Courtesy Photo / Deceleration
Ralph Garcia, a San Antonio man with muscular dystrophy, and his mother have closed themselves off in his bedroom and packed the window with sblankets to stay warm.
The podcast details the trials of Ralph Garcia, 24, a San Antonio man with muscular dystrophy, who at the time of the interview had power no longer than 45 minutes at a time for the past 48 hours. He lives with his mother, who is enduring radiation treatments for cervical cancer.
“This message is to any energy supply company, and this message is to every mayor in the Texas region, and including the governor, that I want to listen to this. Right now your disabled community is dying," Garcia says during the interview. "And that's not me overreacting. This is how it is.”
As Garcia speaks, it's easy to understand the urgency of his need.
His condition requires daily access to equipment that needs electric power to function, including a feeding device and both suction and cough-assistance machines. During the interview, he reveals that he and his mother have sequestered themselves in a bedroom and packed blankets over the window to stave off the freezing temperatures outside.
Beyond public officials and utilities such as CPS Energy, Garcia said medical supply companies and home healthcare agencies also need to step up. At the time of the interview, he said he'd had no check-in calls from his normal providers.
"The climate crisis is no game," writes Deceleration blogger Greg Harman, an organizer with the Sierra Club. "But the impact on the disabled community has largely gone unreported."
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