TRUMP HIDES NEWS THAT OUR CHANGING CLIMATE IS “POSSIBLY CATASTROPHIC”
ACTION ONE: CALL YOUR SENATORS
SAMPLE SCRIPT FOR WYDEN AND MERKLEY:
My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code]. I am calling because…
I’m worried about climate change.
I want to thank the senator for supporting legislation from Sen. Mazie Hirono and others to keep the US in the Paris climate agreement. But it’s shocking that Trump would attempt block testimony from government scientists. I ask that you:
- Tell the media what Trump doesn’t want the public to know, that climate change is an urgent national security threat and will be “catastrophic” without significant action.
- Call out Trump’s war on truth in his battles with scientists, journalists, economists, generals, House Democrats, FBI agents, the Intelligence Community, and Mueller.
- Declare climate change is a national emergency and start using the term “climate crisis.”
CALL SENATOR MERKLEY
CALL SENATOR WYDEN
ACTION TWO: CALL YOUR HOUSE REPS
Not sure who your U.S. Representative is? Find out here.
SAMPLE SCRIPTS FOR REPRESENTATIVES:
My name is [–] and I’m a constituent from [city], Oregon [zip code]. I am calling because…
For Bonamici: I am concerned about Trump’s efforts to block information about climate change. I ask that you use your committee positions and as a member of the majority party in the House to:
- Invite 16-year-old Greta Thunberg to speak to Congress on the threat climate change poses to children. She’s done this in many of Europe’s parliaments, and the EU itself. Thunberg is the Swedish schoolgirl who has ignited a children’s climate movement worldwide.
- Seek to replace the phrase “climate change” as it is used in the House with “climate crisis” which is what we are confronting now.
- Work to build support for your proposal to have a Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.
For Blumenauer, DeFazio and Schrader: I am concerned about Trump’s efforts to block information about climate change. I ask that you use your committee positions and as a member of the majority party in the House to:
- Invite 16-year-old Greta Thunberg, to speak to Congress on the threat of climate change to children living today. She’s done this in many of Europe’s parliaments, and the EU itself. Thunberg is the Swedish schoolgirl who has ignited a children’s climate movement worldwide.
- Seek to replace the phrase “climate change” as it is used in the House with “climate crisis” which is what we are confronting now.
- Support Rep. Bonamici’s proposal to have a Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.
For Walden: I’m concerned about climate change. Like yourself, several of your GOP colleagues in the House believe it is time for action on climate change. I ask that:
- You defend scientists, especially government scientists who present evidence-based work that is incompatible with the Administration’s policies.
- Acknowledge that conclusions and data from the science community are essentially non-partisan.
- Push your idea about forest management as a tool to fight climate change.
CALL SUZANNE BONAMICI (OR-01)
CALL GREG WALDEN (OR-02)
CALL BLUMENAUER (OR-03)
CALL PETER DEFAZIO (OR-04)
CALL KURT SCHRADER (OR-05)
ACTION THREE: FIGHT, NOW, FOR OREGON’S BILL TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GASES
Oregon’s Clean Energy Jobs bill HB2020B is out of Ways and Means and will go to the House for 2nd reading June 13. We expect a vote next week. Fossil fuel interests are lobbying relentlessly to get your elected officials to vote no. Please email and call your Senator and Representative. Ask them to support Clean Energy Jobs, HB2020B. This is not guaranteed just because there is a Democrat majority. One D already said no and we can lose only one other to pass.
Find your legislators here: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/findyourlegislator/leg-districts.html
ACTION FOUR: HELP REGISTER VOTERS
Indivisible Oregon is organizing letter-writing parties using Swing Left tools to contact voters whose voter registration data may need updating.
Portlanders, join a party on the fourth Tuesday of every month:https://swingleft.org/event/register/action_network:e05c67b8-34ab-40b2-abfc-ab9c92bc44ba?source=%2Fevents&s=u.
BACKGROUND:
Trump’s war on truth is aimed at scientists, reporters, members of the Intelligence Community, FBI agents, historians, economists, House Democrats, certain judges and, oh yes, Mueller.
Last week’s attack was typical. That’s when a scientist from an intelligence agency submitted his prepared testimony, on climate change’s threats to national security, to the White House for approval. It was shocking, especially this: Without extensive interventions, climate change might be “possibly catastrophic.”
The scientist’s evidence-based report on climate and national security was blocked. A Trump official said his testimony “includes lots of climate alarm propaganda that is not science at all.”
Two problems arise when science has to conform to political beliefs:
- Climate scientists have lost positions on government advisory committees. Consequently, decision-making by the administration has lost significant input from scientists.
- By hiding critical information from the public, it leaves the public less equipped to make informed decisions.
The attempted censorship was uncovered and the blocked testimony is now being widely circulated. Attention has been drawn to warnings in the testimony: “Climate change will affect U.S. national security interests over the next twenty years.” That’s another problem with ignoring the truth; it leaves our nation vulnerable.
Keep fighting for truth!
SOURCES:
Washington Post, June 8, 2019: “White House blocked intelligence agency’s written testimony calling climate change ‘possibly catastrophic’ Officials sought to excise the State Department’s comments on climate science because they did not mesh with the administration’s stance” https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/06/08/white-house-blocked-intelligence-aides-written-testimony-saying-human-caused-climate-change-could-be-possibly-catastrophic/?utm_term=.08552cb5ce24
Washington Post, June 8, 2019: “Testimony from Rod Schoonover: ‘The National Security Implications of Climate Change’” https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/the-national-security-implications-of-climate-change/d5977183-15d9-45eb-a011-d4c701b02594/?utm_term=.c172e4e9e2a4
NY Times, May 27, 2019: “Trump Administration Hardens Its Attack on Climate Science” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/27/us/politics/trump-climate-science.html
Union Of Concerned Scientists, 2019: “The State of Science in the Trump Era.” https://www.ucsusa.org/center-science-and-democracy/state-of-science-trump-era
ABC News June 11, 2019: “3 Republican former EPA chiefs accuse Trump of ‘undermining of science’” https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/republican-epa-chiefs-accuse-trump-undermining-science/story?id=63631502
Washington Post, June 7, 2019: “At Trump’s Agriculture Department, science is being plowed under” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/07/trumps-agriculture-department-science-is-being-plowed-under/?utm_source=reddit.com&utm_term=.013bfc1d3e1a
