Night Owls, a themed open thread, appears at Daily Kos seven days a week
34 DAYS UNTIL JOE BIDEN AND KAMALA HARRIS TAKE THE OATH OF OFFICE
Julia Conley at Common Dreams writes—Not Just 'Build Back Better': Climate Groups Call on Biden to 'Build Back Fossil Free':
Demanding far-reaching policies to keep more fossil fuels in the ground and ramp up the renewable energy transition, a coalition of environmental, racial, and economic justice groups launched a new campaign Thursday calling on President-elect Joe Biden to go beyond his vague campaign pledge to "build back better" from the coronavirus pandemic and its corresponding recession.
To ensure a lasting recovery and a sustainable economy, the organizations said, Biden must "Build Back Fossil Free"—something he can do largely without the help of the U.S. Congress, through dozens of executive actions he can take as soon as he is inaugurated on January 20. [...]
At the Build Back Fossil Free campaign's website, which went live early Thursday morning, groups including 350.org, Greenpeace, Indivisible, and the Center for Biological Diversity explain that Biden's executive actions must focus on undoing the damage caused by decades of environmental racism and injustice and the extraction of fossil fuels.
At the Build Back Fossil Free campaign's website, which went live early Thursday morning, groups including 350.org, Greenpeace, Indivisible, and the Center for Biological Diversity explain that Biden's executive actions must focus on undoing the damage caused by decades of environmental racism and injustice and the extraction of fossil fuels.
"Mr. President-elect, you should use all the tools at your disposal to avert further climate devastation while helping people recover from the pandemic," the organizations, which represent millions of advocates across the country, wrote. "That means using your executive authority from Day One to:
- Protect and invest in the Black, Indigenous, Brown, and working-class communities that have borne the brunt of fossil fuel pollution and climate disaster.
- End the era of fossil fuel production, reject fossil fuel projects, and eliminate giveaways to oil, gas, and coal corporations.
- Launch a national climate mobilization to Build Back Fossil Free, delivering jobs, justice, and opportunity for all." [...]
THREE OTHER ARTICLES WORTH READING
TOP COMMENTS • RESCUED DIARIES
“[The American President] has to take all sorts of abuse from liars and demagogues.… The people can never understand why the President does not use his supposedly great power to make ’em behave. Well, all the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.”
~~Harry S. Truman, Letter to his sister Mary, 1947
At Daily Kos on this date in 2009—Magical Thinking Prevails in Copenhagen:
With demonstrators being arrested every day and non-traditional media, plus some mainstream media, being kept out of discussions, the climate change talks in Copenhagen are teetering on the precipice of outright failure. While some progress has been made, even the arrival of the chiefs of more than 100 governments Friday, including President Barack Obama, seems unlikely to accomplish in less than 24 hours what hasn't been achieved in two weeks of talks or the months of preparation for them.
Meanwhile, long-time environmental advocate Bill McKibben revealed in a Daily Kos diary Thursday afternoon, and traditional media subsequently have reported, leaked documents from the United Nations call into serious question governments' claims that they are aiming for carbon dioxide cuts that would hold average global temperatures to a rise of 2°C over the next century. Instead, the cuts could allow a temperature rise of 3°C or 4°C, with more than 550 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. That's well above the 350 ppm scientists believe is a (relatively) safe level.