A Brief History of the Democrat's Climate Awakening

There are clear signs that climate change has emerged as a central issue for Democrats going into the 2020 presidential elections. This is the first election cycle in American history where climate change will be a front and center issue, at least for the Democrats. President Obama deserves credit for leading Democrats in the fight for climate action. While his legacy of climate action is laudable it is being systematically dismantled by the Trump administration. This is in part why the current slate of Democratic candidates are making the climate crisis a central plank of their presidential campaigns. The Dems' focus on climate action has been more than a decade in the making. Here is a brief review of the long and winding road that has led us to the present moment.

In 2008 the DNC adopted a progressive policy platform that included climate action. After a green stimulus package was passed in 2009, Democrats backpedaled. In 2010 there were 44 Democrats who opposed a climate change bill and their avoidance of climate change was clearly evident in the 2010 midterms. It should be noted that their populist platform did not win them votes as Democrats suffered major losses in the 2010 midterms.

This changed in 2012 with the adoption of a progressive party platform and the Climate Change Caucus led by former Democratic Senator for California Barbara Boxer (1993 to 2017). Shortly thereafter the Democrat's adopted an "all of the above" energy strategy that included fossil fuels. The DNC policy platform in 2012 was less environmentally focused then the one they adopted in 2008. They abandoned a few key policy positions including dropping their call for an end to fossil fuels and support for cap-and-trade. Although they continued to support an international deal to curtail GHG pollution, they no longer demanded that the agreement be binding.

While Republicans are maligned for being on the take from the fossil fuel industry, Democrats are not blameless. Nonetheless, Democrats showed renewed interest in global warming in 2014 with Democratic Senators launching a climate action task force.

In 2015 Democrats made a deal with the devil. In exchange for clean air, water, and energy Democrats supported increasing oil exports. In 2016 they added a climate amendment to their party platform. However, this was not reflected in the debates that year as climate change was a either a side issue or altogether absent.

In the 2016 presidential debates climate was largely ignored. At a January 27th Town Hall, with the exception of Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders, Democrats avoided the issue of climate change for the most part and the front-runner Hillary Clinton maintained her silence. This was true of the first, second, third and fourth Democratic debates as well as the CBS Democratic Debate in November.

Although the Democratic candidates each offered some form of climate and environmental position, with the two notable exceptions cited above, the rest (Lincoln Chaffee, Larry Lessig and Jim Webb) were not committed to serious climate action.

Democrats did very well in the 2018 midterms, with women leading the charge and speaking out about climate change.  Many of these candidates expressed their support for a Green New Deal. The blue wave welcomed the return of science to the House of Representatives, a chamber that had become a mouthpiece for fossil fuel powered climate denial. There were also a host of environmental victories in plebiscites across the country.

History will record that in 2019, climate change came of age in American political discourse. This was evident in the first and second Democratic Presidential debates as well as first and second CNN debates.

In 2016 O'Malley was the climate hawk pushing Democrats towards climate action. In 2019 Jay Inslee assumed the mantle of this responsibility. He may have dropped out of the race but as the most progressive voice on climate action he has helped to push the issue into the spotlight. Both Warren and Castro have reached out to Inslee and drawn on his climate platform.

The fact that all the Democratic front runners have released climate proposals in 2019 is indeed groundbreaking. On the evening of September 4th, 2019 the ten leading Democratic candidates also participated in a series of climate town halls. This is a far cry from previous elections and it lends credence to the belief that if elected, Democrats will revive climate action in the U.S.

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Ten Climate Proposals from the Leading Democratic Presidential Candidates

For the first time ever, all of the leading Democratic presidential candidates agree that climate change is a high priority issue that demands urgent action. They all released climate proposals ahead of the historic climate town halls on September 4th.

There is a great deal of agreement between the leading Democratic contenders. They all want to reverse Trump's actions and rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement. They all support zero-emissions, carbon-neutral electricity, the electrification of transportation and ending federal fossil fuel subsidies.

The candidates also share a common focus on socioeconomic disparities. They want to address inequality through climate action that assists vulnerable people in minority and other disadvantaged communities. They all offer varying degrees of support for the Green New Deal.

