The crises fac­ing humankind are, to use a much overused but accu­rate word – unprece­dent­ed. Plu­to­crat­ic pow­er in the hands of the few is a dis­as­ter for democ­ra­cy and our ecos­phere. The rul­ing class is dri­ven by its vora­cious lust for dom­i­na­tion and mon­ey. It’s an old Amer­i­can sto­ry. Over a cen­tu­ry ago Theodore Roo­sevelt warned against ​“a small class of enor­mous­ly wealthy and eco­nom­i­cal­ly pow­er­ful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their pow­er.” From war to the cli­mate emer­gency, the threats fac­ing the plan­et are acute and get­ting worse. We can pro­tect and nur­ture the Earth but it won’t hap­pen by mag­ic. We have to work for it. It’s up to us. As Bernie Sanders says, ​“You can save the planet.”