McKibben in LA Times in 2013 urged more immigration to stop ‘white America’ from ‘pulling the lever for climate deniers’ – Meanwhile, ‘Latinos were eager for environmental progress’ – Excerpt: “…white America has fallen short. Election after election, native-born and long-standing citizens pull the lever for climate deniers, for people who want to shut down the Environmental Protection Agency, for the politicians who take huge quantities of cash from the Koch brothers and other oil barons. By contrast, a 2012 report by the Sierra Club and the National Council of La Raza found that Latinos were eager for environmental progress. Seventy-seven percent of Latino voters think climate change is already happening, compared with just 52% of the general population; 92% of Latinos think we have “a moral responsibility to take care of God’s creation here on Earth.” … The future beckons them, and so changes of the kind we’ll need to deal with climate change are easier to conceive. … We need immigrants to this nation engaged in public life, as soon and as fully as possible. It’s not just the moral thing to do, it’s a key to our future.”
McKibben: “immigrants, by definition, are full of hope,” and they are thus less likely to “pull the [election] lever for climate deniers, for people who want to shut down the Environmental Protection Agency, for the politicians who take huge quantities of cash from the Koch brothers and other oil barons.”
McKibben in LA Times urges more immigration to stop ‘white America’ from ‘pulling the lever for climate deniers’ – Meanwhile, ‘Latinos were eager for environmental progress’ – Excerpt: “…white America has fallen short. Election after election, native-born and long-standing citizens pull the lever for climate deniers, for people who want to shut down the Environmental Protection Agency, for the politicians who take huge quantities of cash from the Koch brothers and other oil barons. By contrast, a 2012 report by the Sierra Club and the National Council of La Raza found that Latinos were eager for environmental progress. Seventy-seven percent of Latino voters think climate change is already happening, compared with just 52% of the general population; 92% of Latinos think we have “a moral responsibility to take care of God’s creation here on Earth.” … The future beckons them, and so changes of the kind we’ll need to deal with climate change are easier to conceive. … We need immigrants to this nation engaged in public life, as soon and as fully as possible. It’s not just the moral thing to do, it’s a key to our future.”
Immigration reform — for the climate
Mckibben Excerpts: I’ve always thought we could afford historical levels of immigration, but I understood why some other environmentalists wanted tougher restrictions. … It’s one reason I feel it’s urgent that we get real immigration reform, allowing millions to step out of the shadows and on to a broad path toward citizenship. It will help, not hurt, our environmental efforts, and potentially in deep and powerful ways. …
At this point, there’s no chance we’re going to deal with global warming one household at a time — scientists, policy wonks and economists have concluded it will also require structural change. We may need, for example, things such as a serious tax on carbon; that will require mustering political will to stand up to the fossil fuel industry.
And that’s precisely where white America has fallen short. Election after election, native-born and long-standing citizens pull the lever for climate deniers, for people who want to shut down the Environmental Protection Agency, for the politicians who take huge quantities of cash from the Koch brothers and other oil barons. By contrast, a 2012 report by the Sierra Club and the National Council of La Raza found that Latinos were eager for environmental progress. Seventy-seven percent of Latino voters think climate change is already happening, compared with just 52% of the general population; 92% of Latinos think we have “a moral responsibility to take care of God’s creation here on Earth.”
…
But immigrants, by definition, are full of hope. They’ve come to a new place determined to make a new life, risking much for opportunity. They’re confident that new kinds of prosperity are possible. The future beckons them, and so changes of the kind we’ll need to deal with climate change are easier to conceive.
…
We need immigrants to this nation engaged in public life, as soon and as fully as possible. It’s not just the moral thing to do, it’s a key to our future.
…
Bill McKibben is the founder of 350.org and a professor at Middlebury College.
#
Related:
McKibben in the La Times: ‘We may need, for example, things such as a serious tax on carbon; that will require mustering political will to stand up to the fossil fuel industry. And that’s precisely where white America has fallen short. Election after election, native-born and long-standing citizens pull the lever for climate deniers, for people who want to shut down the EPA, for the politicians who take huge quantities of cash from the Koch brothers and other oil barons’
McKibben in LA Times urges more immigration to stop ‘white America’ from ‘pulling the lever for climate deniers’ – Meanwhile, ‘Latinos were eager for environmental progress’
Study by UN IPCC lead author Michael Oppenheimer claimed that “global warming” will lead to “mass migration to the U.S.” due to alleged future lower crop yields in Mexico by 2080
But wait!
Climate activist Bill McKibben in the LA times claimed that the influx of immigration to the U.S. will REDUCE “global warming” because the new immigrants “would have fewer children” and as a bonus the new immigrants would be LESS likely to “pull the [election] lever for climate deniers.”
Time Mag Dec. 15, 2022: This corner of southwestern Arizona is one of the most wildlife-rich parts of the U.S., home to mountain lions, javelinas, black bears, and visiting jaguars and ocelots. All these animals roam back and forth across the U.S.-Mexico border to find food, water, and mates. … …. As global warming alters conditions in animals’ existing habitats, scientists say the biggest mass migration of animals since the Ice Age is getting underway. It will often be blocked by human borders, thanks to a worldwide frenzy of wall-building over the last few decades. … As global warming alters conditions in animals’ existing habitats, scientists say the biggest mass migration of animals since the Ice Age is getting underway. It will often be blocked by human borders, thanks to a worldwide frenzy of wall-building over the last few decades.
#
Climate Depot’s Morano comment: “But, Wait! Walls to stop illegal immigration are bad for the environment, but Demilitarized Zones acting as walls between nations are somehow act as wildfire sanctuaries?! Why does the corporate media praise the ecological benefits of the DMZ zone border between North & South Korea but issue dire warnings about any U.S. border?!”
See: 2019 NPR: In Korean DMZ, Wildlife Thrives. Some Conservationists Worry Peace Could Disrupt It – The “DMZ, a 155-mile-long, 2.5-mile-wide strip of land that has been virtually untouched by humans for more than six decades. This strip of land became an unintentional wildlife sanctuary when the two Koreas pulled back from the area after an armistice was signed in their 1950-53 war.” … The DMZ is fortified with tall, barbed-wire fences, riddled with land mines and heavily guarded by the respective countries’ militaries, keeping all human disturbances to a minimum. After people left the area, plants and wildlife were able to grow unrestrained. But with increasing goodwill between North and South Korea, environmentalists like Kim fear that the protected nature of the area is changing and may lead to detrimental effects on the wildlife. … According to South Korea’s Ministry of Environment, more than 5,000 species of plants and animals have been identified in the area, including more than 100 that are protected. Vulnerable, near-threatened and endangered animals in the DMZ include the Siberian musk deer, white-naped crane, red-crowned crane, Asiatic black bear, cinereous vulture and long-tailed goral — a species of wild goat.
