The text of my petition directed at the campaigns of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton follows, I would encourage you to please sign it if you are interested. Otherwise, I would encourage you not to… but I hope you have a great Monday. I know the great ‘Earth Day Speeches’ by our candidates are less than a month away, but I hope to provoke a dialogue beyond Earth Day Speeches.
The visible signs and dire implications of climate change dominate science headlines, but since they aren't headlines that sell ads, they get little attention in the media at large. Climate change is the only existential threat the United States currently faces, and yet the topic barely received passing mention during the limited schedule of Democratic debates.
In our current two-party system, only the Democratic party has shown any degree of responsible leadership in response to the overwhelming evidence of climate change, and yet we have fallen exponentially short of what history will say was required of us. The time has come for meaningful leadership on this issue. Both the Sanders and Clinton campaigns have a responsibility to begin a serious conversation about the changes that we need to make to provide a functioning environment for the generations to come.
This is a crisis that calls for leadership beyond stump speeches. At this point in the primary, our two Democratic candidates are at their peak of media influence, and they should use that influence to guide our national debate in a responsible direction. Our Union and perhaps our species as we know them cannot survive leadership by cursory acknowledgment and half-measures.
On Earth Day--April 22nd 2016--both campaigns will almost certainly schedule rallies about the earth and climate change. And both campaigns will probably schedule rallies about other unrelated topics the following day.
The impact of climate change and the state of our planet are not blips on the calendar--they are the most significant and potentially devastating crises we have ever faced.
In an effort to send this message to your campaign(s), I will make my next donation to the candidate of my choice in the amount of $4.22, $24.22, $42.20, etc. and incorporate the 4/22 date of earth day--as a reminder to the campaign that it's a conversation we need to start sooner rather than later. I will also consider boycotting any campaign donations on Earth Day itself (4/22/2016) if I do not feel our two Democratic campaigns have given this issue appropriate and non-cursory attention by that time.