Texas is a preview of our climate future: fossil fuel capital hunkering down and waging war on workers; patchwork, small-is-beautiful attempts at a solution; and heavy reliance on the same market-based approach that created the crisis in the first place.

Beating the drum about the reality of climate change will not be enough to change course. Nor will spreading awareness. We need a labor-based climate movement that targets fossil fuel capital, fights for large-scale, democratically controlled energy, and improves the lives of workers.

This goes beyond advocating a just transition for workers. As Ryan Pollock, a lead organizer at IBEW Local 520 in Austin, told me: “It’s not enough for people to say this is what could happen, that this will be here in the future. It needs to be tangible or else nobody’s gonna believe you.”