if you were to ask what is one of the greatest security issues facing our planet as of now, it would always by climate change. There are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change. But the scientist around the world have unanimously stated that climate change is real and a real threat to our planet. Climate change has had devastating effects on our planet that are irreversible. It has been caused by our human activity and our lack of policy to combat climate change. United states is no longer in the forefront to combat climate change because of the lack of leadership from our current president. It is now our duty as individuals and local leaders of our communities to part the waters and bring down the barriers to push for compressive legislation to combat the threat of climate change. We must act boldly before the devastating effects of climate change become worse and the severity of floods, extreme storms, and droughts escalate. We must stand up to the fossil fuel companies because of the fact that they they are more concerned about their profits and not on the planet that we will pass down to our children. Climate change continues to ravage our planet and our people. We must join the rest of the industrialized world to work towards reversing the damage we have caused from our endless human activity that has sped up our climate change.
It all comes back to the fossil fuel industry who put billions of dollars in lobbying and buying candidates. The candidate that they bought off are the ones that block legislation that combat climate change. Any legislation that is for combating climate change has been slowed down or voted down. The fossil fuel industry achieved this by pouring unlimited amounts of money into the pockets of people in office to continue to do nothing on climate change. Many politicians in Washington that are bought off keep pushing the narrative that climate change isn’t real. Although there is overwhelming scientific evidence that climate change is in fact real and human activity has been the main contributor. The reality is that the fossil fuel industry is to blame for where we are today because of the constant skepticism that are passed to our representatives from the fossil fuel industries. Another way on why the fossil fuel industry has stopped progress is by blocking any efforts of us moving towards the deployment of clean, sustainable green energy. For example, one of the main campaign contributors towards any climate change denier is the Koch brothers.
We must create a national environment and climate justice plan that acknowledges the unacceptable health risks that out lower-income and minority communities face when disastrous climate change strike as they are the ones most affected by it. For example back when Hurricane Katrina decimated the Gulf Coast, some areas were submerged more than others and the people of these communities had no way of leaving the city. It brought a wave of African Americans to leave New Orleans. This has shown the constant trend that low-income and minority communities face the brunt of climate change impacts first hand and worst. The response on the local and national government is unacceptable because many people from these communities still struggle for years to come.
The Scientist continue to warn is if we do not change our ways we will face the full wrath of the cataclysmic change. We will see a rise in diseases, more hunger, more famine, rise in sea levels, more drought, more extreme weather disturbance. As a result more human suffering and the days of normal weather conditions would be sorely missed. We must be revolutionary in our actions and leave the vast majority of our global reserves in the ground where they belong. But many of these fossil fuel companies continue to dig it up and sell it not only to us but to the rest of the world purely for profit. The one thing that they don’t keep in mind when digging up oil is that it has been dead for millions of years. They continue to not know about the full effects of their actions as they burn up this dead stuff anyway. They are the ones that burn it in their power plants. And we are the ones that burn it up in our house, in our cars, in our everyday items because we don’t have affordable green energy. The fossil fuel industry continue to believe that everything is just going to work out and our planet will be healthy enough to pass down to our children. But that is not how everything works out because they are in essence pulling death out of the ground and putting death in the lungs of our children in the form of asthma. We have death that has been spilled in our oceans from oil spills. We now have death in the skies in the form of climate change. This is beneath low because it comes from the lowest parts of our earth to dig out. But we can move away from this by a smooth transition from fossil fuel consumption to green renewable energy. And to finally put a complete stop on the impacts of climate change. Another unacceptable problem that our nation faces from climate is the fact that our children are exposed to horrific air pollution. The air pollution that has been filling the airs have taken a toll to our most vulnerable. The laws being passed have not been enough and we as a nation have not been acting together of ensuring the safety of our children and planet. This is also about having clean air and a healthy planet that our children will soon inherit.
But we must always considered that when we take bold action from moving away from fossil fuels we must be fair to those working in those energy sectors because they are the ones that have powered our country. These workers and their families must be able to get a livable wage. This means creating programs to help them transition to work in green energy. We can not get rid of these workers because they are a proud part of our community. We must put forth a bill that ensures workers that in the clean energy sector to be able to organize a union to push for livable wages and safe working conditions .
We must embrace a tax on carbon because we need to be a nation with a clear stance for reductions on carbon pollution. We have a very limited window if we do not transition away from fossil fuel. It is no time like the present to put our planet on a pathway for being healthy. One of the necessary steps that we must take is introducing a whole new market of green energy to the American people and tax the polluters that put profit over people. This will also return billions of dollars to working families and they will longer face the constant waves of unfair rate rikes. This carbon tax will also save our low-income and minority communities that are most impacted by climate change. What I’ve seen from these communities is that they go through unfair horrific experiences of being located in broken down infrastructure, hazardous waste sites, and polluting facilities. But these communities still have this will and when they get support with clean energy, affordable housing, and access to health care. These same low-income communities and working class not only survive, but they thrive.
