Resolution in Favor of Holding a Climate Debate

WHEREAS the climate crisis is real, is supported by scientific evidence, and is a threat to our planet and to our existence; and

WHEREAS our elected officials and other leaders have ignored the warnings of scientists for decades regarding the climate crisis; and

WHEREAS many communities are already suffering the effects of the climate crisis, including flooding, forest fires, droughts, more intense storms causing more extensive damage, sea-level rise, and shifting of plant and animal ranges; and

WHEREAS we need to make drastic reductions in greenhouse gasses by 2030, and the longer we wait, the harder the solutions become to implement, and yet emissions are still going up; and

WHEREAS we are still building new fossil fuel infrastructure and giving special tax treatment to fossil fuel companies, despite the fact that renewables pricing is now competitive with fossil fuels; and

WHEREAS the 2016 presidential election debates essentially ignored climate, and the first Democratic debates for 2020 seem to be following in this vein, having spent just 13 minutes over the two nights/4 hours, and only 10 of the 20 candidates were able to respond; and

WHEREAS the adverse effects of the climate crisis have the greatest impact on the most vulnerable members of society; and

WHEREAS the climate crisis affects just about every aspect of our economy, including energy usage, transportation, building construction, food production, availability of potable water, and therefore cannot be equated with a single issue; the impact of the climate crisis is too broad and the issue is too complicated to be properly addressed in a couple of debate questions; and

WHEREAS at least twenty Democratic presidential candidates and a strong majority of Democratic voters support having a debate on climate change; and

WHEREAS the candidates have proposed a broad range of solutions to the climate crisis, and a discussion is needed to highlight the differences in each candidate’s approach; and

WHEREAS American voters deserve to hear from the candidates who are asking for their votes to lead our country as to how they would address this overarching crisis; therefore

RESOLVED on the first day of August, 2019, the Loudoun County Democratic Committee joins the Sunrise Movement and other activists in calling on the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to host a presidential primary debate that is wholly about the climate crisis in all its aspects, and urges in the strongest possible terms that all DNC members, and in particular the Virginia delegation to the DNC, and all DNC Resolutions Committee members, to vote for and support a presidential primary climate debate.