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Which presidential candidates have promised to reject fossil fuel $$$ donations?
Why the Presidential Candidates Should Reject Donations From Fossil-Fuel Companies
See which candidates signed The Nation’s call to neither solicit nor accept campaign contributions from any oil, gas, or coal company.
By
the Editors
The Nation
Yesterday 10:00 am
“Follow the money” is a basic rule of American politics....
... The International Energy Agency has echoed the scientific finding that 80 percent of the earth’s remaining fossil fuels must be left in the ground if humanity is to have a fair chance of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, the internationally agreed-upon target. This two-degree limit, scientists say, is by no means safe; rather, it is the threshold between “dangerous” and “extremely dangerous” climate change. The global insurance industry, unlike Big Oil and Big Coal, is heeding such warnings. “If we think we can live in a world where temperatures would have increased by more than 2 degrees Celsius, we’re just fooling ourselves,” said Henri de Castries, the chief executive of AXA, France’s largest insurance company.
Nevertheless, virtually every major fossil-fuel company insists that its business plan trumps the need to preserve a livable planet for future generations, not to mention the global poor who already bear the brunt of climate change. Thus, Shell—with the blessing of the Obama administration—races to drill for oil in a melting Arctic, while ExxonMobil declares that the global production and consumption of oil and gas must increase for decades to come. But not to worry, declares Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil’s CEO: Humanity can “adapt” to unprecedented temperature increases by moving “crop production areas around”—as if the Midwest’s rich soils can simply be dug up and moved to Canada.
Meanwhile, the carbon barons employ their vast wealth and the political and media influence it buys to maintain the status quo, confusing the public with disinformation and cajoling or intimidating the people’s elected representatives into refusing a safer course. In the 2012 elections alone, the oil and gas industry contributed at least $76 million to presidential and congressional candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics; the coal industry spent an additional $15 million. ...
The Nation asked each of the major declared presidential candidates in the Democratic, Republican, and Green parties if he or she would make and honor this pledge. So far, two have responded affirmatively: Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders and Green candidate Jill Stein. Two other Democratic candidates, Martin O’Malley and Lincoln Chafee, said they supported strong climate action but would not sign the pledge. Hillary Clinton, like the 14 Republican candidates contacted, did not reply....
http://www.thenation.com/article/the-climate-pledge/
See which candidates signed The Nation’s call to neither solicit nor accept campaign contributions from any oil, gas, or coal company.
By
the Editors
The Nation
Yesterday 10:00 am
“Follow the money” is a basic rule of American politics....
... The International Energy Agency has echoed the scientific finding that 80 percent of the earth’s remaining fossil fuels must be left in the ground if humanity is to have a fair chance of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, the internationally agreed-upon target. This two-degree limit, scientists say, is by no means safe; rather, it is the threshold between “dangerous” and “extremely dangerous” climate change. The global insurance industry, unlike Big Oil and Big Coal, is heeding such warnings. “If we think we can live in a world where temperatures would have increased by more than 2 degrees Celsius, we’re just fooling ourselves,” said Henri de Castries, the chief executive of AXA, France’s largest insurance company.
Nevertheless, virtually every major fossil-fuel company insists that its business plan trumps the need to preserve a livable planet for future generations, not to mention the global poor who already bear the brunt of climate change. Thus, Shell—with the blessing of the Obama administration—races to drill for oil in a melting Arctic, while ExxonMobil declares that the global production and consumption of oil and gas must increase for decades to come. But not to worry, declares Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil’s CEO: Humanity can “adapt” to unprecedented temperature increases by moving “crop production areas around”—as if the Midwest’s rich soils can simply be dug up and moved to Canada.
Meanwhile, the carbon barons employ their vast wealth and the political and media influence it buys to maintain the status quo, confusing the public with disinformation and cajoling or intimidating the people’s elected representatives into refusing a safer course. In the 2012 elections alone, the oil and gas industry contributed at least $76 million to presidential and congressional candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics; the coal industry spent an additional $15 million. ...
The Nation asked each of the major declared presidential candidates in the Democratic, Republican, and Green parties if he or she would make and honor this pledge. So far, two have responded affirmatively: Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders and Green candidate Jill Stein. Two other Democratic candidates, Martin O’Malley and Lincoln Chafee, said they supported strong climate action but would not sign the pledge. Hillary Clinton, like the 14 Republican candidates contacted, did not reply....
http://www.thenation.com/article/the-climate-pledge/
Go Bernie Go!! President Sanders!
(xposted in GDP)
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