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Why the Planet Is Happy That Bernie Sanders Is Running for President
Why the Planet Is Happy That Bernie Sanders Is Running for President
4/30/2015
...When we told Bernie Sanders about the Keystone Pipeline in the summer of 2011, he immediately set to work helping us block it. He strategized, he used his bully pulpit in the Senate to spread the word, and he devoted staff time to pressuring the State Department. Contrast that with, say, Barack Obama who was mostly silent about climate change his whole first term, and managed to make it all the way through the 2012 campaign without discussing it. Or Hillary Clinton, who after initially saying she was "inclined" to approve Keystone has gone entirely mum on the most iconic environmental issue of our time. Who showed up in New York for the People's Climate March? Bernie Sanders. Who said, straightforwardly in today's official announcement, "the peril of global climate change, with catastrophic consequences, is the central challenge of our times and our planet." That would be Bernie Sanders.
But what makes that really remarkable is, it's not his defining issue. Everyone in Vermont knows Bernie pretty well (it's that kind of state) and so I can say he fits no one's stereotype of an enviro. He doesn't put on a spandex suit and go cross-country skiing; he doesn't, I'm guessing, meditate to reduce his stress levels. He doesn't go on and on about the woods and the rivers -- he goes on and on about working class Vermonters who can't afford health care and heating oil. His issue is inequality and unfairness, and it has been from the start.
And for those of us who do work mostly on the environment, that's just the kind of ally we need. Because it's a constant reminder that this battle is for people, who need renewable energy so they can break the constant cycle of struggling to pay the fuel bill, and because it will be the source of good jobs. And because it will be one of the chief ways we break with the plutocrats, many of them in the fossil fuel industry, who are ruining both our atmosphere and our democracy.
Make no mistake -- Bernie Sanders isn't really running against Hillary Clinton. He's running against the Koch Brothers, and all that they represent: taken together they're the richest man on earth. They've made their money in oil and gas (they're the largest leaseholders in the Alberta tar sands, on the far end of the Keystone Pipeline). They spend their money to break unions, to shut out solar power, to further concentrate America's wealth. They'll spend at least $900 million on the next election....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-mckibben/why-the-planet-is-happy-t_b_7184974.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
4/30/2015
...When we told Bernie Sanders about the Keystone Pipeline in the summer of 2011, he immediately set to work helping us block it. He strategized, he used his bully pulpit in the Senate to spread the word, and he devoted staff time to pressuring the State Department. Contrast that with, say, Barack Obama who was mostly silent about climate change his whole first term, and managed to make it all the way through the 2012 campaign without discussing it. Or Hillary Clinton, who after initially saying she was "inclined" to approve Keystone has gone entirely mum on the most iconic environmental issue of our time. Who showed up in New York for the People's Climate March? Bernie Sanders. Who said, straightforwardly in today's official announcement, "the peril of global climate change, with catastrophic consequences, is the central challenge of our times and our planet." That would be Bernie Sanders.
But what makes that really remarkable is, it's not his defining issue. Everyone in Vermont knows Bernie pretty well (it's that kind of state) and so I can say he fits no one's stereotype of an enviro. He doesn't put on a spandex suit and go cross-country skiing; he doesn't, I'm guessing, meditate to reduce his stress levels. He doesn't go on and on about the woods and the rivers -- he goes on and on about working class Vermonters who can't afford health care and heating oil. His issue is inequality and unfairness, and it has been from the start.
And for those of us who do work mostly on the environment, that's just the kind of ally we need. Because it's a constant reminder that this battle is for people, who need renewable energy so they can break the constant cycle of struggling to pay the fuel bill, and because it will be the source of good jobs. And because it will be one of the chief ways we break with the plutocrats, many of them in the fossil fuel industry, who are ruining both our atmosphere and our democracy.
Make no mistake -- Bernie Sanders isn't really running against Hillary Clinton. He's running against the Koch Brothers, and all that they represent: taken together they're the richest man on earth. They've made their money in oil and gas (they're the largest leaseholders in the Alberta tar sands, on the far end of the Keystone Pipeline). They spend their money to break unions, to shut out solar power, to further concentrate America's wealth. They'll spend at least $900 million on the next election....
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-mckibben/why-the-planet-is-happy-t_b_7184974.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
Also explaining why the planet is happy, happy~
...The report, released yesterday by the liberal super PAC Climate Hawks Vote, ranked Senate Democrats not just on their voting record, but on their leadership record — a more intangible metric meant to measure how a Senator prioritizes the issue of climate change. Senators with a higher leadership scores are those that are more publicly engaged with climate change, doing things like introducing climate-focused bills, giving climate-focused speeches on the Senate floor, or issuing press releases about climate issues.
...“Our goal is to elect climate hawk leaders — those who prioritize and speak on the climate crisis — not just those who follow leaders’ directions on the rare occasions that climate comes up for a vote and otherwise remain silent,” the report stated.
Topping the list in the 114th Congress with a score of +71 was Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who delivers weekly speeches on climate change on the floor of the Senate (according to the Huffington Post, he gave his 97th speech on the subject Tuesday). In January, Whitehouse introduced an amendment to a bill approving the Keystone XL Pipeline that forced Senate Republicans to go on record stating whether or not they believe climate change to be real. Behind Whitehouse, Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Ed Markey (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) rounded out the top five.
Sanders, who recently announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, actually edged out Whitehouse for the top spot during the 113th Congress, sponsoring 6 bills related to climate change, according to the report. Like Whitehouse, Sanders also introduced an amendment to the Senate’s Keystone XL bill in January, stating that climate change is “already causing severe problems all over the world,” and that “we have a window of opportunity and we have to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency.”...
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/04/30/3653132/climate-hawk-report-114-congress/
...“Our goal is to elect climate hawk leaders — those who prioritize and speak on the climate crisis — not just those who follow leaders’ directions on the rare occasions that climate comes up for a vote and otherwise remain silent,” the report stated.
Topping the list in the 114th Congress with a score of +71 was Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), who delivers weekly speeches on climate change on the floor of the Senate (according to the Huffington Post, he gave his 97th speech on the subject Tuesday). In January, Whitehouse introduced an amendment to a bill approving the Keystone XL Pipeline that forced Senate Republicans to go on record stating whether or not they believe climate change to be real. Behind Whitehouse, Sens. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Ed Markey (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) rounded out the top five.
Sanders, who recently announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, actually edged out Whitehouse for the top spot during the 113th Congress, sponsoring 6 bills related to climate change, according to the report. Like Whitehouse, Sanders also introduced an amendment to the Senate’s Keystone XL bill in January, stating that climate change is “already causing severe problems all over the world,” and that “we have a window of opportunity and we have to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency.”...
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/04/30/3653132/climate-hawk-report-114-congress/