2016 Elections | Statement of Environmentalists for Bernie Sanders

…and why Latinx voters
should join this political revolution

Moderator’s Note:  It is my privilege to present this
endorsement statement by a respected and diverse group of environmental activists
formed a few months ago, Environmentalists
for Bernie. I wish to use this statement as an opening for me to make the
case for Latinx endorsement of Senator Sanders as our candidate for the Democratic
Party nomination.

It is especially important that Latinx youth and young adults,
the so-called Millennials, lead the way in turning out to vote for Sanders in
the forthcoming California, Oregon, and Washington state primaries. California
Latinx youth have an especially significant opportunity to play a decisive role
to make sure that the nomination does not go to Hillary Clinton, who is a neoliberal
not a progressive and is certainly no where near to understanding and
respecting the democratic socialist ideals that our young people are rapidly embracing
in widening social movements against the dictatorship of the 1 Percent.

Let me make the case by focusing quickly on four of the most salient
issues facing young adult Latinx voters, who are the fastest growing segment of
the electorate:

1. Environmental justice.

2. Immigrant and workers’ rights.

3. Universal health care.

4. Free college education.

1. Environmental
justice.
The Flint water crisis is just the tip of the generalized poisoning of our youth
and families through the privatization and corporate takeover of our municipal
water supplies. Environmental racism remains widespread and, despite the EPA’s
environmental justice (EJ) programs, and Executive Order 12898, progress has
been close to non-existent on this immense and widespread environmental
problem.  Bernie Sanders will greatly
expand EPA EJ programs he will also support legislation to establish a national
environmental justice act to make the demand of the decades-old movement
statutory. Sanders will shut down the fracking industry, which is responsible
for increased environmental risks in low income and people of color
communities. Sanders will give us climate justice, and implement policies and
seek legislation to make the climate change a the centerpiece driving a shift
to renewable energy sources, and not the type of centralized solar farming that
the Obama Administration has promoted.

Many have asked: How will we pay for these initiatives? Is it
realistic or do we need Clinton to negotiate the politics of the possible? My
response is simple: Tax the Hoard, Clean Water Across the Board!  Suggested hashtag, #TaxTheHoard. There is a
$5 trillion hoard in sequestered capitalist wealth right now that is stowed
away from reinvestments and is part of the 1 percenters’ political strike on
investments during the Obama Administration. This wealth, which we created,
must be re-appropriated and used to invest in environmental protection, which
would include the $50-100 billion needed to upgrade water systems across the
country. Bernie Sanders will find a way to tax the hoard and re-appropriate
this collective wealth to invest in our cities and towns; Clinton is in the
pockets of the Wall Street financiers, her banker friends are among the most brutal
of the hoarders.

2. Immigrant and
Workers’ Rights. Bernie Sanders understands that the key to addressing
immigration is to provide for workers’ rights across the board, regardless of
citizenship status, educational attainment, or skills. He also understands
intersectionalities, and how the same system that exploits immigrant workers is
the system involved in mass incarceration and privatization of the nation’s
prison and detention center complex. Sanders will support a pathway to
citizenship for out of status workers while emphasizing family reunification
for those split across borders. He will suspend deportation campaigns, downsize
and de-militarize Customs and Border Enforcement, and refocus resources on
naturalization instead of border repression. He will lead for reform of the
system to end the impunity with which Border Patrol agents regularly shoot,
wound, and kill innocent border crossers and even residents on the other side
of the border.

3. Universal Health
Care. Bernie
Sanders seeks a system “where all people can get the care they need to maintain
and improve their health when they need it regardless of income, age or
socioeconomic status.” This includes people who are of uncertain legal status.
Health care for all, means everyone! Sanders will end the politics of death,
which is what our current system based on private insurance is delivering,
death for the uninsured or the underinsured. This issue is important to the
future wellbeing of Latinx young adults and youth, whose parents and grandparents
they will soon care for. Imagine the ruinous burden this will turn out to be if
our young people inherit the devastating job of caring for families ruined by
unaffordable health care costs. Sanders will make sure this sort of debt is not
allowed to interfere with our young peoples’ future prospects.

