State Department Indefinitely Delays Keystone XL Pipeline Decision
The U.S. State Department on Friday afternoon said that it is giving eight federal agencies an extension for reviewing the Keystone XL pipeline project proposal.
The department said the decision partly hinges on Nebraska Supreme Court litigation that could affect the pipeline's route. For that reason, there's no timeline on the delay.
.@StateDept will provide more time for the submission of agency views on the proposed #KeystoneXL Pipeline Project. http://t.co/SSDvcNI1Kr
— Department of State (@StateDept) April 18, 2014
"In addition, during this time we will review and appropriately consider the unprecedented number of new public comments, approximately 2.5 million, received during the public comment period that closed on March 7, 2014," the State Department said in a statement.
While a Nebraska judge in February sided with landowners who argued that it was unconstitutional to grant the power of eminent domain to Gov. Heineman and, in turn, TransCananda to make way for Keystone, state Attorney General Jon Bruning appealed the ruling. The Lincoln Journal Star reported that "those following the case don't expect a decision until 2015."
Still, the delay was a cause for applause from the pipeline's opponents.
One point is clear: without a broad and brave movement, DC would have permitted this dumb pipeline in 2011. So on we go
— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) April 18, 2014
"This is a huge victory for climate champions and communities from Alberta down to Nebraska and the Gulf," All Risk, No Reward Coalition spokeswoman Rachel Wolf said. "Every day without Keystone XL is a day that we keep high-carbon tar sands in the ground. The State Department's announcement to postpone a final decision on Keystone XL pending further certainty on the Nebraska route confirms, yet again, that this project not permit-able.
"This export pipeline fails the climate test, fails the jobs test, and doesn't even have a legal route."
To Tom Steyer and NextGen Climate, the delay only emphasizes the fact that it's a horrible idea.
"First, since the pipeline would significantly increase carbon pollution, we know that it fails the climate test laid out by President Obama last year," Steyer said. "Keystone XL is the economic key to unlocking the Alberta tar sands. As Canadian oil interests have confirmed, the oil industry cannot maximize the extraction of some of the world's dirtiest oil without it.
"Second, our leaders must demand that in advance of any decision on the project, TransCanada finally come clean on whether all of the refined oil will stay in the United States. TransCanada has said the United States should support the pipeline because it would provide energy independence for the United States, but they have ducked, dodged and refused to commit to keeping the refined oil in our country."
Still, others would have preferred an outright denial of the 1,179-mile pipeline.
“It is deeply disappointing that Secretary Kerry and President Obama can’t yet muster the courage to stand up to the oil industry and reject Keystone XL," said Elijah Zarlin, CREDO's senior campaign manager. “Still, this is yet another defeat for TransCanada, tar sands developers like the Koch Brothers, and oil-soaked politicians. No doubt, the nearly 100,000 people who have pledged to risk arrest to stop Keystone XL played a key role in pushing the administration to more accurately consider the full impact of this project—which must clearly result in rejection.
"No delays will diminish our commitment to stopping Keystone XL."
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Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., places a flag at the COVID Memorial Project's interfaith memorial service to honor the 200,000 people who died due to coronavirus on the National Mall on Sept. 22, 2020. Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images
The United States passed 200,000 deaths due to COVID-19 Tuesday and experts warn that number may double before the end of the year as an autumn surge in cases starts, according to USA Today.
