Every Day is Climate Day
What a week-and-a-half it has been, right? I doubt there has been another moment in time when the environmental movement has been handed so many wins from the White House in so short a period.
Starting with scrapping permits for the Keystone XL pipeline and rejoining the Paris Accord on Day One of his presidency, to the flurry of executive orders signed this past Wednesday — now forever known as “Climate Day” — tackling the climate crisis at home and abroad and restoring scientific integrity in policymaking, President Biden has been on a roll!
And there’s more to come from the Biden plan for a clean energy revolution and environmental justice. What a refreshing change from the previous anti-science, anti-environment, anti-racial justice administration whose only focus was propping up corporations above all.
Those corporations and their allies, of course, aren’t too happy. They are already trotting out their usual strawman arguments about jobs and economy. American Petroleum Institute CEO Mike Sommers, for instance, is lamenting that Biden’s ban on natural gas and oil development on federal lands will impact “US security, environmental progress and economic recovery.” (“Environmental progress,” that’s rich!) Meanwhile, the corporate world’s mainstream media apologists, including The New York Times editorial board, are tut-tutting at Biden, asking him to slow down on the executive orders already.
But as we know, this isn’t time to slow down on climate action. If anything, President Biden needs to ramp up efforts even further. So while we should take a moment to celebrate these wins, let’s make sure not to let off on the pressure.
Maureen Nandini Mitra
Editor, Earth Island Journal
Photo by: Bob Wick / BLM
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