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Breaking: The DNC Platform Committee is about to vote on the party's platform. The Draft Party Platform still does not include a fracking ban, a price on pollution or a ban on all offshore drilling -- including the Gulf of Mexico. Click here to tell DNC to clean up their platform and #ActOnClimate like they mean it.
Friend,
Last month when I testified to the DNC Platform Committee, I reminded them that climate denial is not monopolized by GOP boogeymen like Sens. James "Snowball" Inhofe and Ted Cruz. Because the truth is that acknowledging climate change is not the same thing as #ActingOnClimate. And, if we don't act quickly to address humanity's greatest challenge, climate catastrophe will soon become inevitable.
Last week the DNC released its Draft Party Platform,1 and while it's filled with acknowledging climate change, it contains too few actions to stop climate catastrophe. For one, it does not call for a national ban on fracking, which is even more pressing since a federal judge struck down President Obama's proposed rules to regulate fracking on public and tribal lands.2
The Draft Platform also fails to reject free trade agreements like the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which would expedite the export of fracked gas to the eight largest importers in the world3 and thereby increase fracking here in the U.S. And worst of all, while the Draft Platform calls for an end to offshore drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic, it omits the Gulf of Mexico, totally ignoring the fact that the Gulf South remains one of the biggest sacrifice zones in our nation. To put it plain, DNC's Party Platform Does Not Cut it.
That's why I am in Orlando today speaking with Bill McKibben, Josh Fox and others to tell the Platform Committee we demand more. But we have to act fast if we're going to make an impact, and I mean like right now fast. Will you add your name so I can deliver it in person?
One of the more troubling aspects of the Draft Party Platform is treats climate change as an endpoint, instead of a system of oppression. At one point it states, "the impacts of climate change will disproportionately affect low-income and minority communities." But these communities are already being hit "first and worst" by climate disruption. Whether it's extreme drought, wildfires, extreme weather or tainted water systems, we're living through climate chaos right now. And we can't afford to wait 10-25 years for the big changes our economy and environment need. We certainly can't afford to go backwards by endorsing more fracking, more nuclear power, or a host of other dirty, dangerous and extreme energy sources falsely labeled "clean" transitions by this Draft Platform and its supporters.4
The time has long passed for incremental policies, half measures and "all of the above" strategies. We need both political parties to stop denying the science of climate change and to act in accordance: boldly, morally and with haste. Today we have the opportunity to send a message to a major political party that we won't support a party platform that talks big and does nothing for climate. Click here to make sure the DNC Platform Committee gets the message.
Thanks for Sounding Off,
Anthony for Environmental Action
1. Democratic National Committee. 2016 Draft Party Platform. July 1, 2016.
2. Hirji, Zahra. Judge's Ruling to Halt Fracking Regs Could Pose a Broader Threat to Federal Oversight. Inside Climate News. June 29, 2016.
3. Central Intelligence Agency: The World Factbook, Natural Gas Imports.
4. Browner, Carol, The Truth Behind the Democratic Platform Debate, Politico Magazing, June 29, 2016
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