DOCSLIB.ORG

By Ezra Silk

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
By Ezra Silk VICTORY PLAN BY EZRA SILK Director of Policy & Strategy; Co-Founder, The Climate Mobilization August 2016: Initial Publication March 2019: Initial Revision by Kaela Bamberger CONTENTS Foreword by Paul Gilding 4 Preface by Margaret Klein Salamon 8 Learning from Our Last Battle for Survival: World War II Home Front Mobilization Overview 10 Climate Mobilization Objectives for Victory 14 FRONT ONE Restore a Safe & Stable Climate Targets, Definitions & Context 23 Kick-Start the Mobilization 29 Mobilize the Fed 32 Establish New Federal Government Agencies 33 Fair Shares Greenhouse Gas Emissions Rationing 38 Energy & Electricity: Phase Out Fossil Fuels and Rapid Rollout of Renewable Energy 41 Transport Mobilization: Mass Electrification and Shift toward Rail & Public Transit 50 Transform the Food System: Shift Toward Plant-Based Diets, Perennialize Grains, Embrace Agroecology & Carbon Farming 63 Overhaul the Built Environment 70 Full Employment & WWII-style Tax Fairness 72 Mobilize the Department of Defense to Fight Climate Change & Ecological Overshoot 75 Launch an Emergency Global Forest Management Effort 77 Research Program on Near-Term Cooling Approaches 81 Drawdown Research & Development Program 83 FRONT TWO Reverse Ecological Overshoot Half-Earth Conservation Preservation & Restoration Project to Halt the 6th Mass Extinction 87 Restore the Oceans 94 APPENDICES Appendix A: Works Cited 97 Appendix B: Background on “Solar Radiation Management” 98 Remaining Sections (to be Drafted) 102 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I greatly appreciate the valuable feedback on this first draft I received from Margaret Klein Salamon, George Woodwell, Richard Heinberg, Anya Grenier, Michael Hoexter, David Kai- ser, Raychel Santo, Emily Nink, Adam Sacks, Sailesh Rao, Marie Venner, Joe Uehlein, Jeremy Brecher, David Spratt, Tom Weis, and Paul Gilding. For inspiring many of the ideas in this paper, special thanks to Michael Hoexter, Philip Sutton, Raychel Santo, Emily Nink, Richard Gilbert, Anthony Perl, Stan Cox, George Wood- well, Richard Heinberg, Laurence Delina, David Fridley, Andy Kunz, Stephen Mulkey, E.O. Wilson, Adrian Whitehead, Joe Uehlein, Jeremy Brecher, John Wiseman, Paul Gilding, David Spratt, and Margaret Klein Salamon. Thank you to everyone who has financially supported the Climate Mobilization Project and allowed me to eat and pay rent as I’ve researched and written this paper. Thanks to Andrew Lentini for designing the Victory Plan first draft. Huge thanks to Russell Greene, Tom Weis (and another person whose name I can’t dis- close) for your miraculous intervention in this year’s Democratic Party platform drafting process and for your friendship. Thank you Philip Sutton for your friendship and for teaching me everything about climate science, WWII, sustainability, and climate policy. Thank you Paul Gilding for your support and your incredible leadership. Thank you to my great friends Ryan Brill and Ashik Siddique for hearing me out and hav- ing my back through Wesleyan, Occupy, and now, the climate emergency. Nicole Harris – thank you for taking TCM’s organizing to the next level this year. Thank you Margaret Klein Salamon for masterfully leading TCM, making this project possible in the first place, helping me make a bunch of really tough calls, being a great friend, and forcing me to hit my deadlines on this paper. Mom, Dad, Abe & Isaac — I love you. Thank for your love and support as I’ve come to grips with the climate emergency and charted a new direction in my life. I am nothing with- out you. And thank you to all of the Mobilizers across the country and the world for your hard work and courage. You all give me so much hope. 3 FOREWORD By Paul Gilding or many years, a small number of scientists, scholars and activists have called for a WWII-scale mobilization to save civilization from climate ca- tastrophe — an all-out effort far beyond anything proposed in today’s polite debates. This year, the idea has started to build serious momentum, with new advocates like Bill McKibben and Bernie Sanders and the adoption by the Democratic Party in the U.S. of the call for an emergency climate mobilization. FAs mobilization starts to break into the mainstream, it is imperative that we discuss the specifics of this effort. In 2009, I co-authored, with Professor Jorgen Randers, the “One Degree War Plan” — a global and less comprehensive overview of the concept described herein. The One Degree War Plan showed we can realistically slash global greenhouse gas emissions to net zero in 20 years and then restore a safe climate through a carbon dioxide drawdown effort. While it’s very positive that people are now signing on to the concept, it is critical that such a response be based on what the science demands. The hard truth is the climate has deteriorated significantly since 2009 and this appears to be now accelerating. There is no time left for multi-decade transition scenarios. At this late hour targets