{"id":2926,"date":"2023-09-11T09:10:48","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T13:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=2926"},"modified":"2023-09-11T09:10:48","modified_gmt":"2023-09-11T13:10:48","slug":"taking-action-to-avoid-climate-catastrophe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/taking-action-to-avoid-climate-catastrophe\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Action to Avoid Climate Catastrophe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When it comes to climate, this year has been horrendous.\u00a0 Wildfires across Canada<\/a> were so bad that the air in New York City turned orange<\/a>; there was massive flooding in New York<\/a>, Europe<\/a>, Brazil<\/a>, and China<\/a> (among others); \u201cheat domes\u201d made life miserable in the United States<\/a> and nearly impossible in the Middle East<\/a>; and there were the rising sea levels<\/a> and melting polar caps<\/a>.\u00a0 All in all, it\u2019s hard not to be depressed about the fate of the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our political debates are almost as bad as the deteriorating climate.  The oil, coal and gas industries are pulling back their \u201cgreen\u201d investments<\/a> and battling legislation<\/a> to protect the planet from a worsening environment.  They have been so successful that leading candidates<\/a> for President are saying that an appropriate response to greenhouse gas warming is to push the pedal to the metal and rely more heavily on fossil fuels, despite the overwhelming science that says to do the opposite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That fossil fuel industry\u2019s public relations jiu-jitsu brings to mind Chico Marx<\/a> in the movie \u201cDuck Soup\u201d when he gets caught red handed and says \u201cWho are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last year alone our eyes have seen it all \u2013 floods, wildfires, deadly heat and pollution.  Obviously, something must be done, not anti-science flim flam, but tangible steps to avoid climate catastrophe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luckily, the scientific consensus that the planet is heating up largely due to the burning of fossil fuels points to an obvious response \u2013 wean the world off those fuels and shift to a green economy.  But those options have been well known for years, with little policy actions.  The power of Big Oil and their political henchmen have been successful in blocking needed changes, all the while making enormous profits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what can you do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s pretty clear that despite the overwhelming scientific conclusion<\/a> that the burning of fossil fuels is a key driver in the planet heating up and that we are seeing the impacts with our own eyes, the problem of climate catastrophe is a political one \u2013 and one that needs a political response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time to take it to the streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Sunday is an opportunity for individuals to stand up to the oil lobby and push the political establishment toward meaningful action.  On September 20th<\/sup>, the United Nations Secretary-General is convening<\/a> a Climate Ambition Summit at United Nations Headquarters in New York.  The UN Secretary-General called<\/a> for a global climate action summit in New York City and the \u201cticket to entry\u201d for countries will be tangible action to keep fossil fuels in the ground \u2013 in the form of policies, and not just empty declarations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Summit presents a critical milestone for demonstrating politically that there is collective global will to accelerate the pace and scale of a just transition to a more equitable renewable-energy based, climate-resilient global economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To show the world\u2019s leaders that there is widespread, potent public support for climate action, concerned individuals are organizing a \u201cMarch to End Fossil Fuels<\/a>\u201d that will take place on Sunday, September 17th<\/sup> in New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The march will start on Broadway, between 54th<\/sup> and 57th<\/sup> Streets in Manhattan and proceed on 52nd<\/sup> Street and end with a rally at 1st<\/sup> Ave and 50th<\/sup> St.  For those of you who are familiar with New York City, that route is flat and about 1.5 miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are coordinated transportation options<\/a> for those who want to attend, including for travel from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, and upstate New York. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, participation in one rally doesn\u2019t win the day.  It will take consistent, fierce advocacy to shift the political dynamic toward protecting the planet.  But this Sunday is one way to show your determination, either by showing up for the march, or by calling your Congressional representatives to tell them that you support climate action, not inaction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to climate, this year has been horrendous.\u00a0 Wildfires across Canada were so bad that the air in New York City turned orange; there was massive flooding in New York, Europe, Brazil, and China (among others); \u201cheat domes\u201d made life miserable in the United States and nearly impossible in the Middle East; and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2927,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2926\/revisions\/2927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}