<p>Researchers at the <a href="http://www.healthdata.org/" target="_blank">Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington</a> (IHME) analyzed various scenarios that include fatigue from wearing masks and social distancing to create projections for the number of COVID-19 deaths we should expect by Jan. 1. One of their models has the U.S. reaching just shy of 400,000 deaths by the beginning of 2021.</p><p>"The worst is yet to come. I don't think perhaps that's a surprise, although I think there's a natural tendency as we're a little bit in the Northern hemisphere summer, to think maybe the epidemic is going away," said Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the IHME, earlier this month, as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/22/us-coronavirus-death-toll-tops-200000-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-.html" target="_blank">CNBC</a> reported.</p>
<p>The U.S. accounts for roughly one-fifth of all the confirmed COVID-related deaths around the world despite having only 4 percent of the population, according to CNBC. The virus claimed the lives of roughly 100,000 Americans in the first four months of the outbreak. That number doubled over the next four months. Now, several states are seeing surges in cases after summer peaks in the Southeast, Texas and Arizona have diminished.</p><p>The surges that took place across those states quickly declined with mitigation efforts like social distancing and mandated mask wearing, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/22/world/covid-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage#link-19bfa512" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/coronavirus-states-cases-increase/2020/09/22/105826b4-f9ef-11ea-a275-1a2c2d36e1f1_story.html" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>, 27 states and Puerto Rico have seen an increase in the number of cases over the last week. It also found that six states and Puerto Rico set record highs for the number of positive cases for a single day on Monday. While roughly half the states are seeing an increase in cases, only seven are seeing decreases, according to data from <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html" target="_blank">Johns Hopkins University</a>, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/23/health/us-coronavirus-wednesday/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>"We're entering into the fall and into the winter, and that means there's going to be more indoor things than outdoor things," Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday during the Atlantic Festival, as CNN reported. "Going into that situation, I would like to have seen the baseline of where we are — the daily number of infections — come way, way down, and not be stuck at around 30 to 40,000 per day."</p>
<p>In addition to the death toll, experts note that we are just starting to learn about the long-term effects of people who have survived the virus, but are experiencing physical or cognitive side effects that hamper their daily life. Also, the true death toll may be much higher since there have been more than 200,000 excess deaths this year since February, according to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CDC statistics</a>, as CNBC reported. Excess deaths are the actual number of deaths compared to a projection based on historical averages.</p><p>"Pandemics are inevitable. They're going to happen. But does it have to get this bad? No," said Dr. Syra Madad, senior director of the systemwide special pathogens program at New York City Health + Hospitals, as CNBC reported. "That was avoidable, and we've made significant mistakes as a nation. We have been behind the eight ball from the very beginning."</p>
<p>The U.S. is not alone in seeing a surge in cases as the weather starts to change and restrictions ease up slightly. France, Spain and Israel are all struggling as new cases start to spread, according to The Washington Post. They were among the 73 countries that are seeing upticks in cases, as The New York Times reported.</p><p>In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced strict new measures that may last for the next six months as the country saw 5,000 new cases Tuesday. Pubs and restaurants will close by 10 p.m. and fines for not wearing a mask will double to $255, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/22/world/europe/boris-johnson-britain-plan-virus.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. The new mitigation efforts came as government scientists and medical advisers warned that the UK could see 50,000 new cases a day in short order if the virus is allowed to spread unchecked.</p><p>"We always knew that while we might have driven the virus into retreat, the prospect of a second wave was real," Johnson said to the House of Commons Tuesday, as The New York Times reported. "I'm sorry to say that, as in Spain and France and many other countries, we've reached a perilous turning point."</p>
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People Have the Power - VOTE 2020
Climate-action nonprofit Pathway to Paris first launched in 2014 with an "intimate evening" of music and conversation after the People's Climate March in New York City.