based around 2050, or calls for only zero emissions (without drawdown and cooling), are clearly not sufficient. They risk an unthinkable defeat by putting off the very concrete steps we need today. That is why I am so pleased that The Climate Mobilization has written this Victory Plan. It tangibly demonstrates how the U.S. could eliminate net greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, contribute to a global effort to restore a safe climate and reverse ecological over- shoot through a massive WWII-scale mobilization. It’s important to understand what this means. WWII-scale climate mobilization is not just “a big effort.” It is not a major project or a key policy initiative like the Apollo Pro- gram or even the New Deal. It is a comprehensive, economy-wide approach that, if done correctly, represents the only realistic way we can overcome the climate emergency. The mobilization called for in the “Victory Plan” is powerful and sweeping enough to provide effective protection in the face of civilization-threatening climate disruption. It is firmly based in the most advanced climate science, and offers an extensive overview of the poli- 4 cies necessary to be implemented in every sector. It may not have every measure right and it will further evolve as society researches and develops the plan, but it provides a clear and practical sense of what such an approach would really look and feel like. It shows us how we can win the war to save civilization. When I published the “One Degree War Plan” in 2009, the very notion of action on this scale and in this style was dismissed. It was considered an interesting — almost enter- taining — thought experiment. In the years since, people are slowly coming around to the idea. Whether motivated by the European refugee crisis, extreme weather events, global temperature records being smashed or just the mounting total weight of the evidence, they are coming to accept that not only is such a response necessary, it is also now con- ceivable. Nevertheless, while you’re reading this plan many thoughts will occur to you, as your mind tries to reconcile the huge gap between what you read is needed and today’s reality. You will consider how “unrealistic” it is, how you “can’t imagine” political leaders acting in this way or how the incumbent business community “will never accept” this level of eco- nomic transformation. Before that process begins, I’d like to establish one idea very clearly in your thinking: A mobilization on this scale is the only rational response to the level of economic, secu- rity and social risks posed by climate change. Anyone who looks at the evidence objective- ly would conclude that — and historians will look back and wonder why it took us so long to accept it. So be clear — a mobilization on this scale is simply inevitable, with the only question being when we get started. Hard to imagine? Yes, it is. But before you go there, you have to imagine the alternative. Without this response, we will see a descent through cascading climate change induced crises with military conflict, accelerating costs, massive refugee flows, nations collapsing and global food crises as the world spirals down into economic and social collapse. This would inevitably require heavy government intervention and quite probably authoritarian rule to manage. With that prospect unfolding, do you really think we will stand by and do nothing but observe and talk about the difficulty of acting? Now that is “unrealistic” and that I really “can’t imagine.” As people come to accept this is the binary choice we face, we are getting closer to mobilization each day. I’ve seen the climate change response evolve steadily since the late 1980’s — first from the vantage point of Executive Director of Greenpeace International and since then travelling the world as an author and speaker, alongside my work with the leaders of large global corporations on their strategic approach to sustainability. The response has never evolved faster than in the past few years. Two recent developments illustrate the growing momentum: In late July, the Democratic Party voted overwhelmingly to adopt mobilization language in its official platform. The platform declares a “global climate emergency,” and commits to “a national mobilization, and to leading a global effort to mobilize nations to address 5 this threat on a scale not seen since World War II.” This is an important moment — not because this guarantees that the next Democratic President will launch such a mobiliza- tion — but because it brings the idea into the mainstream debate and creates a foundation for future advocacy of the approach. Then Bill McKibben, the leading voice of the American climate movement, published a full-throated call for WWII-scale climate mobilization, in which he states: “We’re under attack from climate change—and our only hope is to mobilize like we did in WWII.” With the concept gaining acceptance, many ask, what will be the trigger for action? Some believe we must wait for a “Climate Pearl Harbour” moment to initiate a WWII- scale mobilization.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • January 10, 2019 Re: Legislation to Address the Urgent Threat Of
