Dear Friend,

Please look around.

Two weeks ago, Hurricane Helene barreled into the Gulf Coast and Southeastern United States killing hundreds, displacing thousands and causing billions of dollars worth of property damage.

As you read this, Milton, a hurricane that went from a Category 1 to a Category 5 in less than a day, is set to make landfall near Tampa Bay. We hope they’re wrong but the National Weather Service says it could be the worst storm to impact the city in a century.

And if you think these "storms of the century" are happening almost annually now, you would not be mistaken.

But there is more.

This year was the hottest year on record with the planet's hottest month on record. You will recall that not long ago significant parts of the country were living through the longest heat waves they'd ever seen.

There were weeks where hundreds of millions of Americans experienced temperatures above 90 degrees and heat records were set in hundreds of cities.

And the science is as clear as it is foreboding: unless we get our act together, the future will look far worse than the present, as hard as that might be to imagine.

Unless we get our act together, our kids and grandchildren are going to continue to see rising global temperatures that will lead to shorter lifespans and worse mental health.

Unless we get our act together, we'll see increased instances of food and waterborne diseases; increased drought and exposure to wildfires that will mean more heart and lung diseases.

Unless we get our act together, more and more parts of the world will become unable to sustain human life, resulting in an increase in mass migration, social unrest, and war.

This is reality.

This is our future.

This is the planet we are leaving for our children and for our grandchildren.

Unless we get our act together.

And that has to start with defeating Donald Trump this November. It must.

Because if Donald Trump wins, the fight against climate change and our ability to protect the very health and habitability of our planet for future generations is over.

Done. Finished. And that is not an exaggeration.

Donald Trump believes climate change is a "hoax" perpetrated by the Chinese.

Donald Trump has told oil company executives that if they donate $1 billion to his re-election campaign, he will overturn much of the progress made on this issue by the Biden Administration — and that it would be a bargain for them if they did.

Yes, I have my differences with the Biden-Harris Administration on a good number of issues. I suspect you do, as well.

But let us not lose sight of the fact that we are staring at a very fundamental choice with respect to climate change, and nothing less than the future of our planet is at stake.

Let me repeat that: nothing less than the future of our planet is at stake.

So it starts with defeating Donald Trump.

From there, we must organize to get Congress to pass, and President Harris to sign, legislation that transforms our energy systems away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy. And we must demand that China, Europe, and every carbon emitting country on earth does the same.

We must fight to build the new electric cars and trucks we need and make it easier for working families to buy them.

To weatherize millions of homes and buildings, cut carbon emissions, and lower energy bills.

To move away from coal and gas electricity generation and convert to wind, solar, and hydro and invest in conservation and public lands to heal our soils, forests, and prairie lands.

To fund research and development to drastically reduce the cost of energy storage.

And yes — perhaps most challenging — we can develop an unprecedented sense of urgency about this global crisis. Because it is critical we bring the world together NOW to address this existential threat.

Failure to act will doom future generations to a very uncertain future.

For the sake of our common humanity we cannot allow that to happen.

Thank you for understanding the stakes in this fight.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

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