<p>Six years later, and intimate musical evenings feel like relics from another era. But the group is still bringing artists and activists together to achieve its goal of making the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement" target="_self">Paris climate agreement</a> a reality. To that end, the group dropped a new music video <a href="https://vimeo.com/459419656" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Tuesday</a> to remind people the world over that they have the power to act on the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>.</p><p>The eight-minute video features musicians and activists from 24 countries, 38 cities and six continents singing "People Have the Power" by Pathway to Paris supporter Patti Smith and the late Fred Sonic Smith. It was released in conjunction with <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-week-2020-2647708978.html" target="_self">Climate Week NYC</a> and in celebration of Pathway to Paris' sixth anniversary. While the group <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/patti-smith-thom-yorke-flea-pathway-to-paris-album-1946624877.html" target="_self">cut its teeth on live concerts</a>, such as a two-night affair in Paris that coincided with the signing of the groundbreaking 2015 agreement, the organization's founders say its work is more urgent than ever now that large public gatherings are not safe.</p>
<p>"The current pandemic surrounding Covid-19 has shown moments and threads of hope and optimism, but it also has shown just how fractured the communication of our planet remains," Pathway to Paris co-founder Jesse Paris Smith said in a press release for the new video. "This same frustration has been experienced for decades with the climate crisis and just about any unifying global issue of great urgency. We struggle to adapt and survive based on the information we are given and the immense lack of alignment in our decision making. There couldn't be a more urgent time for the country and the planet to unify as one collective force, and yet we see more examples of the failure of this concept to take hold. Our current reality is one of immense suffering and a promise of continued disaster if we do not get together on our agreements, set more ambitious goals, and make drastic plans for change <em>today</em>."<br></p>
<p>To further this goal, Smith and fellow co-founder Rebecca Foon launched the video with the hope of encouraging people to make change by voting. They encourage U.S. viewers to vote in the upcoming <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/2020-election" target="_self">November election</a> and viewers the world over to vote wherever and whenever local elections occur. They also suggest people use their voice by signing petitions, contacting representatives, writing letters and having conversations about climate change with friends and family.</p><p>Joining Foon and Smith in the video to endorse this message are a wide range of celebrities, activists and ordinary people including Patti Smith, Joan Baez, Tony Hawk, Cyndi Lauper, Dr. Vandana Shiva and Bill McKibben.</p><p>"We are in a time where our interconnectedness has never been more pronounced. This time presents an opportunity for us as a planet to truly see how our epic challenges are deeply connected, and our collective solutions need to address these challenges holistically. Due to the state of emergency we find ourselves in globally (current science highlights that we might hit 1.5 degrees as soon as 2024), we need to put our resources and attention as quickly as possibly in designing and creating a world that is no longer dependent on the use of fossil fuels while building a green economy that is rooted in equity, justice, human rights and ethics if we want a future for ourselves and our children," Foon said in the press release.</p>
<p><br>Foon and Smith, both musicians themselves, noted that the pandemic has taken a toll on an industry that relies on live performances. The group has already organized two virtual festivals since quarantine measures began, one for Earth Day in April and one for World Environment Day in June.</p><p>"It is a bit terrifying to imagine the impact that the disappearance of culture and community will have on the upcoming election, though we must continue to find ways to connect and collaborate in the virtual plane, while following quarantine and social distancing guidelines," Smith said in the press release.</p>
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Heo Suwat Waterfall in Khao Yai National Park in Thailand. sarote pruksachat / Moment / Getty Images
A national park in Thailand has come up with an innovative way to make sure guests clean up their own trash: mail it back to them.
<p>Thailand's Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa issued a stern warning to visitors of the country's Khao Yai National Park last week.</p><p>"I will pick up every single piece of your trash, pack them well in a box and mail it to your home as a souvenir," he wrote in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TOPVarawut/posts/1058216911296247" target="_blank">Facebook post Sept. 14</a>, according to a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/21/world/asia/thailand-park-mail-trash.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New York Times translation</a>.</p><p>The post also included a picture of an abandoned tent filled with discarded <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastics" target="_self">plastic</a> bottles and other rubbish.</p>
<div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b8c0986fe76ad4f2771920a558c9a3f0"><div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/TOPVarawut/photos/a.674770099640932/1058314587953146/"></div></div>
