The Green New Deal gets America talking, finally, about climate change

New York: In the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton spent 270 minutes debating each other over three nights.

New York congresswoman Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez launched the Green
New Deal in Washington DC in February.CREDIT:

Just five minutes - 2 per cent of the total debating time - was spent discussing climate change and the environment. The candidates were not asked a single question about climate policy and were asked just one about energy policy.

This absence underscored how marginal climate change was to US politics, especially compared to Australia, where the issue dominates political debate and has contributed to the downfall of a handful of prime ministers over the past decade.

Polls have regularly shown that climate change is a low political priority for voters in the US, where environmental consciousness is less pronounced than in other Western countries.

Read the story from The Age by Matthew Knott - “The Green New Deal gets America talking, finally, about climate change."

Dr Karl Will Debate Malcolm Roberts On Climate Science

Dr Karl (left) will debate climate change
 with senator Michael Roberts.

Today is all about Hillary Clinton vs Donald Trump, but a possibly even more interesting meeting of the minds has seemingly been locked in between a federal senator and Australia's most beloved scientist.

One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts came into parliament as a loud and proud sceptic of climate science. This week he presented a report he had compiled, claiming that the CSIRO had not done due diligence on the climate data it used. He has been vocal on Twitter since, challenging critics and spruiking upcoming public events that some of his climate sceptic supporters will be hosting.

Read John Butler’s story on The Huffington Post - “Dr Karl Will Debate Malcolm Roberts On Climate Science.”

Trump Says Plan to End Climate Spending Would Save $100B

Donald Trump argues $100 billion
is to be saved by dumping all
climate change spending.

Donald Trump says he would save $100 billion over eight years by cutting all federal climate change spending—a sum his campaign says would be achieved by eliminating domestic and international climate programs.

“We’re going to put America first. That includes canceling billions in climate change spending for the United Nations, a number Hillary wants to increase, and instead use that money to provide for American infrastructure including clean water, clean air and safety,” the Republican presidential candidate said Oct. 31 at a rally in Warren, Mich. “We’re giving away billions and billions and billions of dollars,” he said.

In a policy statement from his campaign on the same day, “New Deal for Black America,” Trump said he would “cancel all wasteful climate change spending” under the Obama administration and plans by Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, a sum that Trump said would total $100 billion over eight years.

Read the Bloomberg BNA story - “Trump Says Plan to End Climate Spending Would Save $100B.”

Hillary Clinton Finally Campaigns on Climate, With Al Gore at Her Side

Experienced environmental
writer, Marianne Lavelle.

For her first speech of the fall campaign focused exclusively on climate change, Hillary Clinton went to Florida, the state at greatest risk from sea level rise, and one of the tightest and most consequential swing states in this presidential election.

She brought with her to Florida a man she knew could amplify her message on both scores: former Vice President Al Gore. But at times, she almost sounded like she could out-Gore someone whose voice on climate change has echoed in politics for decades.

"Climate change is real, it's urgent and America can take the lead in the world in addressing it," Clinton said. "We can develop new clean energy solutions. We can transform our economy. We can rally the world to cut carbon pollution. And we can fulfill our moral obligation to protect this this planet for our children and our grandchildren."

And as if she sensed a political opportunity like rising wind and waves, she broadened the fight beyond her contest with Donald Trump, a climate change infidel, to take on others of his ilk.

Read the Inside Climate News story by Marianne Lavelle - “Hillary Clinton Finally Campaigns on Climate, With Al Gore at Her Side.”

Learning from the Neoliberals

"Our movement must be more powerful
 than ever to push Hillary into the
 climate leadership that the earth
 demands - Chloe Maxman.

With the presidential election less than three months away, how are our nominees doing on climate change? Donald Trump rarely mentions climate. When he does, he mocks it. Hillary Clinton? She’s excited to say that she believes in climate change, while condoning fracking and lauding the deeply flawed Paris agreement. Still, we know that we need Hillary, and we must do everything we can to elect her. Most importantly—our movement must be more powerful than ever to push Hillary into the climate leadership that the earth demands.

How can the climate movement develop the political power to fight effectively?

To glean a few answers, I looked to what I regard as one of the most successful examples of social change in the modern era: the neoliberal coup. Between 1975 and 2008, an ideological movement called “neoliberalism” evolved from fringe theory into the dominant economic paradigm of our age, with great help from the Republican Party, and then, the Democrats as well.

Read The Nation story - “What the Climate Movement Can Learn from the Neoliberal Coup.”

Climate change may influence U.S. Presidential election

Donald Trump - not a 'big believer' in
man-made climate change.

Donald Trump, now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has said that “I’m not a big believer in man-made climate change.” Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, is a strong proponent of climate change action, and a supporter of continuing President Obama’s policies on the matter, which include joining and honoring the Paris climate agreement and instituting the Clean Power Plan, which would shift domestic electricity generation onto a less carbon-intensive path.

Hillary Clinton - she cares about
human-induced climate change.

Now that the race appears to have narrowed to these two, it sets up a situation that many environmentalists have long hoped for — one in which a sharp contrast on climate change between the two candidates means that it might not only come up prominently in an election, but moreover, actually make a difference. (And if Bernie Sanders somehow racks up hard-to-imagine delegate totals in coming races or achieves some kind of convention upset, that contrast would only be heightened further.)

Read The Washington Post story - "Why this could finally be the election where climate change matters.”

$Millions spent fails to change climate change conversation

Tom Steyer has spent millions trying to
make climate change an issue for
Americans, but with little success.

Billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer has spent millions of dollars trying to make climate change a major issue on the 2016 campaign trail. But neither the candidates nor the voters seem to notice.

After one of the Democratic presidential debates, Mr. Steyer issued a statement lamenting that the focus on climate change was “far too brief.” Following a Republican debate, he expressed outrage that “not a single Republican presidential candidate took this threat seriously,” to which he added, “And that’s why not a single one of these candidates is qualified to get anywhere near the Oval Office.”

To be fair, Mr. Steyer does appear to hold sway over the Democratic presidential candidates. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have, at Mr. Steyer’s insistence, pledged to achieve at least 50 percent “clean” energy by 2030. Mr. Steyer, who has yet to throw his support behind a candidate, appears to be dangling his wealth and endorsement over the Democratic candidates to cajole them to do even more.

Read Thomas J. Pyle’s piece in The Washington Times - “No traction for climate change.”

Presidential hopefuls climate plan in easy to read chart

W

Hillary Clinton's climate plan.

hen Hillary Clinton released a fact sheet detailing her plan to fight climate change on Sunday night, her presidential campaign characterized it as “bold.”

Indeed, the goals outlined in the plan are significant — a 700 percent increase in solar installations by the end of her first term, and enough renewable energy to power every home in the country within 10 years.

But not everyone thought Clinton’s plan was as bold as her campaign made it out to be. That seemingly included the campaign of her Democratic rival, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, which sent an email to reporters titled “What Real Climate Leadership Looks Like” about an hour before Clinton’s plan was scheduled to be released.

Read the ThinkProgress  story  - “One Simple Chart Explains The Climate Plans Of Hillary Clinton And Bernie Sanders”.