This is such an important article and the single most vital issue of our time and all times. We need to be relentlessly speaking out about the climate crisis as though our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren and all children everywhere depend on it — because they do!
I’ve only been researching and learning about the climate and ecological crises for the past 10 years. And I’m the exception. While climate scientists and others have been warning us about the dire threats to life on Earth because of the warming climate and climate disruption, the American corporate funded mainstream media, the corporate funded politicians from both major political parties, and the predatory capitalists and oligarchs who fund them have all colluded to keep us all in the dark. The result is that an estimated 78% of Americans are unaware of the climate crisis and the trajectory that we’re on towards civilization collapse and extinction by the end of the century or sooner.
I’ve learned that even if the Paris Agreement were to be fully implemented today, it falls so far short of what is needed that we would be at 3.5 degrees of warming by 2050. That would be game over for life on planet Earth. Climate scientists worldwide have clearly told us that we have 10 years to engage in radical systemic change if there’s to be any chance of sustaining a livable planet.
These dramatic changes must happen NOW. We’ve already squandered decades on greed and climate denial, on ignorance and deadly propaganda, and on a patriarchal neoliberal predatory capitalist system that will literally kill all life on Earth if not stopped.
We urgently need to treat the greatest challenge and threat that humankind has ever faced as the greatest challenge and threat that humankind has ever faced. Among so many other things, a Climate Emergency must be declared along with the immediate funding and implementation of the Green New Deal — all of which Bernie Sanders would make his top priority.
We need to understand this and spread the truth far and wide. Everything, absolutely everything, that we love and cherish is stake. — Molly
The former vice president's campaign has them very, very worried.
Joe Biden backed one of the first climate bills in US history, has a relatively strong score from the League of Conservation Voters, and calls fighting global temperature rise “a matter of survival.” The former vice president—who became the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination shortly after entering the race last month—has the profile, on paper, of someone who should be able to tout his bona fides on climate change and the environment.
But Biden appears to be running as a moderate on these issues. On Friday, Reuters reported that while he would support re-joining the Paris climate agreement, he was also open to boosting natural gas and technologies to capture and bury emissions from industrial facilities. That was alarming to some climate activists, who already didn’t trust him on the issue—and that might be putting it mildly.
It’s difficult to find many climate thinkers or activists these days who are all that excited about Biden’s entry into the Democratic primaries—and some interviewed for this story worry that if he wins he could actually slow down progress at a time when the planet is least able to afford it.
“This is an existential threat that we are talking about for all life on Earth, all Americans,” said Leah Stokes, a political scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who closely follows the politics of climate change and energy. “I don’t trust him at all… I think he’s got some explaining to do about what exactly his plan is to deal with the climate crisis.”
Biden’s campaign website contains only three sentences about the greatest crisis ever to face humankind, and these are located midway down a secondary page. “We must turbocharge our efforts to address climate change and ensure that every American has access to clean drinking water, clean air, and an environment free from pollutants,” the site reads. His campaign did not respond to VICE’s request for more details on the actual policies this would entail.
There are virtually no specifics about how Biden plans to cut emissions in half by 2030—which is what United Nation scientists calculated is required to stabilize the world at or below 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming and keep cities like Houston, London, Shanghai, Jakarta, Bangkok, Lagos, Manila and Dhaka above water.
Please continue this article here: https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/a3x39g/climate-activists-dont-like-joe-biden?utm_campaign=sharebutton
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