4. Free College
Education.
A well-educated populace is indispensable if we are to have any truly
democratic prospects. Sanders will invest resources to make sure every person
wanting to gain a college education will be able to do so without falling into
the debt trap currently imposed on students of all age groups. Sanders will
also support a ‘jubilee’ to forgive all student loan debt, about $1 trillion,
and this could be achieved by taxing the hoard and adding new ‘just transition’
taxes to be levied against the wealthiest families and corporations.  Since Latinx people are becoming the demographic
majority across many states, like California, New Mexico, and Texas, access to free
college education is a powerful demand that will unlock our future potential.
Imagine how recent and future college graduates will be able to invest in
creating small businesses to grow a solidarity economy instead of falling into the
crushing trap of college debt, which prevents them from ever being able to command
the resources to help build a more just and equitable economic system.

An educated populace is more likely to support the kinds of
wealth re-distribution policies needed if we are to meaningfully and
effectively address structural inequalities. Educated persons embrace progressive
ideas and will help social movements revive and expand environmental protections,
re-invest in our youth and infrastructure, protect workers and immigrants by
strengthening workers’ rights across the board, and bring an end to the thanatopolitics
of privatized health care, while placing us back on the long path toward a
multiracial mass-based democracy, which has been interrupted by three decades
of neoliberal mischief and unacknowledged centuries of settler colonialism.
Decolonize the government, vote for Bernie!

STATEMENT OF ENVIRONMENTALISTS FOR BERNIE

 

We are environmentalists, climate change activists, and
environmental justice advocates from all walks of life that share a vision of
the future for our country. We seek a nation that:

•  Transitions away from
fossil fuels toward a 100% clean, sustainable, nuclear-free energy system, and
ensures a stable climate for both present and future generations;

•  Realizes climate and
environmental justice by addressing the ways in which climate change and
pollution disproportionately impact communities of color, indigenous peoples,
low-income neighborhoods, women, new immigrants, and working class families;

•  Achieves clean
production and the use of safer alternatives to toxic chemicals;

•  Provides open green
space in all urban, suburban, and rural communities;

•  Preserves pristine
wilderness areas, national parks, wildlife habitat, and endangered species;

•  Recognizes the
sovereignty and jurisdictional rights of indigenous peoples;

•  Ensures access to
healthy food grown in a sustainable manner with safe working conditions for
farmworkers and farmers;

•  Safeguards the
vitality of our coastlines, estuaries, lakes, rivers, oceans, and marine life;

•  Protects public health
by cleaning up the air, water, and land, and eliminating exposure to harmful
substances in the environment;

•  Invests in affordable
mass transportation systems, including high-speed passenger rail;

•  Promotes principles of
economic equity, social justice, democratic participation, and sustainability
in environmental problem-solving and policy.

We seek a nation with an economy predicated on fair
trade, green jobs and just transition for workers in affected industries, real
living wages, consumer protection from predatory practices, occupational health
and safety, and full access to high quality health care and education as a
right of citizenship.

We seek a nation where our democracy is protected from the
corruptive influence of billionaires and corporate polluters currently flooding
the political system with money in an attempt to roll-back environmental
regulations, worker rights, and public health policies.

Bernie Sanders is dedicated to achieving this vision as well,
and for this reason, we endorse his candidacy to become the next President of
the United States of America. Bernie has a long-standing commitment to fighting
for the environment, achieving a 95% lifetime rating on the
national environmental scorecard of the League of Conservation Voters. This
score is better than any other presidential candidate. In the 113th Congress,
Bernie also received a 95 score from
Climate Hawks for his work on climate and clean energy policy, the
highest rating of any Senator in the Congress.Furthermore, a new political
scorecard by 350.org Action shows
that Bernie is the only presidential candidate with a spotless record when it
comes to the climate movement’s top priorities. With 22,156 votes cast,
Bernie Sanders has earned Climate Hawks Vote Political Action’s endorsement in
the 2016 Democratic presidential primary with an extraordinary 92.2% of the
vote.On issues ranging from Arctic drilling to fossil fuel divestment to
fracking to #ExxonKnew,
the senator from Vermont has taken strong stances—going as far as to call for an
outright ban on fracking. Bernie has a long track record of
activism and political service in support of the environment, racial justice,
economic equality, labor rights, and grassroots democracy. He refuses to create
a Super-PAC or be influenced by the big money offered by major corporate
polluters. He is a candidate of the people, and We can win! A stunning new poll
by Quinnipiac suggests Bernie Sanders is the most electable candidate in either
party to be the next president of the United States. We are looking to coalesce
leaders, public figures, and ordinary people to challenge our broken political
system and fight for environmental justice and a sustainable future.

