By Antonio AgcaoiliStaff Writer
We’ve said time and time again that the biggest threat to mankind is our nuclear weapons. Yes that is very true, but despite the recent back-and-forth between the two most dangerous daddy’s boys in world, President Trump and Kim Jong-un, there lies yet another dormant threat – climate change. Whatever you want to call it, we cannot deny it is real, it is dangerous and it is here.
I know many are sick of the liberal yammering of something that won’t affect them for years to come but we are seeing the change to our planet now. We can’t forget the onslaught of hurricanes that the southern U.S. and many island nations have been victims to within the last month. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Jose and Katia (to name a few) have decimated nearly everything in their paths – leaving billions of dollars in damages, immense casualties and years needed to rebuild for a chance to return to normalcy.
Sen. Bernie Sanders said, “… climate change was the greatest threat to the national security of the United States.” Sanders can be quoted in saying that “Climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism.” Terrorists like ISIS, al-Qaida and the Taliban are groups who long to harm and kill Americans.
Admittedly climate change isn’t the only cause for the growth of terrorism. It is one of many factors, but climate change’s influence on the matter is set only to expand with President Trump pulling us out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Sanders isn’t alone on this “outrageous” claim. CNN Counter Terrorism Analyst Philip Mudd said in May, there will be “… wars over water and famine … when weather patterns change. I think the connection is direct.” Mudd claims “people fight over scarce resources” and using cites experiencing drought in the Middle East/Central Asia and famine in Africa as examples to the future global conflicts that will occur should we allow climate change to worsen.
There are ways we can combat climate change. A way that the scientific community has come to a unanimous consensus is that we must wean off our over-reliance on fossil fuels. There are ways to combat fossil fuel industry that we’ve all learned in the past, but let’s really stick it to Scott Pruitt.
Congresswoman from Hawaii and progressive superstar Tulsi Gabbard introduced in early September H.R. 3671, the “Off Fossil Fuels for a Better Future Act.” This proposal will “justly transition away from fossil fuel sources of energy to 100 percent clean energy by 2035.” This bill currently has six cosponsors including Democratic National Committee Deputy Chair Keith Ellison.
Climate change and transition to clean energy should be unifying issues for Democrats as the party who believes in science. Everyone who possesses a moral reasonability to the planet that has literally given them everything has the unquestionable duty to get behind H.R. 3671.
Currently this campus resides in Hempstead, New York, under the representation of Congresswoman Kathleen Rice. I suggest we call Congresswoman Rice at (516) 739-3008 and kindly ask her to cosponsor H.R. 3671.
Superstorm Sandy ravaged this part of New York not too long ago, and I’m afraid my friends that not only could it happen again, but more frequently and far more lethal. But it’s not just here in New York, but in all parts of the coastal Atlantic from Miami, to the District of Columbia, to Boston. We cannot be complicit with the evidence anymore, climate change is real and the consequences it could bring us are equally real.
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