Search
Close this search box.

2013: Bill McKibben urged illegal immigration so ‘Latinos’ could replace ‘white Americans’ voting impact – ‘Election after election, native-born…citizens pull the lever for climate deniers’ ‘By contrast…77% of Latino voters think climate change is already happening’

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.”

 

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-xpm-2013-mar-14-la-oe-mckibben-immigration-environment-20130314-story.html

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: 

 

 

Climate Activists: ‘White America’ condemned to Hell!? — Warmist Bill McKibben laments ‘White America’ has failed: ‘White America has fallen short’ by voting for ‘climate deniers’

 

Share: