Why Climate Activists Packed the Streets Outside the Democratic Debate
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DETROIT — Thousands of environmental activists, calling for the Democratic Party to embrace far-reaching plans to curb climate change and address social injustice, gathered for a hard-to-miss rally in Detroit on Tuesday afternoon, hours before the first of two presidential primary debates here.
The rally was organized by a coalition of progressive groups called Frontline Detroit, and included the Sunrise Movement, the climate advocacy group seeking to harness the political power of young people to push for the Green New Deal. That proposal, which sets out a broad vision for significantly reducing planet-warming pollution by 2030 while also guaranteeing millions of new jobs, has become a litmus test in the Democratic primary race.
Sunrise activists joined with several local liberal groups, chanting and singing as they marched from a central downtown park to the Fox Theater, the site of the debates.
The rally’s organizers said their goal was to see more top-tier Democratic candidates put climate change at the forefront of their policy agendas. They also wanted to pressure the candidates to visit some of Detroit’s most marginalized communities, many of which have seen devastating effects from water contamination and air pollution.www.nytimes.com/…
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These candidates see the glitz and glamour of America, but they need to see us — the people on the bottom,” said Theresa Landrum, a local climate organizer. “White people champion climate change but it’s us, the people, who are suffering the impact.”
The demonstration was part of a monthslong effort by the Sunrise Movement and its allied organizations to pressure Democrats to more forcefully address climate change. That effort began soon after Democrats recaptured the House in last year’s midterm elections. The group orchestrated a sit-in at the office of Nancy Pelosi, who was set to become speaker, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who had just won a House seat in New York, joined in.
This year, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez was the primary House sponsor of a nonbinding resolution that laid out the Green New Deal, an ambitious and broad platform that sets targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and calls for the government to guarantee high-paying jobs in clean energy industries.
Some political winds have shifted in the activists’ favor. In a Democratic primary with two dozen candidates fighting for attention, groups like Sunrise have been able to seize on the chaos and push their preferred issues into the conversation. Among other things, Sunrise has helped pressure almost all of the candidates to sign a pledge to refuse to accept large donations from fossil-fuel interests.
The group has also demanded that the party hold a debate focused on climate change, echoing a call from Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, who has made global warming the central issue of his presidential campaign.
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