We
are Environmentalists for Bernie. Please join our efforts, and help make this
vision a reality. Join the political revolution today!

The
original endorsers include:

Friends of
the Earth Action | Climate Hawks Vote | Soil4Climate

Shannon
Bell SCHOLAR | AUTHOR On Appalachian Women and the Fight for Environmental
Justice | Marisol Becerra SCHOLAR / EJ ADVOCATE Little Village Environmental
Justice Organization* | David Blittersdorf FOUNDER & CEO AllEarth
Renewables Inc.* | Kelly Blynn CO-FOUNDER AND FORMER GLOBAL CAMPAIGN
CO-DIRECTOR 350.org* | Paul Bogart CHIEF PROGRAM OFFICER Health Care Without
Harm U.S.* |  Tommaso Boggia FORMER
CLIMATE ADVOCACY ASSOCIATE Center for American Progress* | Phil Brown SCHOLAR |
DIRECTOR Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute* | Ophir Bruck
FORMER SUSTAINABLE INVESTMENT ANALYST University of California* | Robert Brulle
SCHOLAR | AUTHOR Agency, Democracy & the Environment | Kenny Bruno
COORDINATOR Beyond Oil
Campaign Fund* | Ethan Buckner CAMPAIGNER, FOREST ETHICS; UDALL SCHOLAR | Julia
Butterfly Hill ACTIVIST, AUTHOR, EDUCATOR, CONSULTANT | Mike Callicrate
ADVOCATE FOR Healthy Food from Family Farms and Ranches* | Daniel Chiotos
FORMER PRESIDENT West Virginia Environmental Council* | Arielle Clynes
COORDINATING BODY SustainUS* | Eliot Coleman ORGANIC FARMER AND AUTHOR The New
Organic Grower | Elizabeth Crowe CO-DIRECTOR Coming Clean* | Morgan Curtis
CO-FOUNDER Climate Journey* | Martin Dagoberto CAMPAIGN COORDINATOR Right to
Know GMOs*| Tim DeChristopher CLIMATE JUSTICE ACTIVIST Climate Disobedience
Center* |  Barbara Dudley FORMER
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Greenpeace USA* | Gabe Elsner FOUNDER Energy & Policy
Institute* | Monica Embrey CLIMATE AND ENERGY CAMPAIGNER Greenpeace USA* |
Daniel Faber SCHOLAR | ACTIVIST/ DIRECTOR Northeastern Environmental Justice
Research Collaborative* | Emily Figdor FORMER DIRECTOR Environment
Maine* |  Josh Fox FILMMAKER Gasland
& Gasland Part II | Kari Fulton