We must also take into account the transportation sector as we still have the majority of our transportation running on oil. We can move away from that and have our cars and trucks run on green energy. This will help us in the long run because we are taking initiative to moving to green energy and have efficient public transportation. Another bold action is to ban arctic oil drilling because it puts a stop to any future drillings. It will also keep all the wildlife located there safe and it goes along with efforts to prevent catastrophic global temperature increase. We must also take bold steps to reject any future oil pipelines as they will always break and leak into the environment. Once we invest in clean energy infrastructure, we will not be dragged down by constant long-term payments from carbon pollution emissions that our children will have to pay for. We need to be universal and ban fracking because it moves us away from natural gas and keeps our planet healthy.
We must understand the importance of clean water practices and recognize that there is still communities that do not have access to clean water. One of these communities is Flint, Michigan which still doesn’t have clean water. We still have communities around the country who don’t have access to clean water and that should be a right of all people. One of the laws that passed is the Clean Water Act but our water are continued to be contaminated by polluters who put profits over anything else. We should take every opportunity we are given to lead the world in clean energy technology to stop the worst effect of climate change. This also means taking the opportunity of passing laws for the right to clean water because we continue to create oil pipelines but not clean water pipelines.
We must take a stand and lead in domestic manufacturing, job creation, and helping our communities move to clean energy development and utilization. One industry that has proved to gain ground is the solar industry which is adding workers to the overall economy and is one one of the fastest growing industries. Investment in these jobs sectors would only grow over time. But solar isn’t the only job sector that we should be behind. It is also supporting any efforts that develop industries like wind, geothermal, and hydropower. These sustainable energy technologies would bring a new community of prosperity and change. This would push us to work with the other nations to reach even bigger goals of bringing carbon emissions down. If we invest in these advanced renewable feels we can have a universal strategy to move us beyond oil and putting our foot down when it comes to climate change. When we take these necessary steps, we can have lasting impacts for our environment and energy security goals. To achieve this we must draw the line with oil companies that are trying to disrupt our progress towards being green. Another way of cleaning up our act is by using clean technologies like cellulosic ethanol and algae-based fuels. These biofuels have monumental potential to deliver dramatic reductions in our carbon pollution. And on the plus side it will strengthen our rural economies. This would be shifting the money that we send overseas for oil to keeping our energy dollars here in the United States. We continue to spend billions a year on foreign oil at an endless rate. That is why this is one of the key step to invest in the green energy of the future here in the United States.
We need to provide other countries access to clean energy and a way to build technologies for clean energy. The United can and will lead the international community in funding these efforts and solutions for the poorest and most vulnerable parts of the world. We have already put forth agreements before and we can build upon that with more agreements that the world can be a part of. One of these agreements that we must honor is the Paris Agreement that almost the whole world signed of on. We must also assemble a coalition of countries to come together and work together to reach goals to lower the levels of carbon emissions.
We need to build electric vehicle charging stations in communities. Other countries are doing it and we must join them in their effort. We continue to be a country where we are reaching a threshold of 30 percent of our carbon pollution emission going coming from our transportation sector. It is a heinous act to continue to let our transportation sector carbon pollution reach that high of a standard. That is why we must be imperative and cut of our dependence on gasoline. We need to limit the level of gas intake for cars and move towards alternative solutions of electricity. It is not an unknown fact that vehicles that run on electricity are more efficient than engines that have internal combustion. And on top of that they can be powered with renewable energy resources like solar and wind. Our planet can live a long full life if we start to support charging stations that will put us on the road towards being sustainable. We are also falling behind in building high-speed passenger and cargo rail. The nation’s rail system is falling behind the rest of the world. We have trains moving around at an average speed of around 65 mph, which is nothing compared to high-speed rail running around Europe, Japan, China, and other industrialized nations. Once we act and move towards a state-of-the-art rail system, we will be moving people and our cargo faster and more efficiently than ever before. It will cut our carbon footprint and be a leader for all nations that follow in our footsteps. In the long run it would create millions of permanent jobs that will flourish in this industry.
We need to take these bold steps not just for ourselves or for anyone in particular, but we are doing it for future generations who will benefit from our struggle. We need to clear the way for a healthy planet for animals that are facing the burden of our human activity. That is why we must put forth all the necessary green initiatives that would save our planet. We must encourage our lawmakers to pass the proper legislation to take on the fossil fuel industry and tackle climate change head on. This planet needs to start being a planet that we all share in because we have been taking advantage of its vast resources for too long. The actions that we take now must be lasting and ensure in the hearts and minds of our children that we will pass bills that will combat climate change. This is done by putting forth a clean energy policy and be a leading example to the international community to transition to wind, solar, and geothermal. If we destroy the planet from our activity, it will be the end of our own species. That is why we must create a culture in which we put our planet first before any corporations. We need to be a positive force for other nations to follow when we start transitioning to green energy. It will say a lot about America if we keep a healthy and habitable planet for the future generations down the line.
