Rep. Engel: We Need Climate Emergency Leadership
Start: Wednesday, August 21, 2019• 4:00 PM
End: Wednesday, August 21, 2019• 5:00 PM
Our world is burning and melting. The United States is reeling under extreme flooding events that are causing devastation to Midwestern farmlands. A fire larger than Belgium is burning in the Siberian Arctic. Greenland lost enough ice in July to cover Florida in 6 feet of water. Europe and India have experienced unprecedented high temperatures this summer. The Amazon rainforest, which regulates the stability of earth's biosphere, is under renewed assault by Brazilian President Bolsonaro. A single fire in California, the Paradise fire, put so much carbon into the atmosphere that it wiped out all the gains of California's combined climate initiatives last year. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is issuing dire warnings about the state of our planet. Scientists concede that climate tipping points are arriving far sooner than predicted.
We are glad that Rep. Eliot Engel (NYCD-16) co-sponsored the Ocasio-Cortez/Markey Green New Deal resolution last February, announcing his support just before a large rally by a coalition of local organizations at his office. However, we need ongoing leadership on the climate emergency from him.
On July 9, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Bernie Sanders and others introduced joint Congressional resolutions declaring the sense of Congress that we are in a climate emergency and must act with appropriate speed and urgency. The Climate Mobilization has issued a national call asking people to request co-sponsorship of H. Con. Res. 52 by their representatives as well as vigorous climate leadership across the board, during the August Congressional recess.
We are glad that Rep. Eliot Engel (NYCD-16) co-sponsored the Ocasio-Cortez/Markey Green New Deal resolution last February, announcing his support just before a large rally by a coalition of local organizations at his office. However, we need ongoing leadership on the climate emergency from him.
On July 9, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Bernie Sanders and others introduced joint Congressional resolutions declaring the sense of Congress that we are in a climate emergency and must act with appropriate speed and urgency. The Climate Mobilization has issued a national call asking people to request co-sponsorship of H. Con. Res. 52 by their representatives as well as vigorous climate leadership across the board, during the August Congressional recess.
On August 12, Rep. Engel was listed as a co-sponsor of H. Con. Res. 52. We applaud this step, and we have more to ask of him.
Please join a rally outside Rep. Engel's Riverdale, Bronx office calling on him to:
1. Follow up on his co-sponsorship of H. Con. Res. 52 by working to persuade his colleagues, including those in the centrist New Democrat Coalition, to sign on to the resolution.
2. Ask the House leadership and leadership of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis to hold hearings on the climate emergency.
3. Work with his colleagues in the House Energy & Commerce Committee to hold hearings on H. Con. Res. 52.
4. Stop accepting campaign contributions from General Atomics, which constructs nuclear power plants and killer drones, many other weapons manufacturers, including Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Honeywell (wars are caused by and cause climate change), and from the Teamsters, which fights vigorously on behalf of fossil fuel infrastructure projects across the United States.
5. Take the national "No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge." We'll deliver hundreds of constituent petitions asking Mr. Engel to take the Pledge.
6. Join the Sunrise Movement in demanding that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) hold a presidential debate on the climate crisis, and cease threatening presidential candidates that they will be barred from future DNC debates if they participate in a non-DNC-sponsored climate debate.
7. Listen to social movements and social movement coalitions such as It Takes Roots, and magnify their voices in Congressional hearings and work on construction of a Green New Deal.
Please join us on Wednesday, August 21 from 4-5 pm, as we gather outside Mr. Engel's office to make our requests. Bring signs, dress for the weather, and take an hour to share your concerns about the ongoing crisis we face with neighbors and with Mr. Engel and/or his staff. We are not seeking a scheduled appointment with Mr. Engel or his staff, but rather exercising our right to petition our government via a peaceful gathering on the public sidewalk in front of Mr. Engel's office.
Co-hosts: Bronx Climate Justice North, North Bronx Racial Justice
For more information: bronxclimatejusticenorth@gmail.com
