The climate crisis is not coming. It is here now. And we need bold, urgent action to meet this moment. The science makes that clear. The headlines make that clear. The weather extremes and climate disasters we are living with make that clear.
When it comes to the climate crisis, we are headed in the wrong direction globally and nationally. The amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is at its highest in human history—higher than it has been since 4.3 million years ago when the sea level was 75 feet higher, the average temperature was six degrees higher, and the ice caps at the poles were nearly melted.
This is an emergency. And we need to declare it as such.
We see the climate emergency all around us. Already this year, the US has broken one record after another: snow accumulations out West, historic rain in Florida, tornadoes throughout the midwest and south, and record temperatures in state after state.
In fact, climate disasters have impacted 90% of U.S. counties since 2011. And in the last two years alone, we have spent more than $300 billion responding to climate-related disasters, according to the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.
These disasters also disproportionately harm Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-income communities, women, and those with disabilities—the very communities and people who have contributed the least to the causes of the crisis.
The latest United Nations IPCC report makes it clear that the crisis we are facing is immediate and very real. The report states in stark terms that we are nearing numerous climate “tipping points” which could trigger irreversible, major climate harms:
The likelihood and impacts of abrupt and/or irreversible changes in the climate system, including changes triggered when tipping points are reached, increase with further global warming (high confidence). As warming levels increase, so do the risks of species extinction or irreversible loss of biodiversity in ecosystems including forests (medium confidence), coral reefs (very high confidence) and in Arctic regions (high confidence)... The probability and rate of ice mass loss increases with higher global surface temperatures (high confidence).
In fact, we may have passed one or more tipping points already.
The climate crisis is everywhere. It affects everything. It is an economic crisis. It is a national security crisis. It is a crisis of resources. It is a public and mental health crisis.
The Biden Administration has already taken numerous important steps to address the climate crisis, including passing the largest ever U.S. investment in fighting the climate crisis. But more is needed to meet this moment with the scope and urgency necessary. We simply do not have another moment to waste.
It is time for the government to officially declare a National Climate Emergency and respond with increased urgency to this existential threat to people, creatures and planet.
Despite the enormity of the challenge, we are not helpless. It is not hopeless. We can slow the burning. We can stave off the worst devastation. We can still create a livable future for all.
But the time to act is very short. Emissions have to decrease now. This year. By nearly 8% per year, globally. Or we can keep feeding the flames.
Through declaring a National Climate Emergency, we can deploy all the tools at our disposal—legislative, regulatory, and executive—to act now. We can more effectively fight the climate crisis, and enable communities to adapt and become resilient to inevitable impacts.
Doing so will enable President Biden to tap into as many as 148 statutory powers to help the U.S. fight the climate crisis. An excellent report from the Center for Biological Diversity explores those emergency powers most important to fighting the climate crisis. The Declaration of a National Climate Emergency would enable the Administration to reinstate the crude oil export ban, invest in large scale mitigation and resiliency projects, further grow clean energy and transportation manufacturing, create millions of good-paying jobs, and much more.
This is not some pie in the sky idea. Since 1976, presidents have declared at least 60 national emergencies.
Today, more than two dozen Democratic Party environmental and youth leaders joined the DNC Environment and Climate Crisis Council, calling on the Biden Administration to make a National Climate Emergency Declaration.
The plain truth is we are out of time. We can no longer deny the devastating impacts this climate crisis is having on our communities, our nation and the world. Nor can we afford half measures or watered-down policies.
The science is clear. The impacts are clear. The devastation is clear. This is an emergency. And we need to act like it now. Before it is too late.
Join us in urging the declaration of a climate emergency.
Call for the declaration of a National Climate Emergency.
Michelle Regalado Deatrick is the Chair of the DNC Environment and Climate Crisis Council and a farmer, labor leader and political analyst in Michigan.
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