Since Tuesday night, I can only think about one thing: stopping Donald Trump from destroying the planet.
If President Trump carries out the disastrous promises he made while campaigning, the Environmental Protection Agency will be gutted, the Endangered Species Act will be repealed, old-growth forests will be clearcut, hard-fought global climate change agreements will be undermined, and polluters will be given free rein over our water and air.
There's no way in hell we're letting that happen.
Like so many, we woke up Wednesday morning in an ugly, depressed place. It was difficult to get out of bed knowing the world we thought we knew -- one that seemed to be moving in the right direction -- had taken a dark turn.
As individuals, we cried, we mourned, and we sat stunned in disbelief about what had happened to our country. We felt the impulse to stay home alone.
But then we came to work, and we began the fight. Together. Every Center for Biological Diversity staff member showed up Wednesday morning in Tucson, Oakland, Washington, D.C., Anchorage, Denver and other offices around the country. We're back again today. We'll be here fighting next week, next month and every hour of the Trump administration.
We're warriors. It's what we do. We know what we're up against.
Trump and his friends in Congress will try to rip away the world's most important laws protecting endangered species, public lands, clean air and water, and a healthy climate for future generations.
Polluters will be put in charge of agencies that are supposed to clean up our environment. Wolf-haters and gun-worshippers will determine wildlife policies. Climate-deniers in the White House will say there's no reason to cut greenhouse gases. The Keystone XL pipeline will be back on the table, right alongside the Dakota Access Pipeline. Our precious, collectively held lands will be offered up to those who see them only as sources of private profit, for mining, drilling, logging and paving over.
But we will be there at every turn to fight for what we believe in. And to win.
The movement that stands for what's right -- for our environment, our wild animals and plants and places, and vulnerable people who've been preyed upon for far too long -- will grow stronger every day, every hour. Thousands will become millions. Millions will become tens of millions.
That's what it will take to win. And we will win.
Today our hearts still hurt as the ground has shifted beneath our feet. But that pain will be turned into power. Our sense of injustice will become energy. Our grief will become love. We will link arms, rise up together and fight like hell, lashing out at the darkness and demanding light.