    January 10, 2019 Re: Legislation to Address the Urgent Threat of Climate Change Dear Representative: On behalf of our millions of members and supporters, we are writing today to urge you to consider the following principles as the 116th Congress debates climate change legislation and momentum around the country builds for a Green New Deal. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently warned, if we are to keep global warming below 1.5°C, we must act aggressively and quickly. At a minimum, reaching that target requires visionary and affirmative legislative action in the following areas: Halt all fossil fuel leasing, phase out all fossil fuel extraction, and end fossil fuel and other dirty energy subsidies. The science is clear that fossil fuels must be kept in the ground. Pursuing new fossil fuel projects at this moment in history is folly. Most immediately, the federal government must stop selling off or leasing publicly owned lands, water, and mineral rights for development to fossil fuel producers. The government must also stop approving fossil fuel power plants and infrastructure projects. We must reverse recent legislation that ended the 40-year ban on the export of crude oil, end the export of all other fossil fuels, and overhaul relevant statutes that govern fossil fuel extraction in order to pursue a managed decline of fossil fuel production. Further, the federal government must immediately end the massive, irrational subsidies and other financial support that fossil fuel, and other dirty energy companies (such as nuclear, waste incineration and biomass energy) continue to receive both domestically and overseas.
    [Show full text]
  • Climate Emergency.’ Should the US Be Next?
    https://grist.org/climate/38-countries-have-declared-a-climate-emergency-under-president-biden- should-the-us-be-next/ BREAK GLASS 38 countries have declared a ‘climate emergency.’ Should the US be next? By Shannon Osaka on Jan 25, 2021 In April of 2019, thousands of protesters descended upon London. They blocked bridges, dragged a pink boat into one of the city’s central squares, and, at one point, some stripped nearly naked in the House of Commons. Their goal? Get the United Kingdom to become the first country in the world to declare a “climate emergency.” After 10 days of protests, Britain’s Parliament did a surprising thing: Its members approved a proposal to declare a state of emergency in response to the rapidly overheating planet. And while the U.K. was the first country to do so, it wasn’t the last. Today, at least 38 countries around the world — including the whole of the European Union, Japan, and New Zealand — and thousands of towns, cities, and counties have issued some kind of resolution declaring climate change a crisis. According to an estimate from the Climate Mobilization, a U.S.-based advocacy group, 950 million people, or 12 percent of the world’s population, currently live under a “climate emergency.” A week into his term, President Joe Biden is already under pressure to do the same. Although the new president has frequently spoken about the “climate emergency” — and referred to it that way on the White House priorities list — he has stopped short of issuing a formal declaration.
    [Show full text]
  • Uniform Climate Control
    University of Maine School of Law University of Maine School of Law Digital Commons Faculty Publications Faculty Scholarship 2019 Uniform Climate Control Anthony Moffa Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.mainelaw.maine.edu/faculty-publications Part of the Environmental Law Commons UNIFORM CLIMATE CONTROL Anthony Moffa * INTRODUCTION On July 22, 2019, outspoken climate change advocate Al Gore found himself sitting second chair once again as a bill was signed into law. This time he sat not beside the President of the United States, but rather beside the Governor of New York. Moments after Governor Andrew Cuomo rapidly scribbled his name on the land- mark Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act,1 he passed the pen and paper to a grinning Gore. 2 A resident of Nash- ville, Tennessee who holds no elected office in the State of New York, Gore's signature had precisely zero legal effect 3-it served ceremonial and publicity purposes only. Among many other ambi- tious goals, the celebrity-endorsed state law he giddily signed man- dates that New York achieve one hundred percent carbon neutral- ity by 2050.4 Al Gore called it "the most ambitious, the most well- crafted legislation in the country." 5 But he was far from its only * Associate Professor of Law, University of Maine School of Law. The author would like to thank Thea Johnson, Sarah Schindler, and William Sedlack for their thoughtful com- ments on earlier drafts. Special thanks are due to Michael Gerrard and John Dernbach for their pathbreaking work on model climate policy and their guidance on this theoretical treatment of it.
