches us that critical security challenges require clear lines of responsibility and the unified effort of the US Government.”
Although there is currently no one department or agency focused solely on climate change, there are many people spread across the federal government working on climate-related issues. In fact, one would be hard-pressed to find an agency that does not already work on some element of climate change: from monitoring current environmental conditions to projecting climate impacts, from creating innovative energy solutions to building climate-resilient communities.
But this legion of civil servants, who have devoted their careers to combating climate change, are fragmented and lack that clear line of responsibility President Bush described as necessary to address critical security challenges. These leading experts could be convened under one broad mission, with the potential for producing unified actions and outcomes far greater than the sum of their disaggregated parts.
Just as the Department of Homeland Security promises “relentless resilience” to attacks against the United States, a Department of Climate could deploy this same mindset, ensuring the US has the foundation it needs to take on the threats climate change poses to this nation and to future generations.
2) Climate change is a threat to our health — and we need dedicated resources to respond to it
In the US, Americans are already experiencing more frequent extreme heat days, increases in wildfires that lead to poor air quality (which likely makes people more susceptible to Covid-19), more severe storms with long-term, devastating health impacts, and longer seasons for disease-carrying mosquitoes and ticks. Rising carbon dioxide levels means longer and more severe allergy seasons and less nutritious crops. Not to mention the impact on our mental health.
As the House Select Committee points out in its Climate Crisis Action Plan, “the United States currently lacks a comprehensive national strategy to respond to the health risks and harms of the climate crisis.” Their plan calls for Congress to strengthen such planning, placing much of the burden of action on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Related House Democrats just put out the most detailed climate plan in US political history
However, federal health agencies’ ability to focus on climate-related health impacts is currently inadequate. This is in part due to leadership that is dismissive of climate change — and in part because their attention is, understandably, on the Covid-19 pandemic. And the 2018 hurricane season before that, and Zika before that, and Ebola before that. While the CDC and other health agencies are full of experts working to mitigate climate-related health threats, their priorities will always be driven by the next new global health crisis — and by each new administration’s political whims.
A new department would not be completely immune to the same geopolitical winds that tug on other federal agencies’ attention; but a dedicated budget and clear language in its mission mandating action on climate change would better position it against such winds. Instead of each new administration interpreting whether work on climate falls within the scope of an agency’s mission, there would be no question that addressing climate change is within the purview of a Department of Climate.
While there are many offices or divisions across numerous agencies engaged in work related to energy or transportation, these cross-cutting topics nevertheless have Cabinet-level leadership and congressionally determined budgets to ensure their missions are met regardless of who sits in the White House. As with education, labor, or agriculture, we should have a Department of Climate so that our nation always has the clear dedication of resources it needs to concentrate on crucial issues.
The department could take the lead on addressing climate threats to human health — collaborating with the CDC and other health agencies to strengthen, not further tax our health sector — and obviate the seasonal question of whether the US is making climate change a priority or not.
3) Climate change is a threat to equity — and we need to build the capacity to do better
Climate change threatens our health, but it does not threaten it equally. Certain communities are disproportionately vulnerable to climate change, including children, older adults, people with pre-existing health conditions, low-income communities, certain occupational groups, Indigenous peoples, and many communities of color.
As we see with Covid-19, discrimination leads to disproportionate rates of illnesses and deaths from environmental health hazards among Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous peoples.
Climate change does not just exacerbate the impacts of racism, it is also caused by white supremacy, a snake eating its own tail. As Hop Hopkins wrote for the advocacy group the Sierra Club: “You can’t have climate change without sacrifice zones, and you can’t have sacrifice zones without disposable people, and you can’t have disposable people without racism.”
And people of color — who, as the writer and podcast host Mary Annaïse Heglar points out, have faced their own existential threats for hundreds of years and have unrivaled experience building activist movements — often do not have enough seats at the table when it comes to developing or implementing environmental policy.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) work to enforce health and safety rules and pursue criminal anti-pollution cases, efforts Biden’s environmental justice plan proposes to strengthen. But even providing more resources to these existing government structures won’t be enough to guarantee meaningful involvement of all people to address climate change. We need to build out additional capacity and create more jobs in the environmental justice field.
One way to do this is by building divisions in the Department of Climate that, in addition to helping the EPA and DOJ prosecute violators of environmental protections, work to prioritize those communities made most vulnerable to climate change and ensure diverse voices are part of the climate solution.
By bringing in more people with social movement-building experience and new voices from communities often unheard, we could accomplish so much more — and more quickly. This is important because the world has a lot of lost time to make up for in terms of fighting climate change and systemic inequity. The threads of these two existential threats are intricately and tragically interwoven; the most effective way to unravel them is to solve them together.
A Department of Climate, not just working for the people disproportionately affected, but made of the people with the most expertise in social justice and the most knowledge of their communities’ unique needs and strengths, would give the US its best chance of implementing creative, long-lasting, and just solutions to climate change.
What the future could hold in the Biden administration
The United States has faced crises in the past, as we do today, and will again. We don’t need to look very far back in history for examples of how effective federal restructuring can provide the means to meet such challenges. Try reading these lines from the 2002 Proposal to Create the Department of Homeland Security with the words “climate change” swapped in to see just how easily a Department of Climate could be proposed:
“Today, no single government agency has homeland security climate change as its primary mission. In fact, responsibilities for homeland security climate change are dispersed among more than 100 different government organizations. America needs a single, unified homeland security climate change structure that will improve protection against today’s threats and be flexible enough to help meet the unknown threats of the future.”
And the power of a Climate Department would go beyond even its ability to take meaningful, sustained action. It would also signify a new, permanent prioritization of the climate crisis among the country’s top concerns, a move that has been sorely missing. It would be an immediate acknowledgement to millions of voters that the Biden administration is taking their mandate to act on climate seriously. It would be a clear signal to our country’s youth and to the communities most at-risk that they don’t have to take on the entire burden of addressing climate change themselves. And it would be a loud message to the rest of the world that the United States is finally ready to be a leader among the global community fighting climate change.
We have the urgency of the crisis to drive us, the mandate to move us forward, the precedence to guide us, the blueprint to build it, the experts to unify it, and the leaders to enact it— everything we need to create a response commensurate to the size of this huge task.
Allison Crimmins is a climate scientist in Washington, DC, whose research focuses on the impacts of climate change on human health. The views expressed here are her own and do not represent those of her employer.