However, they differ on timelines and how they will pay for their plans. Some favor fining polluters, others prefer a carbon tax. Many want to end tax breaks to the fossil fuel industry and/or increase taxation on the wealthy.

Candidates are jockeying for the role of pack leading climate hawk. The position was vacated when former Washington governor Jay Inslee dropped out of the race last month. Both Warren and Castro have met with Inslee or his people, however, their climate proposals still fall short of Sanders's plan.

Bernie Sanders

• $16.3 trillion investment
• Carbon neutrality by 2030

Sanders makes it clear that he wants to lead the world to address the climate crisis. He wants to see 16.3 trillion in federal spending in a World War II style mobilization that would touch almost every sector of the economy. In addition to the size of the federal investment, Sander's proposal is unique in terms of time-frames. He wants the U.S. to be carbon neutral by 2030. He wants to transition away from fossil fuels and immediately ban energy extraction. Sander's plan includes 100 percent renewable energy which Sander's claims will produce 20 million jobs. He also wants to use the courts to level criminal charges against companies who conceal knowledge of harm caused by their products or services.

Elizabeth Warren

• $2 trillion investment
• Carbon neutrality by 2035

Warren has largely adopted Inslee's plan with some tweaks and additions. Warren has proposed a $2 trillion investment in green manufacturing, research and development. She wants to take the innovations produced through this investment and market them abroad. She recently added another $1 trillion to achieve zero-carbon emissions and the timelines breakdown as follows: New buildings by 2028, vehicles including trucks and buses by 2030 and electricity by 2035.

Kamala Harris

• $10 trillion investment (public and private)
• Carbon neutrality by 2045

Harris wants to invest $10 trillion in private and public money to make the U.S. economy carbon-neutral by 2045. Her plan dovetails with the Climate Equity Act put forward by her and Rep. Axexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Harris also wants to increase penalties for companies that violate federal pollution laws and she wants to restore the polluter pays model to fund the superfund program.

Cory Booker

• $10 trillion investment
• Carbon neutrality by 2045

Like Harris, Booker wants to invest $10 trillion to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. He wants to pay Americans a climate dividend with money raised through carbon fees levied against fossil fuel producers.

Julian Castro

• $10 trillion investment

Although the details are not clear, Castro also wants to see $10 trillion in spending. His plan emphasizes addressing economic inequality with civil rights legislation that will tackle environmental discrimination and environmental racism.

Beto O'Rourke

• $5 trillion investment 
• Carbon neutrality by 2050

O'Rourke wants to leverage a $5 trillion investment to get to zero emissions by 2050. He envisions a $1.5 trillion investment to reform energy and transportation infrastructure. O'Rourke is unique in wanting to work through Congress to set legally enforceable environmental standards including greenhouse gas emissions.

Joe Biden

• $1.7 trillion investment
• Carbon neutrality by 2050

Biden's plan adds to the work done by the Obama's administration while he was vice president. He would dedicate $1.7 trillion to eliminate GHG emissions by the middle of the century. He would end fossil fuels subsidies and ban new oil and gas permits on public lands. Biden embraces climate science and is calling for a timely clean energy revolution.

Pete Buttigieg

• $1.5 and 2 trillion investment (to leverage tens of trillions)

Buttigieg envisions spending between $1.5 and 2 trillion to leverage tens of trillions of dollars in private, state and local investment to combat climate change. He wants to invest another $25 billion in climate research and create a Climate Watch Floor in the Department of Defense. Buttigieg wants to make $1 trillion available to the economically disadvantaged.

Amy Klobuchar

• Carbon neutrality by 2050

Klobuchar wants to see zero-emissions by 2050. She also wants to bring back the Obama era clean power plan and gas mileage standards killed by Trump. She wants to work with Congress and take aggressive executive action.

Andrew Yang

Yang wants to massively invest in technology including decarbonization research. He sees sea level rise as inevitable and as a consequence he is focused on climate adaptation. He wants to move people away from low lying flood prone areas.

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Top 10 Democratic Presidential Contenders Participate in Climate Town Halls

On September 4th, Democratic presidential contenders made history with their participation in back-to-back climate focused town halls in New York City. For seven hours, one after another, the ten Democrats vying for the party's presidential nomination spoke on the subject of the climate crisis. All ten of these candidates have put forth climate plans and this represents a historic shift for the party and the country. They all agree about the veracity of anthropogenic climate change and the need for consorted action. This is in stark contrast to the current president and most GOP legislators, who equivocate about the veracity or deny it outright.