    [Show full text]
  • Blumenauer, Ocasio-Cortez, and Sanders Introduce Legislation to Mandate National
    https://blumenauer.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/blumenauer-ocasio-cortez-and- sanders-introduce-legislation-mandate Blumenauer, Ocasio-Cortez, and Sanders Introduce Legislation to Mandate National Climate Emergency Declaration National Climate Emergency Act directs the president to declare a climate emergency, take active steps to mitigate crisis, report progress to Congress WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced legislation mandating the declaration of a national climate emergency. The National Climate Emergency Act directs the president of the United States to declare a national climate emergency and mobilize every resource at the country’s disposal to halt, reverse, mitigate, and prepare for the consequences of this climate crisis. “Scientists and experts are clear, this is a climate emergency and we need to take action,” Blumenauer said. “Last Congress, I worked with Oregon environmental activists to draft a climate emergency resolution that captured the urgency of this moment. President Biden has done an outstanding job of prioritizing climate in the first days of his administration, but after years of practiced ignorance from Trump and Congressional republicans, an even larger mobilization is needed. I am glad to work with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Sanders again on this effort, which takes our original resolution even further. It’s past time that a climate emergency is declared, and this bill can finally get it done.” “We've made a lot of progress since we introduced this resolution two years ago, but now we have to meet the moment.
    [Show full text]
  • February 17, 2021 Dear President Biden and Vice
    February 17, 2021 Dear President Biden and Vice-President Harris, Congratulations on securing the people’s vote. As you know, your election is a testament to the tireless work of many people who believe a better world is possible and necessary. This is why we are calling upon you and your administration to walk the walk of real climate leadership. We, the undersigned public-interest organizations, represent millions of people across the United States and around the world who demand a climate just future, including youth, women, low-income communities, racially diverse communities, faith communities, and others. The people who voted for a better future are now ready to demand it from your administration. Amid a climate emergency that is wreaking unprecedented havoc, we write to you with an urgent request that is vitally important. We applaud your stated intent and action for the United States to rejoin the Paris Agreement at the earliest possible moment. We also call on your administration to go far beyond simply rejoining the 1 Paris Agreement and commit to honor the US’ Fair Share ​ in addressing the climate emergency. This ​ commitment to Fair Shares is already included in the Democratic Party’s Platform. To follow through, this will require bold, equitable and ambitious emissions reductions and a commitment to support less wealthy countries to do the same, including providing a significant amount of climate finance, far more than we committed to under the Obama administration. We commend your promise for this nation to become a climate leader. In addition to ambitious domestic action, this will require the US to take responsibility for its historical role in international climate policy and become a truly trusted partner, not on behalf of polluters but of people.
    [Show full text]
  • Climate Change, Addiction, and Spiritual Liberation
    religions Article Climate Change, Addiction, and Spiritual Liberation Margaret Bullitt-Jonas 1,2,3 1 Missioner for Creation Care, Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts, Springfield, MA 01103, USA; [email protected] 2 Missioner for Creation Care, Southern New England Conference, United Church of Christ, Framingham, MA 01702, USA 3 Creation Care Advisor, Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, Boston, MA 02111, USA Abstract: Climate scientists have sounded the alarm: The only way to preserve a planet that is generally habitable for human beings is to carry out a transformation of society at a rate and scale that are historically unprecedented. Can we do this? Will we do this? Drawing on her long-term recovery from addiction and on her decades of ministry as a climate activist, the author reflects on how understanding the dynamics of addiction and recovery might inform our efforts to protect the web of life and to bear witness to the liberating God of love who makes all things new. Keywords: addiction; recovery; Twelve-Step Program; climate change 1. An Addict’s World The addict looks away. The addict sees but does not see. She does not want to see. There is nothing to see here. Change the subject. Citation: Bullitt-Jonas, Margaret. The addict is empty. She does not have enough. She must be filled. She must be 2021. Climate Change, Addiction, filled right now. and Spiritual Liberation. Religions 12: The addict carries out repetitive, compulsive rituals that disconnect her from self, 709. https://doi.org/10.3390/ others, Earth, and the sacred. rel12090709 The addict functions like a machine.
