{"id":49856,"date":"2021-02-22T21:59:28","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T21:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=165502"},"modified":"2021-02-22T21:59:28","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T21:59:28","slug":"as-millions-in-texas-lack-safe-water-sunrise-movement-rallies-at-state-capitol-demanding-green-new-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/22\/as-millions-in-texas-lack-safe-water-sunrise-movement-rallies-at-state-capitol-demanding-green-new-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"As Millions in Texas Lack Safe Water, Sunrise Movement Rallies at State Capitol Demanding Green New Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
While millions of Texans on Monday continued living without safe drinking water<\/a> and many faced storm damage<\/a> and massive electricity bills<\/a>, youth leaders with the Sunrise Movement rallied at the state capitol in Austin, using the current conditions across the Lone Star State to bolster their demand<\/a> for a Green New Deal.<\/p>\n “We need change, and the Green New Deal is the obvious, urgent solution.” “Texas is the perfect example of what happens when our politicians cater to fossil fuel executives instead of the young people who have been shouting from the rooftops for years, warning of an impending climate emergency like this,” said Sunrise leader Chante Davis in a statement ahead of the rally.<\/p>\n The Houston teenager’s family moved to Texas in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.<\/p>\n “I’ve survived three once-in-a lifetime storms in my 17 years of life,” Davis said. “We need change, and the Green New Deal is the obvious, urgent solution. As our communities come together to fill the void of our government, our leaders must invest in us to provide jobs that directly address the crises we face.”<\/p>\n The group has been a key proponent of the Green New Deal resolution introduced<\/a> in 2019 by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.).<\/p>\n Last week’s deadly<\/a> winter weather, which experts have linked<\/a> to human-caused climate change, led to major power <\/a>outages across Texas\u2014the only state that mostly relies on its own electricity grid. Some Republicans, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, tried to blame renewable energy and warn of the not-yet-implemented Green New Deal, but the outages were largely tied to fossil fuel and nuclear facilities. Though much of the state now has power again, Texans are still dealing with water and food issues.<\/p>\n Concerns are also mounting<\/a> over the hundreds of thousands of pounds of pollutants\u2014including benzene, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, and sulfur dioxide\u2014that Texas oil refineries released while scrambling to shut down during the storm.<\/p>\n Climate campaigners within and beyond Texas have responded to the state’s cascading crises by ramping up<\/a> their calls for a Green New Deal, which would create millions of jobs by transitioning the nation to 100% clean power while launching a WWII-style mobilization to build “resiliency against climate change-related disasters.”<\/p>\n We know that when our lights go out, there are neighborhoods like @GovAbbott<\/a>\u2019s whose don\u2019t.<\/p>\n The rest of us? We come together as a community & pitch in to make sure everyone is ok.<\/p>\n What if our government was there for us the way we are for each other?<\/p>\n That\u2019s the Green New Deal. pic.twitter.com\/rcYDDJ8csI<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Sunrise Movement (@sunrisemvmt) February 18, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n In a petition<\/a> open for signatures from Texas residents, Sunrise lays out four key demands\u2014including the resignation of Abbott and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who came under fire<\/a> last week for fleeing to Canc\u00fan for a vacation as his constituents endured<\/a> the fallout from the storm during the coronavirus pandemic:<\/p>\n Journalist and environmentalist Naomi Klein on Monday noted Cruz’s attempted defense of the trip in a tweet promoting the Sunrise rally:<\/p>\n Ted Cruz says he went to Mexico to be a “good parent.” That was BS, as we all know. The way to be a good parent (or aunt\/uncle\/grandparent\/human) is to listen to the Sunrise kids and join them in fighting for a #GreenNewDeal<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/6l9KPFSW6u<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Naomi Klein (@NaomiAKlein) February 22, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Klein\u2014author of This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate<\/em><\/a> and other books\u2014argued<\/a> in a Sunday column for the New York Times<\/em> that Republicans “fear” the Green New Deal because it offers a viable alternative to “the collapse of a 40-year experiment in free-market fundamentalism” that Texans are now enduring.<\/p>\n “The horrors currently unfolding in Texas expose both the reality of the climate crisis and the extreme vulnerability of fossil fuel infrastructure in the face of that crisis,” Klein wrote. “So of course the Green New Deal finds itself under fierce attack. Because for the first time in a long time, Republicans face the very thing that they claim to revere but never actually wanted: competition\u2014in the battle of ideas.”<\/p>\n I wrote about why Texas Republicans are terrified of the #GreenNewDeal<\/a> for @nytimes<\/a>. <\/p>\n Their ideas are no longer “lying around,” as Milton Friedman said they must be \u2014 their ideas are lying in ruin <\/p>\n And it’s the left with the plan fit for today’s shocks. https:\/\/t.co\/lCWTvOAY67<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Naomi Klein (@NaomiAKlein) February 21, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
\u2014Chante Davis, Sunrise Movement<\/p>\n\n
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