None of the 2020 Frontrunners Go Far Enough on Climate

Dahr Jamail, Truthout, April 28, 2019, Originally Posted by Wayne Morgenthaler and revised 5/2/19

Here is an article by Dahr Jamail on prospective candidate's climate platforms that concludes that "If you read the 2020 Democratic candidates’ platforms in a vacuum, they may sound compelling. However, if we keep in mind the true magnitude of this crisis, they are nowhere near adequate."

Truthout asked Ezra Silk, who is now the group’s (The Climate Mobilization) Strategy and Policy Director, if any of the aforementioned presidential candidates were on a track that is in alignment with the aims of The Climate Mobilization. The answer was no, but surprisingly, he pointed to the climate platform of a long-shot candidate.

“Right now we are most excited about Marianne Williamson’s climate platform,” Silk said. “Her groundbreaking platform correctly identifies climate change as an ‘existential emergency,’ criticizes the dangerously high temperature targets in the Paris Accords … identifies and proposes aggressive solutions to address emissions from the agricultural sector and factory farms, promotes a more plant-rich diet and the need for family planning … and calls for a large-scale effort to sequester carbon over the next ten years.”

As unachievable as those goals might sound given the current situation, Silk points out that even these don’t “quite go all the way yet.”

Given how unlikely it is that anyone with a radical enough climate platform to generate serious climate crisis mitigation results could actually be elected in a corrupt, neo-fascist corporate electoral system, we must not see the 2020 election as the endgame in taking action on climate change. Instead, it is one small component of what needs to be a much broader approach.

This political assesment is of course very predictable because it is part of the electoral/media environment in this country that eschews real policy in favor of scandal, character assasination, popularity and appearances and tactical framing  all about winning.  So, nonetheless we should know the score about stated policies.  I found the bit about Ezra Silk from The Climate Mobilization calling out Marianne Williamson as having the best platform amusing. Hey, I like Williamson but just saying...

So, in conclusion Connie Madden and I just got back from ​Sunrise​'s National Town Hall Tour in Chico last week and are excited with their movement, Varshini Prakash who is very charismatic and passionate said that we have this one chance in two years to get a government that works or we are screwed. That may be true and the odds even on this are long, but all is not lost even then because in perspective Sunrise, as much as we love them is just one "small component." So know the facts, be prepared and don't dispair. I agree with Ezra Silk's conclusion -- It is a long game and fortunately there is an "Uprising" underway and gaining momentum.

Given how unlikely it is that anyone with a radical enough climate platform to generate serious climate crisis mitigation results could actually be elected in a corrupt, neo-fascist corporate electoral system, we must not see the 2020 election as the endgame in taking action on climate change. Instead, it is one small component of what needs to be a much broader approach. We each must decide what lengths we are willing to go to in order to work for the planet and live with integrity in these times.

Sara Blazevic and Varshini Prakash started the Sunrise Movement on the East Coast in 2015. Balzevic, Prakash, and other early leaders trained at Momentum, an organization that teaches community organizing

https://truthout.org/articles/none-of-the-2020-frontrunners-go-far-enough-on-climate/