<p>The next day, Varawut revealed he had made good on his threat.</p><p>"The garbage that tourists left in the park is now packed into the box. It's ready to be returned to the owner of the garbage already," he wrote in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TOPVarawut/posts/1058561024595169" target="_blank">Sept. 15 post</a>, according to a <a href="https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/thailand-national-park-mails-back-garbage-campers-litter" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Travel and Leisure </a>translation. He also posted pictures of the collected trash and a shipping box with the address marked out.</p><p>The trash was shipped back with a special message for its owners.</p><p>"You have forgotten some of your belongings at the Khao Yai National Park," the note read, according to The New York Times. "Please let us return these to you."</p>
<div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b1a28fa6a2f82659c3a1952924af20bf"><div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/TOPVarawut/photos/pcb.1058561024595169/1058560754595196/"></div></div>
<p>Park officials were able to match the trash to their owners by checking rental equipment forms against a prescription bottle left in the tent. The offending visitors have also been blacklisted from returning to the park for overnight visits.</p><p>Varawut explained that abandoned trash could endanger wild animals, who might eat it by mistake when foraging for food. He said littering in the park could carry a fine of up to up to a 500,000 Thai Baht (about $16,000 U.S. dollars), a prison sentence of up to five years or both, Travel and Leisure reported. He said anyone caught littering would be reported to the police.</p><p>Khao Yai National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site about 100 miles northeast of Bangkok. It is the oldest national park in Thailand, according to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-54200833" target="_blank">BBC News</a>, and is famous for its <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> and landscapes, including waterfalls.</p>
<p>The lockdown initiated due to the coronavirus pandemic was a boon for the animals there, as elephants began returning to their old paths in the absence of human visitors, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/world/asia/thailand-elephants-coronavirus.html" target="_blank">The New York Times reported in July</a>. Other animals like the Asian black bear and a type of bovine called a guar emerged from hiding too.</p><p>The park reopened to visitors July 1, but limited the number to 5,000 at a time, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2020/09/18/tourist-trash-mail/" target="_blank">The Washington Post reported</a>. The Thai tourism board praised Varawut for reminding the returning visitors how to properly respect the park.</p><p>"We applaud Khao Yai National Park and The Minister of Natural Resources and Environment for their commitment to maintaining the beauty and wellbeing of our country's natural resources," Charinya Kiatlapnachai, director of the tourism authority of Thailand, told The Washington Post in an email. "Thailand's national parks and wildlife have had time to recover from damaging results of tourism such as littering over the past six months and this gesture has the best of intentions to ensure we all do our part to help our country remain clean, safe and beautiful."</p>
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Young Republican Climate Activists Split Over How to Get Their Voices Heard in November’s Election
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Climate
The 2020 presidential election poses a critical test of climate conservatives' willingness to put their environmental concerns before party politics. filo / Getty Images
By Ilana Cohen
Four years ago, Jacob Abel cast his first presidential vote for Donald Trump. As a young conservative from Concord, North Carolina, the choice felt natural.
But this November, he plans to cast a "protest vote" for a write-in candidate or abstain from casting a ballot for president. A determining factor in his 180-degree turn? Climate change.
<p>Climate didn't become a voting issue for Abel until months after the 2016 election. As a college freshman at Seton Hall University, he found himself increasingly frustrated by lackluster Republican responses to an issue now <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/21/across-the-globe-millions-join-biggest-climate-protest-ever" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">leading</a> millions to march in the streets. </p><p>Abel felt that his party's future, like that of his generation, depended upon it addressing climate change with the appropriate urgency.</p><p>While his progressive counterparts helped propel a "<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/c686caa2-a8c5-11e9-984c-fac8325aaa04" target="_blank">Squad</a>" of climate leaders into Congress, Abel advocated for market-driven climate solutions like carbon pricing as a spokesperson for republicEn, a right-leaning climate advocacy organization. </p><p>"The Green New Deal was actually a big catalyst for a lot of young Republicans coming forward and pushing for serious Republican solutions" on climate change, said Abel. </p><p>Momentum on the left stirred new conversations on the right, as young conservatives banded together in hopes of sustaining both their party and the planet. Their cries for climate action helped open older Republicans' eyes to the risk of losing young voters, and a seat at the table in future climate policymaking, if the GOP didn't change its tune.</p><p>"Over the next 10 years," Abel said, he "wants to see Republicans come together with Democrats to come to a realistic solution," along with Republicans proposing "more and more solutions" of their own, including around what Abel considers a critical "middle ground" measure to advance decarbonization—carbon pricing.</p><strong><strong></strong></strong>