ENVIRONMENTAL
JUSTICE ADVOCATE | Justin Garoutte EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Conejos
Clean Water* | Ken Geiser SCHOLAR | AUTHOR Chemicals without Harm | Jim
Gerritsen 25 “PEOPLE WHO ARE CHANGING THE WORLD.” Utne Reader 2011* | Morgan
Goodwin VICE-MAYOR OF TRUCKEE, CA Former Online Campaigner, Avaaz* | Kyle
Gracey CHAIR, BOARD OF DIRECTORS SustainUS* | Russell Greene BOARD PRESIDENT | People
Demanding Action* | Thom Hartmann PRODUCER The Thom Hartmann Program* | Adam
Hasz CHAIR SustainUS – U.S. Youth for Justice and Sustainability* | Lauren
Heine EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Northwest Green Chemistry* | Anjali Helferty FORMER
MANAGING DIRECTOR Energy Action Coalition* | Tara Houska TRIBAL RIGHTS ATTORNEY
& FOUNDER NotYourMascots.org* | Shoshanna Howard FORMER DIRECTOR California
Student Sustainability Coalition* |  Lisa
Hoyos CO-FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR Climate Parents | Megan Jenny FORMER PROGRAM
MANAGER Chesapeake Climate Action Network* | Whit Jones CLIMATE ACTIVIST | Stephen
Kretzmann EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Oil Change International* | Eric Krieg SCHOLAR AND
CO-AUTHOR Unequal
Exposure: Environmental Injustices in Massachusetts | Winona LaDuke EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR Honor the Earth* | Maria Langholz COP21 DELEGATION LEADER SustainUS* |
Tom Lent POLICY DIRECTOR Healthy Building Network* | Jonathan
London EJ SCHOLAR | DIRECTOR Center for Regional Change, UC-Davis* | Valerie
Love CLIMATE JUSTICE ADVOCATE | Xiuhtezcatl Martinez INDIGENOUS CLIMATE
ACTIVIST | Chloe Maxmin FOUNDER First Here, Then Everywhere* | Mike McGinn FORMER
MAYOR OF SEATTLE, 2010-14 | Bill McKibben CLIMATE ACTIVIST | AUTHOR Eaarth:
Making a Life on a Tough New Planet | Peter Montague FOUNDER AND
FORMER DIRECTOR Environmental Research Foundation | David Naguib Pellow ENVIRONMENTAL
JUSTICE SCHOLAR Resisting Global Toxics: Transnational Movements for
Environmental Justice |  Devon G. Peña

EJ SCHOLAR
AND AUTHOR Chicana/o Environmental Justice Struggles for a Post-Neoliberal Age
|  Erich Pica PRESIDENT Friends of the
Earth Action | Laura Pulido SCHOLAR AND
AUTHOR Environmentalism and Economic Justice | John Qua U.S. FIELD ORGANIZER Global
Zero* | Carolyn Raffensperger EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Science and
Environmental Health Network | Timmons Roberts SCHOLAR | AUTHOR A Climate Of
Injustice | Anthony Rogers-Wright POLICY DIRECTOR Environmental Action* | Dan
Rosen FOUNDER | PRESIDENT Mosaic*| Mark Ruffalo ACTOR |
FOUNDER Water Defense* |  Madeleine
Scammell BOARD OF DIRECTORS Science
& Environmental Health Network* | Juliet Schor SCHOLAR | AUTHOR True Wealth
| John Sellers CO-FOUNDER Other98* | Craig Slatin EDITOR New Solutions, a
Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health* | Marcie Smith EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR Responsible Endowments Coalition* | Ted Smith CO-FOUNDER International
Campaign for Responsible Technology* | Michael Snyder FOUNDER Interdependent
Pictures* | James “Gus” Speth FOUNDER & FORMER PRESIDENT National
Resources Defense Council* | Chad Stein DIRECTOR OF SUPPORTER INSIGHTS AND
SPECIAL PROJECTS Greenpeace USA* | Sandra Steingraber ECOLOGIST /
AUTHOR Living Downstream | Andrew Szasz SCHOLAR AND AUTHOR EcoPopulism:
Toxic Waste and the Movement for Environmental Justice | Barbara Thomas CO-FOUNDER
GMO Free NJ* | Zo Tobi FORMER NATIONAL CAMPAIGN DIRECTOR Sierra Student
Coalition* |  Zen Trenholm WORKER
COOPERATIVE ORGANIZER | Joe Uehlein PRESIDENT Labor Network for Sustainability*
| Beatriz Vera EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Integral Academy of El Paso* | Barbara Warren
RN,MS EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR Citizens’ Environmental Coalition* New York | Tom Weis PRESIDENT Climate
Crisis Solutions* | Marc Weiss EXECUTIVE PRODUCER A Fierce Green Fire | Brett
Wiley JUST TRANSITION ADVOCATE