Democrats: Embrace Climate Mobilization NOW!
Dear Democratic Party Leadership,
The Democratic Party stands at a crossroads. Will it continue to embrace policies that do not win elections and fail to solve our country's social and ecological catastrophes, or will it champion the WWII-scale mobilization we need to save civilization and the natural world?
At the Party’s 2016 convention in Philadelphia, many speakers asserted that America is already great. But for millions of Americans living a reality of economic decline and social breakdown, such optimism proved hollow.
The truth is that every day we are barreling faster toward civilizational collapse. This was true before Election Day, and will become even more so once Donald Trump assumes the presidency. Our deeply immoral throwaway economy has generated a crisis of such magnitude that only an unprecedented global mobilization can now protect us.
Democrats must introduce and champion a package of legislation that restores a safe climate with 0°C warming, stops the 6th mass extinction of species, and creates a full employment economy that works for all of us. In particular, Democrats should introduce legislation that:
- Declares a climate emergency and initiates a WWII-scale mobilization to restore a safe, pre-industrial climate with 0°C warming;
- Phases out all fossil fuel use in 10 years or less and develops a continental renewable energy SuperSmart grid and national high-speed rail network;
- Transforms our agricultural sector by supporting carbon-sequestering farming practices and agroecology while curbing animal agriculture;
- Scales up a massive effort to remove all of the planet-incinerating excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere;
- Initiates a Marshall Plan to rescue America’s poor that provides guaranteed jobs for all, ends mass incarceration, revitalizes our impoverished communities, and implements adequate adaptation measures in vulnerable areas; and
- Launches a global effort that preserves half the earth and stops the 6th mass extinction of species, ends poverty, and stabilizes the global population through humane, voluntary efforts.
The 2016 Democratic Party platform recognized “the catastrophic consequences facing our country, our planet, and civilization” from the global climate emergency. In response to this existential crisis, the platform promised a WWII-scale climate mobilization and a climate emergency summit within the first 100 days of the next administration.
To that end, we implore you to immediately:
- Announce a date for the Climate Emergency Summit within the first 100 days of the next administration;
- Introduce the above legislation before the Climate Emergency Summit; and
- Establish a Congressional Climate Emergency Caucus to promote and support the growing movement for emergency climate mobilization
Through a courageous commitment to climate mobilization, the Democratic Party’s new moral vision can inspire the American people to rescue our world.
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