NO WINNERS ON A DEAD EARTH! Why We Need A Climate Leader In 2020

[appalachiablue]

“No Winners on a Dead Earth”: Why We Need a Climate Leader in 2020. The climate crisis is our common cause, and we’ll need to elect a president that is willing to take it on. By David Korten, Co- Founder of YES! Magazine, Oct.1, 2019.

We know that election year 2020 is important, but we have scarcely begun to grasp the epic depth of what we must set in motion by the end of next year if there is to be realistic hope for a human future.



Led by a brave and bold young woman, Greta Thunberg, massive youth protests are drawing global attention to the climate emergency and the report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change a year ago. That report warned that to keep the global temperature increase below 1.5 degrees Celsius, carbon dioxide emissions must be cut by 45 percent by 2030.

This doesn’t mean the world will end in 2030. It will, however, be the end of our opportunity to avoid the totally catastrophic outcomes of a greater temperature increase. Matt McGrath, environment correspondent for BBC News, points out that to achieve the necessary results in time, we must have the necessary requirements for dramatic action in place by the end of 2020.

It is a sobering wake-up call for a world pushed into ever-deepening political disarray by a rogue economic system that devastates Earth’s capacity to sustain life and drives the vast majority of the world’s people into deepening desperation. Consequently, the results of the 2020 U.S. election must go far beyond the urgent need to replace a dangerously unqualified president who appears intent on blocking any serious action on the climate emergency. It must usher in a set of political leaders at all levels of government committed to rapid action on a bold agenda framed by a transformational vision.

By 2024, it will be too late.

Yet we have scarcely even begun the necessary discussion, because modern political dialogue keeps the public conversation fragmented and superficial. As observed by all who have watched the U.S. presidential debates sponsored by corporate media, the candidates are pressed to endlessly repeat well-rehearsed sound bites to strings of disconnected questions. Do you support single-payer? Will you give citizenship to Dreamers? How will you deal with Iran? Will you require background checks to buy an AK-47?



..But our problems are not isolated and have no simple solutions. They are interrelated and have deep structural causes in the values and institutions that undergird our capitalist economy. These can be corrected only through the unified efforts of politicians and citizens working together toward a common goal. The unprecedented challenge will require a similarly unprecedented commitment from a great many people.

By any rational calculation, transformation on the scale required to secure the human future in the time remaining is impossible. Yet it is also imperative. So, we best assume it is possible and get on with doing everything we can do to achieve it...Read More,
https://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/climate-change-president-leader-2020-election-20191001

*Writer David Korten is co-founder of YES! Magazine, president of the Living Economies Forum, a member of the Club of Rome, and the author of influential books, including “When Corporations Rule the World” and “Change the Story, Change the Future: A Living Economy for a Living Earth.” His work builds on lessons from the 21 years he & his wife, Fran, lived and worked in Africa, Asia, & Latin America on a quest to end global poverty. Follow him on Twitter @dkorten and Facebook. -> MORE from YES! Magazine, https://www.yesmagazine.org/

[emmaverybo]

1. We need a world leader. Climate is but one existential threat. The other is a first nuclear war

which will trigger catastrophic climate change. We are closer than at any other time in history to
a nuclear disaster. Biden has a good climate change policy and he is the only candidate with
foreign policy credentials, respected and trusted on the world stage.

These two issues, the potential for nuclear war and climate change are related. Unfortunately, the
majority of democrats remain disinterested in foreign policy and relations.

[appalachiablue]

2. There are others who are also focused on the nuclear threat,

we need top leaders to handle all these issues and threats, a huge global order. Decades ago a large and effective federal Climate Change Agency should have been created. The threats and realities as a result of 30 years of delay are catastrophic.

[appalachiablue]

3. US needs a 'Climate Telethon' to raise money to plant trees, like Denmark:

#theforgottensolution We must plants trees & forests to absorb carbon, the natural solution. Alec Baldwin, Jane Goodall.

DANES RAISE MILLIONS OF EUROS TO PLANT TREES IN FIRST-EVER CLIMATE TELETHON, Sept. 15, 2019
https://www.dw.com/en/danes-raise-millions-of-euros-in-first-ever-climate-telethon/a-50436163