<p>"Because we're still kind of relatively new to actually taking this topic seriously and proposing policy," said Abel of the GOP, "I think our policy response could be more robust and more detailed."</p><p>Only a decade ago, Abel's story might have been a novelty. Now, it's commonplace. From <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wildfires-west-coast-death-toll-burn-2020-09-15/" target="_blank">raging</a> wildfires on the West Coast to Hurricane Sally's massive <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54174831" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">flooding</a> in the South, climate disasters are politicizing young people across the ideological spectrum who have experienced them first hand. </p><p>Younger Republicans are much more engaged with climate change than their parents and grandparents, said Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. The program's research <a href="https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/do-younger-generations-care-more-about-global-warming/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">shows</a> young Republicans are more likely than older ones to believe in human-caused global warming and to support climate action. </p><p>Frustrated by party leadership that doesn't <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/24/millennial-and-gen-z-republicans-stand-out-from-their-elders-on-climate-and-energy-issues/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">represent</a> their call for urgent climate action and public discourse that discounts their views, young Republicans also seem more willing to pose their own climate solutions. They don't want to see a World War II-style mobilization; they want pragmatic proposals advancing private sector innovation. </p><p>The 2020 presidential election poses a critical test of climate conservatives' willingness to put their environmental concerns before party politics. While some young Republicans who prioritize the issue of climate change remain loyal to Trump and others turn to Biden, a growing number like Abel are not supporting either candidate. </p><p>Given <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/2016-election/swing-state-margins/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Trump's thin margin of victory in 2016</a>, young conservatives who choose not to vote for either major presidential candidate may help Biden just as much as those who vote for him over Trump, Leiserowtiz said, depending on the state they vote in. Millennials and Gen Zers will <a href="https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/essay/an-early-look-at-the-2020-electorate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">comprise</a> 37 percent of eligible voters in November, which gives them vast electoral influence, if they vote.</p><p>If youth show up in force to oust Trump from office, their votes could provide a "powerful warning sign" for the GOP, Leiserowtiz said. It would affirm that for Republicans to win the youth vote and have a path to the White House moving forward, they must embrace climate action now. </p>
Fractures Among Young Climate Conservatives
<p>While young conservatives have united around the urgency of climate change, they remain divided over how to bring their concerns to the ballot box. Some embrace right-wing <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-attacks-republican-convention/2020/08/24/434e5b46-e66d-11ea-970a-64c73a1c2392_story.html" target="_blank">attacks</a> painting Biden as a "tool of the left" and find his climate agenda "radical." Others can't find a way to justify voting for Trump, even if it means breaking with their party.</p><p>Patrick Mann from Orange County, California, voted for Trump in 2016. But today, he's leading Aggies for Joe at Texas A&M University and is co-founder of Texas Students for Biden. </p><p>Mann grew up watching wildfires ravage his home state, nearly forcing his family to evacuate in 2017. The GOP is failing to "meet the moment" for climate action, Mann said. He's hoping Biden will deliver on a promise to "<a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/caucus/2020/01/06/joe-biden-democrat-president-iowa-caucus-restore-soul-our-nation/2806422001/" target="_blank">restore the soul of our nation</a>." </p><p>Taylor Walker from Pensacola, Florida, is also determined to make her voice heard on climate, including by casting her first-ever vote for president—but not for Biden.</p><p>Walker, a statewide campus coordinator for the conservative environmental advocacy group American Conservation Coalition, felt compelled to act on climate change after seeing the <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/gulfspill-impacts-summary-IP.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">lasting environmental and economic damage</a> the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico wreaked on her home state. As a practicing Christian, Walker feels a "responsibility from God to steward the environment," which means fighting climate change while protecting industry. </p><p>She lauded Trump's <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/06/22/trump-tweets-full-endorsement-of-desantis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">support</a> of Ron DeSantis' run for Florida Governor in 2018. Walker appreciated DeSantis' <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2019-01-11/florida-gov-desantis-signs-executive-order-to-protect-states-waters" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ambitious environmental vision</a> and said he "passed quite a few green initiatives in the first few months of his term." The governor's environmental <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article239258123.