Andrew Yang indicated he wants to re-calibrate gross domestic product (GDP) by incorporating metrics that assess environmental variables. "Let's upgrade it with a new score card that includes our environmental sustainability and our goals," Yang said. He also said, "You should not be stressed out about the water that you are drinking, the water your kids are drinking, this is again the problem of having the almighty dollar running our society, where people look up and say replacing the pipes is too expensive, using another substance is expensive, are you kidding me, you know what is expensiveness poisoning our kids."

Elizabeth Warren pulled no punches when it came to the fossil fuel industry and other corporate interests, saying these interests want us to focus on smaller issues like light bulbs and plastic straws to distract us from focusing on the real issue which is their contributions to the climate crisis. Warren explained, "You don't get to ruin the air for everyone else, the water for everyone else, the soil for everyone else, we don't, just to help giant corporations. They don't get to make our kids sick they don't get to shorten lifespans because it increases their profitability."

Kamala Harris said that if she were elected president she would direct the Department of Justice to go after oil and gas companies. They are causing harm and death in communities. And there has been no accountability." She also called out GOP legislators, "Every one of those [Republican members of Congress] need to look at the babies and grand-babies in their life and then look in the mirror and ask themselves why have they failed to act because on the issue of this climate crisis, I am going to tell you, I strongly believe this is a fight against powerful interests, and leaders need to lead, so lead, follow or get out the way, and get out the way starting with Donald Trump"

Bernie Sanders said, "we are the most powerful country on Earth we should be leading an energy transition and you have a president who thinks its not real that is idiotic".

Pete Buttigieg said, "Congress right now is like a room full of doctors arguing about what to do over a cancer patient and half of them are arguing whether medication or surgery is the best approach and the other half are saying cancer doesn't exist. Think of what a disservice, this is a life or death issue." He did not make light of the scale of the problem we face. Buttigieg said combating the climate crisis will be "more challenging than" winning WW II and the "hardest thing we will have done in my lifetime as a country."

Amy Klobuchar criticized the Trump administration's decision to kill methane regulations calling it "very dangerous". She also said, "We need environmental justice in this country."

Julián Castro also referred to the need to assist the economically disadvantaged especially people of color who bear the brunt of climate impacts. He argued for "new civil rights legislation" to address environmental racism in minority communities. Castro also said, "As we experience more storms with more intensity we will take the right steps to prevent climate change so that wont happen, but then when it does, if it does, to address it no matter who you are and make it affordable in part through that national flood insurance program"

Beto O'Rourke sounded fatalistic as his thoughts focused on climate adaptation, "In the year 2100...this planet will have warned 4.5 - 5 Celsius, as scientists say at that point we are screwed." He said he would spend federal dollars to help people move from flood prone areas.

Cory Booker said that while he will not try to change what people eat he will employ nuclear power in the fight against climate change. According to Booker people who reject nuclear, "just aren't looking at the facts". He also said "If you elect me your president I am going to ask more from you than any other president in your lifetime because I grew up from parents who taught me if there is not struggle there is no progress. We can ignite that moral imagination of this country and we can deal with this problem as big as it may seem it is not bigger than who we are as a people together."

Joe Biden's can-do message optimistically declared, "This is the United States of America there is not a damn thing we've not been able to accomplish once we set our mind to it"

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Governments are Acting to Curb the Fires in the Amazon

Governments are responding to the planetary threat posed by the fires in the Amazon. There has been a 79 percent increase in fires in 2019 compared to the same period last year. These fires are a threat to air, water, and wildlife. The Amazon generates one fifth of the world's oxygen and it is the single largest reservoir of fresh water and biodiversity on Earth. The Amazon also regulates climate including heat and precipitation. The ongoing degradation of this region could trigger tipping points from which we will not be able to recover.

Protest

Brazilian protestors are pleading for the world's help to combat the record setting fires in the Amazon. Brazil is home to 60 percent of the the Amazon (the other 40 percent is in Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana).

