This article appears in our March print issue. You can pick up a copy on newsstands around campus, or at our newsroom in room 520 in the University Center.
The planet is transforming right before our eyes; oceans are rising and eroding coastal cities like Miami, Australia just witnessed wildfires destroy about 30 million acres of land, the UN reports that around 200 species are going extinct everyday, and the increased power of hurricanes is felt even in New York, where cleanup from 2012’s Hurricane Sandy is still ongoing.
“Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030” before life on Earth is drastically different from the one we inhabit now. That was the warning we were given a year ago from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
We currently have a president who denies every bit of climate science and remains adamant about undermining vital EPA laws, and his supporters are right there with him. Another four years of Trump means our futures are destroyed, as the US would continue to spew out tons of earth-warming fossil fuels and degrade its own land.
Come November, voting for a president who has robust plans for the climate crisis is simply no longer negotiable, because in the interest of time and humanity’s fate, it’s essential.
“This is the first time in American political history where climate change is not just a top-tier issue—it is the top-tier issue,” Anthony Leiserowitz, a senior research scientist at Yale, told The Atlantic. Leiserowitz was part of the team of non-partisan researchers who polled Democratic voters about their top issues. Climate change is a top issue for the majority of those polled, second only to health care.
So if you’re scared of this crisis, and you would like to have a prosperous and healthy future, vote for Bernie Sanders, because these frightening realities give us no other choice. Bernie has spent decades championing environmental justice and advocating for those most affected by environmental crises. He’s co-sponsored bills like the Environmental Justice Act of 2017, the Climate Protection and Justice Act of 2015, the End Polluter Welfare Act of 2015, and a 2019 bill requiring 100 percent zero emission vehicles by 2040.
If you look at Sanders’ campaign website, his climate and environmental justice plans are extensive. Most notably, Sanders co-sponsored the Green New Deal, a bill that calls for the end of fossil fuels by 2030, thousands of new jobs in the transition to clean energy, and finally acknowledging environmental justice communities.
The environmental activism organization Greenpeace comprised a 2020 candidate scorecard, which is based on the candidates’ public records and a survey put out by Greenpeace, ultimately indicating where each potential president stands on ending the use of fossil fuels and implementing a Green New Deal. Sanders scores the highest, receiving an A+ with a 45/50 for his commitment to the Green New Deal and a 49/50 for plans to end the use of fossil fuels.
Other candidates we’ve seen on the debate stage have plans for climate change, but they’re not nearly as rigorous as Sanders’. Amy Klobuchar and Michael Bloomberg both have C+’s on the scorecard, viewing the Green New Deal as an “aspiration” rather than a commitment. Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg are a grade above, but both candidates also have loose ideas for the climate, like carbon capture technology that requires fossil fuels to make. Elizabeth Warren scores close to Sanders with an A, but despite Warren’s promise to hold the fossil fuel industry more responsible, Sanders still takes the cake.
While each candidate addresses climate change in one way or another, if our government and those in power sit around for another four years twiddling their thumbs debating how to best go about the climate crisis, or entirely deny it as Trump does, the planet will continue to burn. Environmental justice communities like those in the Bronx will have to keep fighting for clean air and water, while reservations, such as Standing Rock in North Dakota, will continue protesting oil pipelines that threaten sacred land, as we saw with the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Sanders seems to fully understand the severity of the crisis we’re in, and has vowed to actually do something about it. So when you’re voting in the upcoming primaries and in November, ask yourself who on the ballot has your best interest in mind. Who cares the most about your future, or the future of your friends and family? Who cares the most about the planet you live on?
The answer lies within Sanders’ campaign: “As president, Bernie Sanders will boldly embrace the moral imperative of addressing the climate crisis and act immediately to mobilize millions of people across the country in support of the Green New Deal. From the Oval Office to the streets, Bernie will generate the political will necessary for a wholesale transformation of our society.”