    [Show full text]
  • Strategies and Governance for Implementing Deep Decarbonization Plans at the Local Level
    sustainability Article Strategies and Governance for Implementing Deep Decarbonization Plans at the Local Level Samantha Linton 1, Amelia Clarke 1,* and Laura Tozer 2 1 School of Environment, Enterprise & Development, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada; [email protected] 2 Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON M1C 1A4, Canada; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: This study qualitatively explores eight cases of best practice cities that are leading the way towards deep decarbonization. Local governments and stakeholders are developing short-term strategies and long-term pathways towards deep decarbonization at the local level but are struggling to determine effective actions. In this article, we examine cities pursuing deep decarbonization to provide insights into the strategies and governance structures that eight leading local governments are using to develop and implement deep decarbonization plans. The cases are in Canada (Bridgewater, Guelph, Vancouver and Toronto), the USA (Park City and New York City), Finland (Lahti), and Norway (Oslo) and range from very small (8.4 thousand people) to very large (9.6 million people). For each city, their implementation strategies are detailed under four categories: engagement; green economy; policy tools; and financial tools. Governance mechanisms and modes are explained regarding coordination; oversight and reporting; communication; multi-level integration; cross-sector collaboration; funding, and mode. While a number of these approaches and tools have been identified in previous research and grey literature, the findings show that leading local government plans continue to develop innovative strategies on their own and also share their successes with other communities through transnational networks.
    [Show full text]
  • New Bill from Blumenauer, Ocasio-Cortez, and Sanders Demands Biden Declare a National Climate Emergency
    https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/04/new-bill-blumenauer-ocasio-cortez-and- sanders-demands-biden-declare-national-climate New Bill From Blumenauer, Ocasio-Cortez, and Sanders Demands Biden Declare a National Climate Emergency The Sunrise Movement's executive director called it "a good sign that our leaders are finally understanding what young people and climate activists have been shouting from the rooftops for years." by Jessica Corbett, staff writer • • • In a sign that some members of Congress intend to hold President Joe Biden accountable for climate promises he made as a candidate, three lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bill directing him to declare a national climate emergency and mobilize every resource available to halt, reverse, mitigate, and prepare for this crisis. Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) joined with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to spearhead the National Climate Emergency Act of 2021 (pdf)—which builds on a climate emergency resolution demanding a national mobilization that the trio introduced in the last congressional session. "Scientists and experts are clear, this is a climate emergency and we need to take action," Blumenauer said in a statement. "Last Congress, I worked with Oregon environmental activists to draft a climate emergency resolution that captured the urgency of this moment." "President Biden has done an outstanding job of prioritizing climate in the first days of his administration, but after years of practiced ignorance from [former President Donald] Trump and congressional Republicans, an even larger mobilization is needed," he added. "I am glad to work with Rep.
    [Show full text]
  • Sustainability in the Anthropocene: Between Extinction and Populism
    sustainability Article Sustainability in the Anthropocene: Between Extinction and Populism Manuel Arias-Maldonado Área Ciencia Política, Facultad Derecho UMA, University of Málaga, Campus Teatinos s/n. 29071 Málaga, Spain; [email protected] Received: 12 February 2020; Accepted: 4 March 2020; Published: 24 March 2020 Abstract: The pursuit of environmental sustainability has been affected by two significant developments in the last years. On the one hand, the Anthropocene hypothesis suggests that the human impact on the environment has increased to such a degree, that natural systems are now disrupted at a planetary level. The most dangerous manifestation of the Anthropocene is climate change, where there is need for greater urgency in the face of insufficient climate action. There are a number of scientists who currently warn of the possibility that failing to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may render the Earth uninhabitable in the first place. A first goal of this paper is thus to ponder how the sustainability paradigm may be affected in the face of this threat and whether, in fact, sustainability may be displaced by “habitability”. On the other hand, some climate policies are eliciting the reaction of a populist movement—from Trumpism to the gilets jaunes in France—that opposes the rise of environmentally-related taxes and denies climate change or questions the severity of its effects. Both as a concept and as a policy goal, sustainability thus finds itself under double pressure: as it must focus on keeping the planet inhabitable, while the political opposition to measures directed towards decarbonization also increases.