At the end of August more than 30 protests were held across Brazil demanding action to combat the fires. People held signs that read, "SOS Amazon. Everybody for the Amazon." and "The Amazon belongs to the people". They chanted "Hello, planet! Wake up! Without the Amazon, you can't breathe!"

They are also calling out their federal government with much of their anger being directed at Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Protestors in Rio chanted, "The Amazon stays, out with Bolsonaro". The far right Brazilian leader has been criticized  for the significant uptick in Amazonian deforestation.

Blame Bolsonaro

Opposition politicians, student activists, and Indigenous organizations have called for a congressional investigation into the cause of the fires. Bolsonaro has claimed the fires were set by environmentalists, however, the far more likely cause is slash and burn agriculture to make room for crops like soybeans and cattle ranching. Bolosnaro has emboldened those who are seeking to develop the Amazon.

Bolsonaro's contempt for environmental concerns in the Amazon is abundantly obvious. He has made good on his promise to clear the way for more development. This includes changing environmental rules, defunding government oversight, failing to enforce existing laws and dissolving the Amazon fund's committees. Perhaps the best example of Bolsonaro's disdain for ecological interests involves his appointees.

The populist leader has surrounded himself with climate deniers and conspiracy theorists. His environment minister was convicted of illegally approving a mining project in a conservation area and his foreign minister has described climate change as a "Marxist plot".

Bolsanoro's corruption and deceit have earned him the nickname of "Trump of the Tropics". Trump has tweeted praise for Bolsonaro, saying he is doing a "great job" and "He and his country have the full and complete support of the USA!" Bolsonaro said the tweet pleased him "a lot" and he expressed his "profound appreciation".

G-7 Pledges Assistance

While Trump avoided the climate summit at the recent G-7 meeting in France, other world leaders including the leader of the host nation, prioritized efforts to combat fires in the Amazon. The G-7 announced that they will assist countries in the region with their efforts to fight fire. They indicated their plans to discuss the future of the Amazon including reforestation at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

Led by French President Emmanuel Macron, world leaders at the G-7 summit came to an agreement on both technical assistance and financial aid. Macron announced that the G7 had agreed to an immediate fund of at least $20m (£16m) to help Amazon countries fight wildfires and launch a long-term global initiative to protect the rainforest. Macron made the announcement alongside Chile's President Sebastián Piñera. The proposed two-step process will involve collaborating with Amazonian countries to fight fires, protect biodiversity and reforestation. Similar support has also been proposed for African countries which have also been ravaged by wildfires.

Bolsonaro initially rejected the help that was offered by the G-7, but then he recanted due to public pressure. In a tweet, he said his country is being treated as though it "were a colony or no man's land." The Brazilian government said it will accept the financial assistance with the caveat that they administrate the disbursement.

European Aid and Trade

Brazil's new government may be responsible for the fires and deforestation in the Amazon but they will not be easily deterred. Changing the disastrous course of the Bolsonaro government will be difficult. So in addition to carrots, European leaders are also wielding sticks.

Germany and Norway have withdrawn their support for the Amazon fund (Norway has contributed $1.2 billion to the fund and Germany has donated 68 million). European leaders have also indicated that trade deals with Brazil are contingent on protecting the Amazon.

While protecting the Amazon may seem impossible, we have done it before. In 2004, a consorted global efforts succeeded in slowing deforestation in the region. However, to succeed today we will need a far more ambitious global effort.

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The Earth's Lungs are Burning and Bolsanaro is to Blame

Wildfires have raged all around the world in 2019 but nowhere is the situation more serious than in the record breaking Amazon fires. There have been almost 80,000 fires in the Amazon this year, more than 30,000 in recent weeks and almost 10,000 since the middle of August. Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, or INPET reports that there have been 74,155 fires in the Amazon in 2019. The massive plumes of smoke from these fires stretch for 1.2 million square miles, cutting across the entire continent of South America and extending out into the South Atlantic Ocean. The Amazon is composed of 2.12 square miles of rainforest that spans Columbia and Peru as well as other countries. However, the majority of the Amazon is located in Brazil.

Bolsanaro is responsible

The far right Brazilian president Jair Bolsanaro is proving to be the leading cause of Amazonian rainforest destruction. In the eight months since Bolsanaro has been in power more than 1,330 square miles of forest have been lost. July saw the single biggest increase in deforestation ever in the Amazon.

