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Friend,
Since I announced my candidacy, I've said it again and again: climate change is the biggest threat we face as a country and as part of one interconnected world. We cannot defuse this ticking time bomb alone. That's why we need someone with a depth and breadth of global leadership experience in the White House - to convene the world to tackle climate change together.
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As I wrote in my Washington Examiner op-ed: " This global challenge must be tackled by the entire world. We face a harsh reality that there is nothing we can do just by ourselves — absolutely nothing — to protect America from the most destructive threat to mankind. If America were to reach net-zero greenhouse emissions (as the Green New Deal rightly calls for), it would achieve only 15% of the required reduction to disarm this catastrophic threat before it explodes on all of us. That's because 85% of emissions come from the rest of the world. Consider Saudi Arabia, which will use as much energy in 2030 to run air conditioners as it exports in oil today."
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My op-ed continues, " We cannot beat climate change without all of the world coming together, led by us, to save the planet. We must not just rejoin, but actually lead the Paris process to collectively increase and enforce national commitments. "
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"We must first and foremost convene the world to ensure that all 196 signatories of the Paris Climate Agreement fulfill their obligations. We can only do that through smart diplomacy and re-engaging with our allies. That’s why we need a president who actually understands the world and the value of our friendships and alliances. For the good of our own nation as well as that of the entire globe, we must come together now. "
If you believe we need a President who can convene the world to tackle climate change, contribute today. And read my whole piece below.
Warmest regards, Joe
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My Washington Examiner op-ed in full, here [[link removed]] and below:
Fighting climate change is vital to our national security, but we need to convene the world to do it
by Joe Sestak
In 2001, as the commander of an aircraft carrier battle group arriving in the Arabian Sea to begin strikes against Afghanistan, I witnessed a beautiful sight along with my 10,000 sailors, SEALS, and Marines. Waiting there to become part of our fleet was an international armada. The Japanese, who had not sent ships out of the Sea of Japan since the World War II, were there. Alongside them were Germany and Italy, our other former foes.
Ships had come from around the globe — from Canada, Poland, Australia, and more. We had the world with us, and in that distant sea was the realization that America’s greatest power is not our military, but our power to convene, to bring the peoples and nations of the world together for a common cause that serves us all.
Today, we must convene the world once more because the next few years may prove to be the most important in human history. In perhaps less than a decade, the worst seeds of the irreversible consequences of climate change will have been sown. Unless uprooted, they will eventually grow into wars because of desperate drought and famine; violent seizing and hoarding of diminished global resources; economic shocks for poor and rich alike; and the abandonment of the idea that governments can actually provide for their peoples’ general welfare, as the relentless rise of global heat and oceans takes an uncontrollable toll on their citizens.
We cannot simply continue the head-in-the-sand policies of the current administration. We must listen to the scientists whose well-studied facts and figures consistently show that global warming is an unambiguously grave threat to humanity and all life on earth. According to our own Defense Department, climate change “poses immediate risk to U.S. national security.” Already, we are seeing climate change play a role in migration, such as from Central America, and in war, such as in Syria.
Yet this global challenge must be tackled by the entire world. We face a harsh reality that there is nothing we can do just by ourselves — absolutely nothing — to protect America from the most destructive threat to mankind. If America were to reach net-zero greenhouse emissions (as the Green New Deal rightly calls for), it would achieve only 15% of the required reduction to disarm this catastrophic threat before it explodes on all of us. That's because 85% of emissions come from the rest of the world. Consider Qatar, where they are now using air conditioning to cool outdoor soccer stadiums. Or Saudi Arabia, which will use as much energy in 2030 to run air conditioners as it exports in oil today.
We cannot beat climate change without all of the world coming together, led by us, to save the planet. We must not just rejoin, but actually lead the Paris process to collectively increase and enforce national commitments.
Additionally, we must ratify the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, mandating the phasing out of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) — commonly used as refrigerants — which evaporate as a greenhouse gas 1000 times more potent than CO2. This is particularly important, as currently only 8% of people in the tropics have air conditioning, but eventually, most will. And if they do not use the most efficient air conditioning technology currently available, it will be the equivalent of deforesting two-thirds of the Amazon.
Of course, we must lead at home. We need to eliminate our own dependency on carbon fuels through the efficient incentives of the marketplace. The increase in prices by a fee placed on fossil fuel producers that periodically increases (which will be refunded to every citizen as a dividend) will result in reduced emissions. We also need to invest a portion of those carbon fees into research and development, such as ensuring a cost-efficient way to scale up available technology to remove as much carbon dioxide from the air as humans are putting there.
We also need to stop tax subsidies to fossil fuel corporations and provide them to the growing green energy sector that will create millions of jobs. This was one of the reasons I called for a moratorium on natural gas fracking in Pennsylvania while running for the U.S. Senate.
We must also recognize that a huge percentage of global greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture and land use. The Rodale Institute has studied this topic for many years and calculates that if we converted 100% of all crop and pasture land to regenerative organic practices, we would remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year than our current carbon emissions level. We must stop subsidizing emissions-heavy industrial farming — which generally only benefits large corporations and wealthy landowners — and start heavily subsidizing organic and regenerative farming.
There is more we must do, from increasing fuel efficiency standards to incentives for repair — not constant replacement — of our consumer devices, such as smartphones.
Yet even as we do this at home, to ensure that we do our part to protect this planet and lead by example, we must first and foremost convene the world to ensure that all 196 signatories of the Paris Climate Agreement fulfill their obligations. We can only do that through smart diplomacy and re-engaging with our allies. That’s why we need a president who actually understands the world and the value of our friendships and alliances. For the good of our own nation as well as that of the entire globe, we must come together now.
Joe Sestak, a former Navy Admiral and congressman from Pennsylvania, is currently a Democratic Presidential candidate.
Paid for by Joe Sestak for President.
Joe Sestak for President
P.O Box 17246
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United States
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