You would expect the Green Party to support political candidates that have a realistic chance of winning and governing with the climate crisis at heart. Not so with its leader Jill Stein, whose concerned children have pleaded with her to end her own Presidential candidacy. It seems that Stein spoils while the climate boils.
Stein took votes from Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016, helping to ensure a Trump victory. If Trump wins again, his MAGA-oriented Republican Party is likely to destroy the Environmental Protection Agency. The climate action goals and progress that the Biden Administration set in motion will be turned on their head under a Presidential candidate who has promised, “Drill, baby, drill.”
If you are considering voting for Jill Stein, I hope you will read and view each of these opinion pieces that clarify who supports her candidacy behind the scenes.
From The New Republic: Jill Stein: The Grifter Who May Hand Trump the White House Again: Not only is she helping Trump win—she’s destroying a once-noble party that could be doing good in this country.
From MSNBC:Lawrence: ‘A vote for Jill Stein is a vote for Donald Trump’ & mass deportation
The consequences of a second Trump presidency to climate action goals and overall environmental protection are ominous. In 2020, the Brookings Institution pointed out his record from his first term in this report: What is the Trump administration’s track record on the environment?
Scientific American explains the contrast between Trump and Harris in this report: The 2024 Presidential Election Will Make or Break U.S. Climate Action: Harris would continue the Biden administration’s landmark climate efforts; Trump would roll the country back to more oil and gas
The Biden Administration, with the support of a Democratic-led Congress from 2021-2022, has moved the U.S. closer to clean energy goals with legislation aimed at reducing inflation, increasing manufacturing in the U.S., and tackling climate change. But Inside Climate News reports Election Throws Uncertainty Onto Biden’s Signature Climate Law.
“One report by E2, a pro-environment business group, identified at least 334 “clean energy and clean vehicle” projects announced since the law’s enactment, with the potential to create 110,000 jobs. Those projects were spread across 40 states, with nearly 60 percent in congressional districts represented by Republicans.
Another assessment, by the Rhodium Group, examined total “clean technologies and infrastructure” investment by businesses and consumers in the two years after the bill’s enactment, and found it had climbed to nearly $500 billion, a 71 percent increase from the two preceding years. “This is a huge investment. We are really seeing its impacts,” said Jackie Wong, a senior advisor to the NRDC Action Fund, an environmental political advocacy group that has endorsed Kamala Harris. “This isn’t just about climate. This is also about public health and about jobs and about revitalizing American manufacturing.”
Trump and his advisers and spokespeople have said he would seek to roll back the law’s spending, a step Wong said “would be devastating for climate and economic health.”
Numerous southern states are still reeling from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, storms whose destructive force was amplified by the high temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico. Reports of dry conditions and wildfires have hit not only California and Arizona, but also Michigan, Minnesota, Connecticut, and New Jersey.
The Great Lakes are experiencing a different type of impact from the warming climate. A Canadian publication, Cottage Life, reports on a significant change on the northern shore of Lake Superior, in Algal blooms appear in Lake Superior for the first time in history. Harmful algal blooms have appeared on the lake’s southern shore in prior years, but not on the colder northern shore. Such blooms have also been reported this year in Lake Erie and Lake Champlain in Vermont, a state that has also been devastated by flooding in the past two years. Such threats to supplies of fresh water are threats to life.
We cannot pretend that we do not see what we see every day. We must take responsibility for the stewardship of our planet. We need to vote for candidates and policies who will govern our nation with science at their back and in their hearts.