"This devastation is directly related to President Bolsonaro’s anti-environmental rhetoric, which erroneously frames forest protections and human rights as impediments to Brazil’s economic growth," Christian Poirier, the program director of Amazon Watch, an environmental non-profit organization, said in a statement. "Farmers and ranchers understand the president’s message as a licence to commit arson with wanton impunity, in order to aggressively expand their operations into the rainforest."

Bosanaro's environmental ministry announced that foreign aid earmarked to fight deforestation would be funneled to cattle and soybean farmers. Like Trump Bolsanaro also makes profoundly ignorant statements like "poop every other day" to address deforestation.

Like Trump Bolsanaro is also at war with those who espouse reason and facts. In his bid to curtail the public's access to information, Bolsanaro fired the head of the INPE, Ricardo Magnus Osório Galvão.To add to the insanity that has earned Bolsanaro the nickname of Trump of the Tropics, the Brazilian president has made the absurd allegation that environmentalists set these fires. The truth is many of these fires are set by farmers who have been emboldened by Bolsanaro. Both Trump and the Brazilian president have earned reputations for their wanton environmental destruction.

Global catastrophe

Wildfires have raged on every continent on Earth in 2019 but there is something terrifyingly unique about the fires in the Amazon.  These fires are darkening the skies and choking Brazilian cities, but the impacts of these fires extend well beyond Brazil's borders. The fires in the Amazon are a threat to local communities, particularly the almost one million Indigenous people who inhabit the rainforests, but these fires are also a threat to life on Earth.

The Amazon is the planet's first line of defense against climate change and it is being razed to make room for carbon intensive farming. The Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world. Amazonian deforestation is responsible for 8 percent of net global emissions.

The Amazon rainforest is one of the Earth's biggest suppliers of oxygen deforestation would reduce the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere by 20 percent. The Amazon contains 25 percent of the carbon dioxide currently sequestered by the world's forests. It is also one of the richest areas of biodiversity on Earth.

For these reasons the Amazon fires have been referred to in ominous headlines. NBC news proclaimed, "Amazon wildfires could be 'game over' for climate change fight". The Economist called it a "forest apocalypse", Futurism referred to "Hell World" and Business Insider cited a "doomsday scenerio". The Washington Post reports the Amazonian rainforests are "under threat as never before".

Devastating feedback loops

There are a number of feedback loops that can trigger tipping points from which we may not be able to recover. One such feedback loop is the one between wildfires and climate change.  

In a climate change induced feedback loop record breaking heat record breaking wildfires go together. Fires are caused by warming temperatures which are caused by increasing atmospheric greenhouse gas levels. These fires in turn emit C02 which further exacerbates climate change.

According to a study published in Nature, warming temperatures could prevent trees from emitting oxygen and they could start emitting carbon instead.

The already devastating effects could get far worse. Approximately 20 percent or 300,000 square miles of Amazon rainforest in Brazil has been cut down. If we lose another 20 percent this could trigger an unstoppable feedback loop called "dieback" which could decimate the rainforest and turn the entire area into a savanna. This would exacerbate climate change by releasing 140 billion tons of stored carbon into the atmosphere. It would also mean an end to the world's most important carbon sink.

As reported in The Intercept, "losing another fifth of Brazil’s rainforest will trigger the feedback loop known as dieback, in which the forest begins to dry out and burn in a cascading system collapse… This would release a doomsday bomb of stored carbon, disappear the cloud vapor that consumes the sun’s radiation before it can be absorbed as heat, and shrivel the rivers in the basin and in the sky."

In a post for The Conversation, researchers said this process could also increase the number of fires. "Losing 20% of Brazil's rainforest could result in such a feedback loop, which would dry trees, leaving them unable to absorb as much carbon and much more flammable and likely to spread fires."

Brazilian environmental scientist Carlos Nobre is quoted by the Washington Post as saying: "The more the forest becomes degraded, the more the forest will become vulnerable to forest fires."

Poirier, summarized the situation when he said:  "The unprecedented fires ravaging the Amazon are an international tragedy and a dangerous contribution to climate chaos."

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