Go Green with Kelly & Colleen

Simple Tips for Family and Environmental Health


Vote Green 2020: A Two Part Series

 The 2020 presidential election is fewer than 100 days from now, and this year there are a diverse range of issues facing the candidates. While the coronavirus outbreak, economic recovery, and recent civil rights protests have taken center stage, climate change continues to be a historic crisis with tangible impacts, such as the recent heat waves.  According to the Yale Program on Climate Change Communications, almost 70% of voting-age Americans report they are concerned about climate change. While it is not our intent to instruct you to vote Blue or Red come November, we hope that you will keep in mind everything you have learned here and Vote Green! to decelerate climate change and preserve not just this great country, but the planet, for future generations.  Science tells us that there is no time to delay on climate change.

Action Items:

 Ensure you are registered to vote in the upcoming election. Remind your friends and family to register, too.

  1. Familiarize yourself with each candidate’s platform regarding climate change and the environment.
  2. Explore resources on Harvard Law School’s Environmental & Energy Law Program EPA Mission Tracker or Columbia University’s Climate Deregulation Tracker and Silencing Science sites.

Why You Should Care:

 The current presidential administration has stated its intention to dismantle previous efforts to protect the environment and aims to mitigate or adapt to climate change. The rollbacks on over 70 environmental laws, including the long-standing Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, prioritizes corporate profits over aligning with industry requests, severely compromising public health and the integrity of our ecosystems.

The consequences of Climate Change continue to ricochet across the country in the form of deadly storms, floods, droughts, and wildfires. Moreover, the current COVID-19 pandemic has amplified how corporate legacy pollution, the proliferation of environmental contaminants, and the failures of standard energy and environmental practices have had a direct and devastating impact on health, particularly in communities of color and low income communities.

Current Administration:

 In 2017, the president announced he would use federal funds to withdraw the United States from the historic Paris agreement. The administration consistently undermines science and allows deregulation to gravely impact the environment by appointing fossil fuel and chemical company preferences into cabinet and administrative positions. Lobbying on behalf of carbon-emitting industries also dramatically affects the political discourse around climate change. From 2000-2016 industry lobbyists spent over $1.35 billion lobbying members of Congress on various climate change proposals and legislation spending- ten times the amount of renewable energy companies and environmental groups. In nominating industry insiders into these high ranking positions, the president underscores his disregard for the environment and the long-term health and wellbeing of Americans and prevents meaningful climate or environmental protections from going into policy, or remaining in federal laws. Moreover, the president is reluctant to redress corporate legacy pollution, which disproportionately impacts communities of color and low-income communities. Under his administration, the Environmental Protection Agency has referred the fewest number of criminal anti-pollution cases to the Department of Justice in thirty years.

A clear example of the president’s industry-led policy objectives is the recalculation of air pollution metrics that will allow the EPA to discount thousands of pollution-related deaths. For example, rolling back climate change rules from the Clean Power Plan and defining new analytical models enable the administration to reduce the number of premature deaths counted as being caused by air pollution. This new metric misconstrues the facts and allows the administration to argue (wrongly, and against scientific consensus) that measures to restrict coal-burning do not correlate with added health benefits. This new regulatory algorithm has dangerous outcomes for public health, considering experts agree there are no safe levels for the fine particle pollution resulting from burning fossil fuel. Scientific studies proved these particles penetrate the lungs and bloodstream and are linked to premature deaths caused by heart and respiratory disease and strokes.

Acceptance and recognition of the current environmental crisis are growing, but meaningful behavioral changes or solutions to these issues remain absent. Even with evidence linking greenhouse gas emissions to climate change and disasters, in 2018, emissions rose in the United States by 2.5% after a decade of decline. Yet, the industry-constructed debates over climate change are no longer viable, as a diverse collection of individuals continue to live with the consequences of natural disasters. Currently, there is a growing shift in perceptions about climate change across demographics, and the proportion of Americans who self-identify as “very worried” about climate change has more than tripled since 2011. Globally and within the United States, significant policy responses or impactful personal behavioral changes remain elusive despite the growing acceptance of the climate crisis. These imprudent actions by the administration will have ominous consequences for the natural environment and on the wellbeing of current and future generations.

The Alternative Plan:

 The president’s opponent for office, former Vice President Joe Biden, ambitiously projects that under his clean energy plan, America can achieve a 100% clean energy economy and net zero emissions by the year 2050. He aims to invest in national infrastructure and clean energy advancements that will create millions of well-paying middle class jobs. He also pledges to hold corporate polluters accountable for legacy pollution that has devastated low-income communities. Biden vows to make environmental decisions based on science and data, and will tackle issues like water pollution in a science-based manner.

To achieve the goals set out by his campaign, Biden has released a comprehensive seven-part plan to build a modern, sustainable infrastructure and an equitable clean energy future. The first part of the plan focuses on investing in millions of jobs to repair and build a modern infrastructure that supports zero-emission public transportation, such as light rail, buses, and cars powered by electricity and clean fuel. He also wants to invest in repairing water pipelines and sewer systems to eradicate contaminants and ensure clean drinking water in all communities. The second part of the plan focuses on incentivizing U.S. auto-manufacturers to build electric vehicles and lead the industry in zero-emission vehicle manufacturing. This part of the plan also aims to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations across the country and establish ambitious new fuel economy standards for all vehicles. The third part of the Biden plan focuses on the power sector and moving ambitiously to generate clean, American-made electricity to achieve a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035. This transformation, according to the Biden campaign, represents the greatest job creation opportunity of the 21st century and will lead to a “clean energy revolution” in America. Biden wants to install millions of solar panels and thousands of wind turbines and continue to leverage carbon pollution-free energy provided by nuclear and hydropower. The fourth part of the plan focuses on investing in energy efficient buildings, including retrofitting four million office and municipal buildings with LED lighting, electric appliances, and advanced heating and cooling systems, as well as building 1.5 million energy efficient affordable houses and housing units. This building program, according to the Biden campaign, will accelerate progress to the target of cutting the carbon footprint of the national building stock in half by 2035. The program would also focus on updating America’s public school buildings, by improving indoor air quality and ventilation and ensuring access to clean water. As we have cited many times in this column, children are especially vulnerable to environmental contaminants, such as lead, mold, and toxic chemicals. The fifth part of the Biden plan focuses on clean energy innovation, including creating a new Advanced Research Projects Agency on Climate, targeting affordable technology to help America achieve a 100% clean energy target, and forming a Civilian Climate Corps to preserve public lands, thin and sustainably manage forests to make them more resilient to wildfires, and restore wetlands to protect clean water supplies. The sixth part of the plan focuses on sustainable agriculture and helping farmers leverage new technology, techniques, and equipment to increase productivity and profit. Biden wants to provide low-cost financing for farmers to transition to new equipment and methods, and reward farmers who sequester their carbon dioxide emissions.

Lastly, the seventh part of Biden’s plan would secure environmental justice and equitable economic opportunity. He would establish an “Environmental and Climate Justice” Division within the U.S. Department of Justice to pursue cases to the fullest extent of the law, while also seeking additional legislation to hold corporate executives accountable for legacy contamination. He also aims to develop a data-driven Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool to identify communities threatened by the cumulative impact of Climate Change, and direct the EPA to create a community notification program requiring industries that produce hazardous toxic chemicals to provide real-time information to the community of any known toxic releases. Biden also wants to tackle water pollution in a science-based manner. Reportedly, up to 110 million Americans are drinking water contaminated by PFAS, a suite of chemicals that cause myriad health issues. Biden aims to designate PFAS a hazardous substance subject to enforceable limits in the Safe Water Drinking Act. Biden’s campaign promises to ensure that every American has clean drinking water, air, and a pollutant-free environment.

Conclusion:

Climate change is no longer up for debate. It is a reality that the next president will be called on to meet head-on. The current president has famously and repeatedly dismissed the current climate crisis as “a hoax.” On the other hand, Biden’s plan, while comprehensive, may seem to some voters like costly, pie-in the sky reform. Neither party has the full book of answers when it comes to combating the devastating effects of climate change, particularly in vulnerable communities. We encourage you to thoroughly investigate the platforms of both candidates and resolve yourself to Vote Green! in the upcoming presidential election.

Please reach out to us with your thoughts and comments.  We welcome your questions or ideas for future topics. Please email us at GoGreenwithKellyandColleen@gmail.com.  We look forward to greening Garden City- and the nation- together!

One response to “Go Green with Kelly & Colleen”

  1. Patrick McDonald says:

    We can all be greener if there is a direct environmental tax on a home’s square foot print. No one needs a home over 800 square foot. Large homes are environmental crimes, adding to climate change. Less lighting, less cooling, and less heating. This is true sacrifice and will contribute to environmental justice. (We will address 2nd vacations homes in another letter.)

    A $4.00 per square foot tax over 800 square feet would be fair and equitable for the residents of Garden City, as research has shown Garden City residents have more material items than a reasonable person needs. This could be marketed as the Fair Tax. Naturally the larger green space left on a smaller home’s property would allow for more clothing drying lines. There would be rebates on the Fair Tax for the use of outside wash lines to dry clothing instead of polluting natural gas machinery to dry clothing.

    Environmental justice should start at the homes of people who over consume. We can show an example to the very bad polluting industries that employee us, that have committed the crime of enabling us to buy too many material things.

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