A January pro-Earth protest at the Federal Courthouse. Photo via SanDiego350.
Grassroots climate advocacy group SanDiego350 is calling for people to protest President Trump’s widely expected decision to pull the U.S. out of the international Paris Climate Agreement.
A demonstration is set for 5:30-7pm today (Thursday, June 1) at the Federal Building (880 Front Street) in downtown San Diego.
Pulling out of the Paris Agreement, according to organizers, will set back global climate leadership and condemn Americans to increasingly devastating impacts, poorer health outcomes, and loss of jobs and prosperity – which affect the poor, communities of color, and Indigenous people first and worst.
Scientists have estimated that that 80% of known fossil fuel deposits would need to remain in the ground in order to meet the Agreement’s target of keeping the earth’s temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures.
Organizers say they will work to ensure that San Diego and California continue to lead the transition from fossil fuels and towards a 100% clean energy economy that works for everyone, and will mobilize to support local and state policies that reduce carbon emissions, like Community Choice Energy, and to resist the administration’s efforts to undermine federal policies that protect our air, water, and climate.
California Gov. Jerry Brown has called on States to forge an alliance to support the Paris climate deal, saying “I can’t believe that in the face of science, (Trump) can say black is white.”
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
Under the Paris accord, President Barack Obama pledged that the United States would strive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 28 percent below its 2005 levels by 2025. Obama also pledged $3 billion to help poorer countries reduce their emissions. The United States is the world’s second largest emitter of carbon, after China, so its commitment was crucial. Both countries submitted their carbon-reduction plans under the Paris accord on Sept. 3, in a show of unity.
China, Brown said, is leading the way on climate change policies after taking over the solar and wind-power industries.
“America, wake up. You aren’t going to get gas guzzlers no matter what Donald Trump says,” Brown said. “You aren’t going to get coal to increase, no matter what Donald Trump says in West Virginia. We have to get with the program. And the program is renewable energy, decarbonizing, and research and development in a way that makes America more sustainable, not less.”
An April rally organized by the group brought together over 5,000 San Diegans for the People’s Climate March at Waterfront Park.
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Let’s take this opportunity not forget how we got to this awful place. Elections have consequences. Those “Never Hillary” people who had to lodge a protest vote for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson should consider the adverse consequences of their decision that put Trump into the White House; polluters have the support of the federal government, minorities’ right to vote infringed upon, the gerrymandering of legislative districts to elect more Republicans, Trump packing the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary with reactionary judicial officers, the denial of women’s right to exercise reproductive rights and access to abortion, the undermining and dismantling of our educational system, the threat to our most basic freedoms and the denial of health insurance to those who need it most. Let’s remember so we won’t make the same mistake again.