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As the U.N. Nov. 1 global climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland approaches, several significant climate reports have been issued with dire warnings. The State of the Climate in 2020 released from NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, concludes that the many measures of Earth’s health are at the worst levels on record.

Then in September the IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warned that the most recent action plans submitted by 191 countries to curb greenhouse gas emissions were insufficient to keep warming to 1.5 degrees by the end of the century. Many of the biggest emitters, such a China and India have yet to formally commit to a 2013 emissions reduction target. The US administration has committed to cut emissions at least in half by the end of the decade.

In the following essay Bernie Sanders highlights areas in the proposed budget that would help fulfill that target. It remains to be seen how many of them will reach fruition.

Reprinted from The Guardian 18 Aug 2021

The latest International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report is clear and foreboding. If the United States, China and the rest of the world do not act extremely aggressively to cut carbon emissions, the planet will face enormous and irreversible damage. The world that we will be leaving our children and future generations will be increasingly unhealthy and uninhabitable.

But we didn’t really need the IPCC to tell us that. Just take a look at what’s happening right now: A huge fire in Siberia is casting smoke for 3,000 miles. Greece: burning. California: burning. Oregon: burning. Historic flooding in Germany and Belgium. Italy just experienced the hottest European day ever. July 2021 was the hottest month ever recorded. Drought and extreme weather disturbances are cutting food production, increasing hunger and raising food prices worldwide. Rising sea levels threaten Miami, New York, Charleston and countless coastal cities around the world in the not-so-distant future.

In the past, these disasters might have seemed like an absurd plot in some apocalypse movie. Unfortunately, this is now reality, and it will only get much worse in years to come if we do not act boldly – now.

The good news is that the $3.5tn budget resolution that was recently passed in the Senate lays the groundwork for a historic reconciliation bill that will not only substantially improve the lives of working people, elderly people, the sick and the poor, but also, in an unprecedented way, address the existential threat of climate change. More than any other legislation in American history it will transform our energy system away from fossil fuels and into energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

This legislation will be a long-overdue step forward in the fight for economic, racial, social and environmental justice. It will also create millions of well-paying jobs. As chair of the Senate budget committee my hope is that the various committees will soon finish their work and that the bill will be on the floor and adopted by Congress in late September.

Let me be honest in telling you that this reconciliation bill, the final details of which are still being written, will not do everything that needs to be done to combat climate change. But by investing hundreds of billions of dollars in the reduction of carbon emissions it will be a significant step forward and will set an example for what other countries should be doing.

Here are some of the proposals that are currently in the bill:

Massive investments in retrofitting homes and buildings to save energy.

Massive investment in the production of wind, solar and other forms of sustainable energy.

A major move toward the electrification of transportation, including generous rebates to enable working families to buy electric vehicles and energy-efficient appliances.

Major investments in greener agriculture.

Major investments in climate resiliency and ecosystem recovery projects.

Major investments in water and environmental justice.

Major investments in research and development for sustainable energy and battery storage.

Billions to address the warming and acidification of oceans and the needs of coastal communities.

The creation of a Civilian Climate Corps which will put hundreds of thousands of young people to work transforming our energy system and protecting our most vulnerable communities.

The Budget Resolution that allows us to move forward on this ambitious legislation was passed last Wednesday at 4am, by a vote of 50-49 after 14 hours of debate. No Republican supported it, and no Republican will support the reconciliation bill. In fact, Republicans have been shamefully absent from serious discussions about the climate emergency.

That means that we must demand that every Democrat supports a reconciliation bill that is strong on solutions to the climate crisis. No wavering. No watering down. This is the moment. Our children and grandchildren are depending upon us. The future of the planet is at stake.

- Bernie Sanders is a US senator and the chair of the Senate budget committee

The 2021 H-B Woodlawn MEF Award winner is Grace Lynch. Grace’s extracurricular commitments build on her deep love of environmental science. Since 2016, she has logged more than 250 hours as a dedicated and valued volunteer at the Gulf Branch Nature Center, feeding and caring for animals as well as running educational activities for children at seasonal events. She is a co-founder of our school’s Green Club, an organization dedicated to teaching students about the environment through wildlife conservation projects on campus and volunteer activities. Last year she spearheaded a Community Day event, leading a group of volunteers in pulling invasive plants in a local wildlife area. Her senior project involved an internship at Earth Sangha, a nonprofit native plant nursery, where she learned to identify and care for native plants, while gaining work experience in the field. She is a first-year student at UVA and plans to study environmental science and art.

Michelle Gardner-Quinn - Burlington, Vermont, October 2006

I believe in upholding reverence for all life. I believe that humanity has a responsibility to the earth and to the life that we share our experience with.

As a child, I found joy digging in the dirt, examining the miracle of life. Everything creepy-crawly was fascinating to me, and I spent countless hours in my backyard exploring what wonders lay beneath. Although some people might be repulsed by this notion, these creatures did not represent slimy pests to me.

Rather, such experiences in the natural world taught me about the diversity of life that could be found in any microcosm. I felt attuned with the cycles of life, my favorite being the spring.

During these budding months, I could watch the egg sacs of praying mantises as they opened or collect robin-blue egg shells that had fallen from the nests. This was where I felt a strong connection to the natural cycles of creation. This connection has inspired awe in me that I feel strongly to this day. It is a feeling deep within me that has inspired my passions and pursuits as an environmentalist.

As I grew older, I discovered that this reverence for life was not shared by all of humanity. Rather than respecting the natural world as a community of life, the environment has been valued in terms of the resources that could be exploited. Industrialization has turned life into an industry, and systematically destroys the essential diversity that provides richness to the human experience. Our self-inflicted ecological crisis has reached such a point that we no longer endanger isolated bioregions. So many toxins have been spewed into the atmosphere as a result of our industrial greed that the climate of our planet is changing at an alarming rate. Climate change threatens all life forms by altering fundamental natural cycles, giving little time for evolutionary responses.

These detrimental impacts are visible today as polar bears lose their habitat of sea ice, the sex of sea turtle eggs is skewed, whales have less krill to feed on, and coral reefs are bleached, to cite just a few examples. Climate change also has a detrimental impact on cultures and humanity’s well-being as more people are becoming environmental refugees. Little is being done to curb this crisis and, within our lifetime the ecological functioning of planet earth will be forever altered.

I believe that my connection to all life forms prevents me from sitting back and watching this catastrophe. I believe that we should understand our place in our regional ecosystems and communities, as well as pledge our allegiance to the earth as a whole. I believe that all creatures, whether they are found in my backyard or halfway around the globe, should not suffer as a result of human greed. The reality of climate change is here and now; it is the environmental battle of our generation and generations to come. In honor of all life, I am dedicating myself to preventing this worldwide ecological crisis.