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">record</a> since has been controversial, with DeSantis earning dismal ratings from the Sierra Club and <a href="https://scorecard.lcv.org/moc/ron-desantis" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">League of Conservation Voters</a>. </p><p>Walker also praised Trump's <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/09/08/reversal-trump-ban-oil-drilling-off-coasts-florida-georgia-south-carolina/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">recent</a> commitment to banning offshore drilling on the state's coasts, which came two years after he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/01/04/trump-administration-plans-to-allow-drilling-off-all-u-s-waters/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">proposed</a> vastly expanding oil and gas drilling in U.S. continental waters. The move "shows a good faith investment" in finding clean energy alternatives, Walker said.</p><p>Walker said she'd examine both major presidential candidates' platforms and records on climate policy up until Election Day, but she doesn't think there's much, if anything, the Biden campaign could do that would convince her to swing left. If Trump can help pivot the GOP in greener directions, she said, "then more power to him."</p>
A False Equivalency
<p>Young climate conservatives may fear climate denial and delayed climate action, but more than that, they fear the growing political momentum around the Green New Deal, the massive spending it entails and <a href="https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/" target="_blank">Biden's citing of it</a> as a "crucial framing for meeting the climate challenges we face."</p><p>Many don't want to split with their party to support a Democrat whose <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/09/03/757220130/joe-biden-on-bipartisanship-gun-control-and-regrets-over-inaction-after-a-traged" target="_blank">allegedly bipartisan intentions</a> they doubt. If stymieing what they consider a radical green agenda means re-electing a climate change denying president, so be it. </p><p>"I'm scared of climate change, but I'm also scared of the Green New Deal and what it means for America," said Ben Mutolo, a republicEN spokesperson and junior at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. </p><p>Mutolo felt encouraged by former Ohio Governor John Kasich's <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/2020/08/17/kasich-speech-to-democratic-convention-follows-years-of-building-conservative-credentials/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">appearance</a> at the Democratic National Convention, but he still struggles to see himself voting for Biden. Though the candidate paints himself as a <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-08-12/harris-biden-different-generation-similar-political-instinct" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">centrist,</a> Mutolo believes he's "cozying up to the ultra-progressive left." </p><p>Mutolo, who wants to see market-based climate solutions like a carbon tax, feels torn between a candidate whose climate plan relies on taking an "<a href="https://joebiden.com/environmental-justice-plan/#" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">All-of-Government approach</a>," and one with no efforts to reign in global warming at all. <span></span></p><p>Leiserowitz said he appreciated how a conservative might feel Biden's climate plan "doesn't jive with their limited government, free-market approach."</p><p>But he sees a strong distinction between voting for a presidential candidate with a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/us/politics/biden-climate-plan.html" target="_blank">$2 trillion climate plan</a> that includes large renewable energy investments, which have <a href="https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/politics-global-warming-april-2020/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">bipartisan support</a>, and a candidate trying "to take the country in the opposite direction, towards more fossil fuels."</p><p>Equating the two seems "hard to square rationally," said Leiserowtiz. But most people don't vote rationally. Research <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/1/15515820/donald-trump-democracy-brexit-2016-election-europe" target="_blank">shows</a> they vote based on their social and political identities, not policy positions, and are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3834737/" target="_blank">influenced</a> by messaging from their social circles.<br></p><p>As someone ready to talk climate solutions, rather than debate science, Mann, the Texas A&M student, has struggled to connect with Republican peers supporting Trump. He believes that people concerned about climate change have a moral imperative to support Biden. "Voting for someone who took us out of the Paris Agreement, you're not going to get progress on climate change," said Mann. "Trump is not making America a leader on this." </p><p>Given the vast threat posed by climate change, Mann said, a vote withheld from Biden is just as problematic as a vote for Trump. </p><p>Mann knows he can't change people's minds, but that won't stop him from trying. "All I can do is plant ideas in their mind of why it's important" to elect Biden now and put climate leaders into office beyond this November, he said. "Hopefully, those grow."</p><p>While some young climate conservatives like Mann are engaging their peers in discussions about the presidential election, others like Walker are more concerned with raising awareness of market-driven climate solutions or getting out the vote for local and Congressional races.</p><p>Whatever their course of action, the chance to help shape climate policy for a critical next four to eight years isn't lost on any of these young climate conservatives. How they cast their ballots, and in what numbers, may solidify for the right a reality already made clear on the left—political survival now goes hand in hand with efforts to stabilize the climate and invest in the futures of today's youth and those of generations to come. </p>
