Leading environmentast and Climate Change pioneer Bill McKibben endorses Bernie Sanders
Last edited Mon Dec 21, 2015, 10:24 AM - Edit history (1)
Bill McKibben, environmentalist and author has endorsed Bernie. From a campaign e-mail by him I received:
"Last night's Democratic debate was a disappointment for anyone who cares about the future of our planet. After an historic climate summit in Paris, it is unconscionable that the moderators of last night's debate — as well as the Republican debate — didn't ask a single question about climate change.
It's too bad, because Bernie’s new climate plan is the kind of deep, powerful plan we really need. I hope that you’ll sign on to support it. It gets us started fast — 40% reductions in carbon emissions by 2030 would put the country and the world on a new pathway. Bernie’s plan would create ten million jobs — and make sure that they’re shared with those communities that usually get left out of our economic booms.
But here’s what’s really important: Bernie’s climate plan comes with unique credibility. Because he’s worked hard for change when it wasn’t popular or easy. I know this because he’s a fellow Vermonter who I’ve watched for decades. And I know it in my bones because, in the early days of the fight against the Keystone Pipeline, he was almost the only person on Capitol Hill who signed on to help with the fight. He was dogged, and sometimes he was grumpy, and he never let up.
That’s the spirit we’re going to need going forward. As the revelations of the last few weeks have made clear, the biggest and richest of the oil companies, Exxon, knew everything there was to know about climate change decades ago, and yet helped spread the disinformation and deceit that have held back progress for a quarter-century.
To stand up to that kind of power requires backbone and passionate commitment. And it requires a leader who can mobilize a movement.
When we talk about alternative energy, there’s solar, and there’s wind. And there’s Bernie Sanders."
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Addendum:
And before the inevitable snarky "who?" it should be pointed out that McKibben is a leader in the environmental movement:
http://www.billmckibben.com/bio.html
Bill McKibben is an author and environmentalist who in 2014 was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, sometimes called the ‘alternative Nobel.’ His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages; he’s gone on to write a dozen more books. He is a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, which has organized twenty thousand rallies around the world in every country save North Korea, spearheaded the resistance to the Keystone Pipeline, and launched the fast-growing fossil fuel divestment movement.
The Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was the 2013 winner of the Gandhi Prize and the Thomas Merton Prize, and holds honorary degrees from 18 colleges and universities. Foreign Policy named him to their inaugural list of the world’s 100 most important global thinkers, and the Boston Globe said he was “probably America’s most important environmentalist.”
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