Democratic Primaries

angrychair

(8,699 posts) Fri May 10, 2019, 11:34 AM May 2019

Climate Change and politics

So I vacillated as to where to start this OP as it could get real political, real fast, so I figured this was the safest forum.

I read an article that was focused on the climate/energy policy of a more centrist candidate that seemed heavily weighted on appealing to "working class people". I take exception to that. I'm a "working class" person. I want us to take as aggressive an approach as possible to climate change and energy.

More importantly, why this focus? Coal and oil are dated as hoping we bring back the old sock factory. Again, why?

As of the latest numbers (2017), there are 174,000 full time, blue-collar coal jobs and falling.

According to Forbes, there are almost 400,000 jobs in solar alone (2016).

Yes, these people will lose their coal jobs but they and children and their children's children, will have a better future without coal dust and methane gas.
Obama administration had initiated training programs to retrain/educate people in rural mining areas like WV and PA for other jobs, many very high demand and well-paying fields like industrial controls and robotics. Trump canceled those programs.

I am very disappointed in this ridiculous position that we need to keep dragging along these people lost in the 1930s. We must move forward. Why would you want to live in a poor and desperate situation, working a dangerous and unhealthy job that literally destroys the beautiful country (meaning hills, valleys and streams) you live and play in?

Not to mention that we should be putting billions into energy R&D and redefining what clean energy means. There are technologies and innovations out there waiting to be discovered, just needs the right minds with the proper support and funding. That will never exist with this bizarre need to persist to play to the small audiences and ignore to bigger picture.