<p><em><em>This story originally appeared in</em> <em><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org" target="_blank">Inside Climate News</a> </em><em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em><a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20092020/young-republicans-climate-change-biden-trump-voting" target="_blank"></a></em></p><p><em>.</em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2647767066#/" target="_self"></a></p>From Your Site Articles
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WHO Releases Plans for COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution as U.S., China and Russia Opt Out
21h
Health + Wellness
Headquarters of the World Health Organization in Geneva amid the COVID-19 outbreak on Aug. 17, 2020. FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Monday that 64 high-income nations have joined an effort to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine fairly, prioritizing the most vulnerable citizens, as Science reported. The program is called the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, or Covax, and it is a joint effort led by the WHO, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
<p>The 64 high-income countries bring the total number of participating countries up to 156, but their participation is crucial to financing the 2 billion doses that the WHO hopes to purchase and distribute before the end of 2021, according to <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2020/09/21/64-high-income-nations-join-effort-to-expand-global-access-to-covid-19-vaccines-but-u-s-and-china-do-not/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">STAT News</a>.</p><p>The 156 economies participating in Covax make up 64 percent of the global population.</p><p>"COVAX is now in business: governments from every continent have chosen to work together, not only to secure <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/vaccines">vaccines</a> for their own populations, but also to help ensure that vaccines are available to the most vulnerable everywhere," said Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, in a WHO <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/21-09-2020-boost-for-global-response-to-covid-19-as-economies-worldwide-formally-sign-up-to-covax-facility" target="_blank">statement</a>. "With the commitments we're announcing today for the COVAX Facility, as well as the historic partnership we are forging with industry, we now stand a far better chance of ending the acute phase of this pandemic once safe, effective vaccines become available."</p>
<p>The United States, Russia and China have not agreed to join Covax. The <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump</a> administration plans to withdraw from the WHO by next July so it refuses to participate in a WHO-led campaign, as STAT News reported. China has not said if it will participate or not, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/coronavirus-vaccine-covax-who/2020/09/21/d21c7b4a-f9d3-11ea-a510-f57d8ce76e11_story.html" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>.</p><p>"COVID-19 is an unprecedented global crisis that demands an unprecedented global response," said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement. "Vaccine nationalism will only perpetuate the disease and prolong the global recovery. Working together through the COVAX Facility is not charity, it's in every country's own best interests to control the pandemic and accelerate the global economic recovery."</p>
<p>At a briefing on Monday, Ghebreyesus denounced vaccine nationalism again, according to The Washington Post. "The race for vaccines is a collaboration, not a contest," he said to a gathering of reporters. "This is not charity. It's in every country's best interest. We sink or swim together."</p><p>Once a vaccine candidate reaches all of its endpoints for safety and efficacy, the WHO's plan will be implemented in two phases under a "fair allocation mechanism." The first phase has two discrete parts. After enough doses of a successful candidate are produced, each participating country will receive enough doses for 3 percent of their population. That first batch would go to health care and social care workers on the frontlines of the pandemic. After that first batch is distributed, a second set of doses will be distributed equally so 20 percent of the population can be inoculated. The second set of doses will be for vulnerable populations like the elderly and people with complicating health conditions, according to Science.</p>
<p>The second phase will distribute vaccine doses by need rather than by equal distribution. Countries that take part in Covax will receive vaccines based on how desperately they are needed. To determine urgency, Covax will look at the transmission rate, whether other diseases like flu are spreading rapidly, and if a healthcare system is seeing its hospitals and intensive care units overwhelmed, as Science reported.</p><p>"Providing each country with enough doses to start protecting the health system and those at higher risk of dying is the best approach to maximize the impact of the small quantities of vaccines," said Mariângela Batista Galvão Simão, the WHO's assistant director general for access to medicines and health products, as The Washington Post reported.</p><p>While the first phase of the plan may not address the most dire and urgent situations, the equal distribution of the vaccine in proportion to population is meant to encourage more countries to participate in Covax, according to The Washington Post.</p><p>"It's a very pragmatic and expedient way of trying to put forward a simple plan and will not ignite a food fight among different member states in the first phase," said J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, as The Washington Post reported.</p>
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