Our members and supporters in every state in the country know that it is essential that we start mobilizing now to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president, because there is so much at stake in 2016. And so today the Sierra Club’s volunteer Board of Directors completed its final step in the Club’s grassroots endorsement process, voting to endorse Secretary Hillary Clinton for president of the United States. Now, it’s important to talk about why the choice in this general election is so important, what the Sierra Club is doing about it, and how you can help.
The contrast between the two candidates this election could not be more clear. On the one hand, you have Donald Trump, a climate-science denier who has pledged to destroy the EPA and the Paris Agreement in between his misogynistic, sexist, and racist rants. On the other, you have Hillary Clinton, a leader who has listened to grassroots climate activists and crafted a detailed plan to tackle the climate crisis, advance climate justice, protect our precious public lands, and grow our clean energy economy.
This election season, our campaign for climate action will be fueled by the Sierra Club's millions of members and supporters across the country, who will recruit new climate voters and help inform their neighbors about exactly what's at stake for their communities, for America, and for the world. Here’s why...
Here's what's at stake for your community:
Hillary Clinton is pushing for much-needed reform of the antiquated, Nixon-era rules governing coal mining on public lands, and she wants to end the debate once and for all surrounding offshore drilling in the Arctic and the Atlantic. She believes that everyone should have the same opportunities to enjoy and explore our parks, and she wants to double the American outdoor economy that creates jobs and generates billions of dollars. She is also committed to protecting our forests and expanding the resources available to fight devastating wildfires.
At the same time, Hillary Clinton has also brought environmental justice into the debate, vowed to set aside much-needed funds to upgrade our water infrastructure, and pledged to prevent and address environmental justice crises, such as the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Low-income communities and communities of color in our nation are often the most vulnerable to pollution, whether it's in undrinkable water, unhealthy air, or unsafe neighborhoods. Every family, regardless of income or skin color, should be able to expect that the air they breathe is clean, that the water they drink is safe, and that their government will treat them with fairness and equality -- and Hillary Clinton has pledged to tackle this environmental justice head on.
Donald Trump wants to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency, which keeps our air safe to breathe and our water safe to drink — and which puts forth important safeguards for the health of our communities. That would roll back decades of progress that we’ve fought for tooth-and-nail and let big polluters declare open season on our clean air and water. Trump’s pledge to destroy the EPA would turn back the clock to the bad old days of filthy air, burning rivers, and unsafe communities — and it would only make a bad situation worse for low-income communities and communities of color that have been disproportionately bearing the destructive effects of fossil fuel pollution.
And his business ventures are already devastating communities, as he consistently prioritizes his bottom line over the health and safety of Americans. Trump cut down about 500 trees so that his Virginia golf course could have more than a “little glimpse” of the river, and his New Jersey golf course has been cited for a “string of violations.”
...for America:
Hillary Clinton recognizes the need to start keeping dirty, dangerous fossil fuels in the ground, stands with us in our fight to move to 100 percent clean energy, and wants to generate enough solar energy to power every American home. The wind and solar sectors are among the fastest-growing sectors worldwide. Clean energy is now cheaper than fossil fuels in many places across the country and is creating more jobs than any other sector of the economy. We need a leader who will continue that momentum—and Hillary Clinton is just that leader. She’s got a plan to install half a billion solar panels, all while slashing oil consumption and ending tax giveaways for big oil companies. At the same time, she wants to overhaul the broken program that lets fossil fuel companies rip off taxpayers while ripping dirty coal, gas, and oil out of our public lands; she will change the status quo and demand that these programs take the climate crisis into account. These are huge steps forward to move us toward the 100 percent clean energy economy that Secretary Clinton knows we need to tackle the climate crisis.
As Michael Brune said when Donald Trump delivered his so-called “energy policy” speech to a room full of oil executives, there are pools of oil and gas wastewater in North Dakota that are deeper than Trump’s understanding of energy policy. Trump is pledging to do the impossible by contradicting the markets, the international community, and reality when he says he can bring coal back from its decades-long decline. He’s also said that the biggest oil and gas companies deserve more tax breaks (you read that right) all while copying-and-pasting an energy policy that calls for more drilling, more fracking, and more mining in every corner of the country—including on our precious public lands. It’s no wonder then that some of Trump’s most vocal and consistent supporters are oil, gas, and coal executives.
...and for the planet:
Hillary Clinton has a bold, clear plan to tackle the climate crisis. She’s pledging to implement the historic Paris Agreement and move forward quickly to take the steps at home we need to ensure we meet our commitments—and she’s worked with the international community as the U.S. has helped lead the way to international climate action.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump believes that climate change is a "hoax" invented by China. You can’t make this stuff up. As a result, he has vowed to cancel the historic Paris climate accord, an act that would undermine U.S. leadership around the world and threaten our ability to effectively work with the international community not just on climate policy but also on human rights issues and national security crises. In fact, if elected, Trump would be the only head of state worldwide to deny climate science.
That’s just a short list of the contrasts between the two candidates in this election. So, what are we going to do about it?
The Sierra Club and our 2.4 million members and supporters are going to mobilize and organize Americans across the country who care about the climate and the future of our planet to vote on the environment. In the battleground states and beyond, we pledge to knock on over a million doors, make more than 800,000 phone calls, and turn out out tens of thousands of our members and supporters to volunteer in support of climate champions from the very top of the ticket to congressional races across the country.
But we will not do this alone. As the saying goes, “it takes a village to raise a child,” and it takes a movement to change the country. And the Sierra Club will help lead that movement with our partners in labor who understand clean energy jobs are good wage-paying jobs; our partners in the social justice movement who understand that climate justice goes hand-in-hand with racial and economic justice; our partners in good government and clean elections movements who understand that the dirty money of the fossil fuel industry has not only polluted our land and water but also our elections; and of course our partners in the environmental community who are joining us in the push to continue the transition to a 100 percent clean energy economy. But, most important, we need one other person: you. Without your help, we can’t stand up for climate action and stand up to the first-ever climate denier nominated by a major political party.
Now is the time to start telling your friends and neighbors about what’s at stake in 2016.
Paid for by Sierra Club Political Committee, www.sierraclub.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. |