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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJohn Kerry Launches Star-Studded Climate Coalition
Last edited Mon Dec 2, 2019, 09:26 PM - Edit history (1)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/30/climate/john-kerry-climate-change.htmlWASHINGTON John Kerry, the former senator and secretary of state, has formed a new bipartisan coalition of world leaders, military brass and Hollywood celebrities to push for public action to combat climate change.
The name, World War Zero, is supposed to evoke both the national security threat posed by the earths warming and the type of wartime mobilization that Mr. Kerry argued would be needed to stop the rise in carbon emissions before 2050. The star-studded group is supposed to win over those skeptical of the policies that would be needed to accomplish that.
Former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter are part of the effort. Moderate Republican lawmakers like Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former governor of California, and John Kasich, the former governor of Ohio, are on the list. Stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Sting and Ashton Kutcher round out the roster of more than 60 founding members. Their goal is to hold more than 10 million climate conversations in the coming year with Americans across the political spectrum.
With a starting budget of $500,000, Mr. Kerry said, he and other coalition members intend to hold town meetings across the country starting in January. Members will head to battleground states key to the 2020 election, but also to military bases where climate discussions are rare and to economically depressed areas that members say could benefit from clean energy jobs.
flamingdem
(39,333 posts)Website is here:
https://worldwarzero.com/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/worldwarzeroorg
--- con't
Were going to try to reach millions of people, Americans and people in other parts of the world, in order to mobilize an army of people who are going to demand action now on climate change sufficient to meet the challenge, Mr. Kerry said in an interview.
The launch of the new group on Sunday comes as diplomats gather in Madrid on Monday for global climate negotiations aimed at strengthening the 2015 Paris Agreement, from which President Trump has vowed to withdraw next year. Earlier this week the United Nations found that the worlds richest countries, responsible for emitting more than three-fourths of planet-warming pollution, are not doing enough to keep Earths temperature from rising to dangerously high levels. Net carbon emissions from the two largest polluters, the United States and China, are expanding.
Sarah Matthews, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trumps re-election campaign, said in a statement that the administration continues to advance realistic solutions to reduce emissions while unleashing American energy like never before. Asked to comment on the new bipartisan group, she also criticized efforts to force the United States to cut emissions, arguing the largest emitters like China and India wont do the same.
Mr. Schwarzenegger in an interview this week dismissed as bogus the Trump administrations argument that China must do more to curb emissions before the United States acts.
I always say to myself, what is happening here? America never ever in its history has said, Let some other country do something first. We should lead, he said.
Mr. Kerry said while individual members might personally promote specific climate policy proposals, like a tax on carbon dioxide pollution, or the Green New Deal, the coalition is not aimed at promoting any particular plan.
Were not going to be divided going down a rabbit hole for one plan or another, he said.
The Green New Deal envisions addressing climate change and income inequality in tandem, with a federal job guarantee and federal mandates like ensuring the countrys power and electricity systems run entirely on renewable energy by 2030. The Sunrise Movement, a climate activist group that promotes the Green New Deal, has been critical of global warming efforts that do not embrace that vision, but its leaders held their fire on Mr. Kerrys group.
Some members of Mr. Kerrys coalition hold positions that many in the environmental movement oppose, like support for natural gas as a transition fuel from coal.
SMC22307
(8,090 posts)Send in Ahnuld if that's what it takes...
flamingdem
(39,333 posts)We need the heavy hitters for climate and elections!
SMC22307
(8,090 posts)but if it's bipartisan and they're heading to depressed areas (like parts of the Rust Belt) to talk about job opportunities then bra-vo.
flamingdem
(39,333 posts)Not just pontificate
SMC22307
(8,090 posts)about activism, that it's not all glamour, you gotta get down in the trenches (or something to that effect). He's right.
blm
(113,113 posts)for over 2 decades.
SMC22307
(8,090 posts)highly engaged for the past couple of decades. I'm happy to see others getting on board and that it's bipartisan -- more might be receptive to the message, those who REALLY need to hear it.