    [Show full text]
  • January 10, 2019 Re: Legislation to Address the Urgent Threat of Climate Change Dear Representative: on Behalf of Our Millions
    January 10, 2019 Re: Legislation to Address the Urgent Threat of Climate Change Dear Representative: On behalf of our millions of members and supporters, we are writing today to urge you to consider the following principles as the 116th Congress debates climate change legislation and momentum around the country builds for a Green New Deal. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently warned, if we are to keep global warming below 1.5°C, we must act aggressively and quickly. At a minimum, reaching that target requires visionary and affirmative legislative action in the following areas: Halt all fossil fuel leasing, phase out all fossil fuel extraction, and end fossil fuel and other dirty energy subsidies. The science is clear that fossil fuels must be kept in the ground. Pursuing new fossil fuel projects at this moment in history is folly. Most immediately, the federal government must stop selling off or leasing publicly owned lands, water, and mineral rights for development to fossil fuel producers. The government must also stop approving fossil fuel power plants and infrastructure projects. We must reverse recent legislation that ended the 40-year ban on the export of crude oil, end the export of all other fossil fuels, and overhaul relevant statutes that govern fossil fuel extraction in order to pursue a managed decline of fossil fuel production. Further, the federal government must immediately end the massive, irrational subsidies and other financial support that fossil fuel, and other dirty energy companies (such as nuclear, waste incineration and biomass energy) continue to receive both domestically and overseas.
    [Show full text]
  • Organizing in the Anthropocene
    ORG0010.1177/1350508418779649OrganizationWright et al. 779649research-article2018 Editorial Intro Organization 2018, Vol. 25(4) 455 –471 Organizing in the Anthropocene © The Author(s) 2018 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508418779649DOI: 10.1177/1350508418779649 journals.sagepub.com/home/org Christopher Wright The University of Sydney, Australia Daniel Nyberg The University of Newcastle, Australia Lauren Rickards RMIT University, Australia James Freund Lancaster University, UK Abstract The functioning of the biosphere and the Earth as a whole is being radically disrupted due to human activities, evident in climate change, toxic pollution and mass species extinction. Financialization and exponential growth in production, consumption and population now threaten our planet’s life-support systems. These profound changes have led Earth System scientists to argue we have now entered a new geological epoch – the Anthropocene. In this introductory article to the Special Issue, we first set out the origins of the Anthropocene and some of the key debates around this concept within the physical and social sciences. We then explore five key organizing narratives that inform current economic, technological, political and cultural understandings of the Anthropocene and link these to the contributions in this Special Issue. We argue that the Anthropocene is the crucial issue for organizational scholars to engage with in order to not only understand on-going anthropogenic problems but also help create alternative forms of organizing based on realistic Earth–human relations. Keywords Anthropocene, capitalism, Earth systems, narratives, organizing Corresponding author: Christopher Wright, The University of Sydney Business School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
    [Show full text]
  • An Open Letter to President Barack Obama: Moment of Truth for Your Climate Legacy
    AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: MOMENT OF TRUTH FOR YOUR CLIMATE LEGACY September 2, 2015 Dear Mr. President, The moment of truth for your climate legacy has arrived. More than four years ago, you received an open letter from some of the nation’s top planetary protection leaders urging you and the president of China to publicly declare a global climate emergency by committing our respective nations to 80% carbon cuts by 2020. Because that urgent call was not heeded, we have lost precious time in the race to save civilization and must now set our sights even higher. It is with a deepening sense of dread over the fate of humanity that we call on you today to use the powers of your presidency to champion a U.S. goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. Innovating our way to zero emissions through an all-hands-on-deck societal mobilization at wartime speed is not only our best hope for averting climate catastrophe – it is key to revitalizing our economy and putting America back to work. In three months, you and leaders from more than 190 nations will gather in Paris for the UN Climate Conference to negotiate a global climate accord. Intergenerational justice demands that the centerpiece of that accord be zero emissions, a goal UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls “ambitious but achievable.” Three months is ample time for your administration to draft a legally binding zero emissions commitment for Paris. As you know, Pope Francis wrote in his recent encyclical: “Reducing greenhouse gases requires honesty, courage and responsibility, above all on the part of those countries which are more powerful and pollute the most.” Since the U.S.
    [Show full text]