Senator Bernie Sanders: Climate Change is the Existential Threat to Our Planet

by 10/30/2020

Washington, D.C. – Today, in a newly released video, Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) said that climate change is an existential threat to our country, endangering our health, security and access to clean water, air and public land. The video from Sanders is part of a series of Climate Power 2020 featuring elected leaders and experts from across the country focusing on the importance of climate action.

“As you and I know, climate change is the existential threat to our planet… If we don’t act boldly, then the world we are going to leave our children and our grandchildren will be increasingly unhealthy and uninhabitable,” said Sanders. “We have a moral responsibility to make sure that does not happen. This is the single greatest challenge facing our country and the entire world, but it is also our greatest opportunity.”

The threat of the climate crisis is here and the majority of voters want bold climate  action solutions from the government. Climate action is now broadly popular with candidates up-and-down the ballot, increasingly making the climate crisis a focus of their closing message to voters ahead of Election Day. Former Vice President Joe Biden, for example, called the climate crisis the No. 1 issue facing humanity.

Almost two-thirds of voters say comprehensive climate legislation should be a priority for the next Congress and the president in 2021, including about a third (34%) who say it should be a top priority, in a September Yale/Climate Nexus/George Mason poll. An October CNN poll found that 55% of voters said climate is very or extremely important, while another 21% say moderately important, in determining who they will vote for as president.

In the video, Sanders called climate action the country’s “greatest opportunity.”

“We can lead the world and build a hundred percent clean energy economy — and, as we do that, we can create millions of good paying jobs,” Sanders said. “What we need in this moment in history is to have the courage to take on the greed of the fossil fuel industry and move our economy to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.”

Transcript:

As you and I know, climate change is the existential threat to our planet. 

We turn on the TV and we see the West Coast of the United States burning because of the warming of the planet. We see hurricanes that have caused massive destruction in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin islands, and violent storms that have destroyed farms and homes in the Midwest. 

If we don’t act boldly, then the world we are going to leave our children and our grandchildren will be increasingly unhealthy and uninhabitable. 

We have a moral responsibility to make sure that does not happen. 

This is the single greatest challenge facing our country and the entire world, but it is also our greatest opportunity. 

There are people who say that taking on climate change is too expensive. Well, you tell me what the alternative is if we are looking at a planet that is being destroyed.

If we are looking at drought and the decline of food production. If we are looking at higher sea levels and more and more flooding. If we are looking at more extreme weather disturbances and the enormous destruction they cause. If we’re looking at more disease. If we’re looking at more mass migrations. And if we’re looking at more international conflict, as a result of those migrations. 

We can lead the world and build a hundred percent clean energy economy – and, as we do that, we can create millions of good paying jobs. 

What we need in this moment in history is to have the courage to take on the greed of the fossil fuel industry and move our economy to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. 

The fossil fuel industry must learn that their short-term profits are not more important than the future of this planet. 

So together, let us vote for our planet. Let us vote for our future. Let us vote for climate.

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