Thursday June 6th… Dear Diary. The main purpose of this ongoing post will be to track United States extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials)😉
Not Taking The Climate Crisis Seriously On D-Day
As most know this is the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion at Normandy, France on June 6th 1944, which broke the back of the Nazi occupation of most of Europe, putting an end to the European theater of WWII within a year. As far as the “Climate War” goes, it feels more like June 6th, 1939. A catastrophic war is brewing, but we don’t know how many casualties will occur, and some countries like the U.S. have an anti-war, isolationist policy, much to Churchill’s chagrin. On top of that, it looks like that the good side may very well loose the looming war as was the case in 1939. Why, even the Democratic Party within the U.S. appears not to see how serious the Nazi threat…excuse me…the carbon pollution threat is.
For today’s main subject here we see what one of the Churchill’s and Eisenhower’s of our time is facing within his own friendly party:
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/447192-dnc-tells-inslee-it-wont-host-climate-debate
A repost:
DNC tells Inslee it won’t host climate debate
By Tal Axelrod – 06/05/19 05:57 PM EDT
Democratic presidential hopeful and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Wednesday that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is rebuffing his repeated entreaties for a primary debate focused on climate change.
“Today, my team received a call from the Democratic National Committee letting us know that they will not host a climate debate. Further, they explained that if we participated in anyone else’s climate debate, we will not be invited to future debates,” Inslee said in a statement.
“This is deeply disappointing. The DNC is silencing the voices of Democratic activists, many of our progressive partner organizations, and nearly half of the Democratic presidential field, who want to debate the existential crisis of our time. Democratic voters say that climate change is their top issue; the Democratic National Committee must listen to the grassroots of the party,” Inslee added.
Climate change has emerged as an animating issue among Democrats, with several 2020 candidates unveiling sweeping plans to reverse alarming environmental trends. An April poll found that 82 percent of registered voters who identified as Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents said climate change is a “very important” top priority they’d like to see get the focus of a presidential candidate.
“We are running out of time. We’ve kicked the can down the road for too long. The climate crisis merits a full discussion of our plans, not a short exchange of talking points. The next President must make defeating this crisis the top priority of the nation,” Inslee said Wednesday
DNC spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa told The Hill the committee has emphasized to media partners the importance of climate change in the election but that the party’s goal is to have a rigorous discussion on issues like health care and the economy, alongside climate change.
“While climate change is at the top of our list, the DNC will not be holding entire debates on a single issue area because we want to make sure voters have the ability to hear from candidates on dozens of issues of importance to American voters,” she said in a statement to the Hill.
The Washington governor, who has cast climate change as the centerpiece of his White House bid and released a slate of policies to implement a green economy, sent a letter to DNC Chairman Tom Perez Tuesday urging the party to “ensure that the climate crisis is on the agenda.”
“The Democratic Party’s response to climate change cannot only be a few quick questions in the first debates where, in 60 seconds, candidates merely agree that this issue is important, and move on,” Inslee wrote. “We need a full debate to really wrestle with who has the best plans to defeat this existential crisis, who has demonstrated the commitment it will take to get this job done, and who understands the scale of ambition necessary to see this mission through to completion.”
Several other 2020 candidates and a handful of environmental groups had echoed Inslee’s call for a climate-specific debate.
To be clear here this would not be a debate on whether or not anthropogenic climate change is occurring or how fast, but rather a debate among Democratic candidates on policy, or what to do about the climate crisis. For example, would galvanizing the nation towards an all out effort to stem carbon pollution via a Green New Deal like we did once Pearl Harbor was bombed be worth the effort, or would just implementing carbon taxes and preparing for adaptation be sufficient?
We will see what transpires in the next year before the next Democratic candidate is selected by voters, who literally will be burdened with being the next best hope to win the Climate War. The ghosts of Franklin Roosevelt, as well as many others, including all those fighting at Normandy, are watching.
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Here is some more weather and climate news from Thursday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article.)
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Guy Walton…The Climate Guy