VOX on Gov. Jay Inslee's CNN town hall last night.

[Hortensis]

“I will make this pledge right now: If I am elected to this high honor, I will make defeating climate change the number one priority of the United States,” Inslee said. “And I believe I can accomplish that.”

In a key moment, Inslee laid out his campaign’s intention: “There was only four minutes of climate change in the last three presidential debates. I’m going to end that.”

This is such a threat to my grandchildren. I’ve got three grandkids. And I know they’re going to live a very degraded life, and will not enjoy what I have enjoyed in the state of Washington — which is salmon in the rivers, and clean air to breathe, and snow in the mountains, and being free from infectious diseases. And I know with moral certainty that they will live a degraded life. So I’ve decided to run for president to make sure this is the number one priority of the United States and to make sure that the Democratic Party has this in its sights when we nominate a person to run for this esteemed office. And I’ve committed myself, body and soul, to that effort.

The Democratic primary has already been all over the place with ideas, from Medicare-for-all to higher taxes on the wealthy to baby bonds. But Inslee’s focus takes a pragmatic view of the presidency — one that considers priorities. As Inslee told Vox reporter Jane Coaston, “To govern is to choose.” ... So a candidate can run on expanding access to health care, taxing the rich, strengthening gun laws, and so on — but at some point, the person in the White House and Congress will have to pick the issue that they’ll act on first, just like former President Barack Obama and a Democratic-controlled Congress in 2009 prioritized health care reform.

Inslee, however, also seemed to connect other issues — that at first blush may not seem related to global warming — to the topic. Asked about national security, he said that “the Pentagon’s hair is on fire about the mass migrations that are going to happen because of climate change creating political instability.” Talking about the filibuster, he noted that the only way any legislation is likely to happen, including on climate change, is if the Senate can pass bills with a simple majority vote instead of the 60 out of 100 votes required to overcome a filibuster today.

Tying other priorities to climate change is a common theme for Inslee. In his podcast with Coaston, he argued that climate change can be an avenue for economic revitalization — since it can lead to a bunch of new jobs in renewable energy. In an interview with Vox reporter David Roberts, he mentioned that “improving voting rights” is key to building momentum for action on global warming too.

But over the hour-long event, Inslee spent a bulk of his time answering questions about other issues: health care, criminal justice reform, and the growing Boeing 737 Max scandal.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/4/11/18305195/jay-inslee-cnn-town-hall-climate-change

Gov. Inslee is a good, competent liberal governor and I believe would be a good president. He's unlikely to be, in good part because his audience last night illustrated by their questions that they don't see addressing climate change as the huge emergency issue it is.

If Gov. Inslee's candidacy can change that last even somewhat that alone will be a great contribution, larger than all others except our eventual nominee's. And he's says he's running to do just that.

Go, Governor Inslee!

[Andy823]

1. I know he is a long shot

But if he can bring the climate issue front and center at every debate, he will have accomplished his goal. Climate change is "VERY" important and should be dealt with on day one by the New Democratic administration in 2021.

[brer cat]

2. +++ nt

[marylandblue]

3. single issue candidates often struggle, because people have multiple concerns

Important as it is, he's still trying to make climate change do too much work. We could all be dead from climate change in 20 years, so it does need to be a top priority, but in the meantime, I still need healthcare.

[Hortensis]

4. :) He's running on a main issue, not a single issue.

It'd actually be very hard for a governor to pull off being single-issue given the many they're always addressing as the executive in their states. They all have huge, broad records.

In Gov. Inslee's case, he is moving the state of Washington to a public option healthcare program. Imagine him not wanting to talk about that.

But he says he's running to make the climate emergency a top priority for the nation. And I believe it. Also that he wouldn't have to become president to succeed.

[marylandblue]

5. I like Inslee a lot and know he will do the right thing on many issues.

But I've seen him turn too many other issues into a climate change issue. It's not getting the traction I thought it would. That may change, but I think it won't.

[Hortensis]

6. "Extreme Hemispheric Heat Waves Like 2018's Growing More Common"

That's from today in InsideClimateNews.com.

As temperatures spiked across a large part of the Northern Hemisphere last summer, I got an alarming call from my mother, who was living in Linz, Austria. She was dizzy and disoriented, and she hadn't been sleeping.

The region had been suffering through several weeks of above average day and nighttime temperatures, and when I arrived from Vienna, her apartment building felt like a concrete oven. Her symptoms sounded like heat exhaustion. ...

In places like my mother's apartment building in Austria, that prolonged heat and high nighttime temperatures meant that the unairconditioned apartments—and the people inside—didn't have a chance to cool down. Similar conditions led to deaths elsewhere during the summer, including in Canada and Japan.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11042019/2018-heat-wave-climate-change-attribution-northern-hemisphere-extreme-weather-record

Just a few years ago, hundreds died in a Chicago heat wave when the nights didn't cool down. The event and extent of the deaths was mostly unreported, in part because most victims were physically fragile in some way, many elderly in hot apartments, and their deaths ignored.

But I've read that experts have found that after 4 days of similar situations of hot days followed by unrelentingly hot nights even healthy, young body systems can become dangerously affected and start shutting down. It will happen increasingly often. Now, many millions of people live in areas that would be unsustainable without HVAC; they live in mostly sealed homes and during climate extremes go from controlled environment to another. And in this era of neglect and underfunding of infrastructure, a major event where the power to keep AC going in an urban area is inevitable, then everyone will become aware.

Agree entirely with Andy823. I'm anxious for Governor Inslee to be on our debate stages through most of next year. We NEED his voice.

Climate change is fueling the refugee crisis at our border. The crowds of men coming to work have been replaced by women and children forced to leave once-sustainable areas. It's not mentioned by the media because being forced to leave home with climate change as the proximate cause is not an official reason for granting asylum. Being targeted by gangs after arriving with no social support system in cities is.

Btw, our Democratic congressional caucuses have a bunch of climate, fresh water, environment, ag, etc., experts who ran for office specifically to stop climate change. We need to empower them to do what they are passionate at getting to because they understand how truly desperate conditions are becoming.