He stated five months ago, if elected, "nothing would fundamentally change."
Time is up.
Two years ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released an alarming report stating the world has 12 years--now ten--to halt coal consumption and slash carbon dioxide emissions to prevent the atmosphere from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (34.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels.
According to Michael Mann, esteemed Pennsylvania State University professor and director of the Earth Science Systems Science Center, the IPCC's assessment is actually conservative, underestimating the amount of warming that has already occurred.
We actually have less carbon left to burn if we wish to avoid the 1.5-degree Celsius threshold the IPCC report cites.
Even a half-degree increase puts us on track to experience more devastating weather and ecocide.
Nothing will escape climate change's ravages.
International borders, economies, food and water supplies, health, education, transportation, energy sources, are all predicted to change with the climate as the planet warms faster than scientists predicted.
We have already passed too many tipping points to avoid some of the climate's most devastating effects, and many scientists theorize the world has begun a sixth mass extinction.
Yet there is still hope as long as we heed experts' advice.
Sunrise Movement and Justice Democrats this week called on the in-coming Biden administration to act boldly on the climate mandate by appointing progressive leaders to key leadership posts and creating a White House Office of Climate Mobilization.
Justice Democrats' executive director Alexandra Rojas asserted:
"President-elect Biden must embrace this historic moment by keeping the party united and appointing progressive leaders who will help him usher in the most progressive Democratic administration in generations. Progressives make up close to half the party in Congress and deserve representation in the next administration. We will not allow Mitch McConnell and the GOP to rob Democrats of our ability to govern on behalf of the majority that elected Joe Biden."
The question is, will he?
Or will we continue doubling down on a smash-and-grab strategy to extract every drop of fossil fuels the planet can yield for pure profit?
If that happens, hello President Tom Cotton or Donald Trump redux.
Good bye, planet Earth.
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