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"This is a moral imperative," said the senator as historic heat continued in Phoenix, Arizona.
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday evening issued yet another call for a major mobilization to take on the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis in response to a new record in Phoenix, Arizona: 100 straight days of the temperature hitting at least 100°F.
"100 straight days of 100-degree heat," Sanders (I-Vt.) said on social media, sharing a report from The Washington Post. "The heatwave has killed at least 150 people this summer in Phoenix alone."
"The climate emergency demands a massive-scale mobilization," stressed the senator, a longtime advocate for a swift, just transition away from oil and gas. "There is no choice. This is a moral imperative."
The death toll comes from the Post, which noted that in 2023, the hottest year on record globally, "heat deaths increased 50% from 2022, reaching a record of 645 people in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix. This year, 150 heat deaths have been confirmed by the government and an additional 440 deaths are under investigation."
Increasingly deadly extreme heat is a national issue. Research published last month in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Associationshows that heat-related deaths in the United States rose 117% between 1999 and 2023, with the highest rates recorded in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Texas.
After the 100-day mark on Tuesday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said Wednesday that "with the high temperature exceeding 110°F at Phoenix Sky Harbor this afternoon, the number of days of 110°F+ high temperatures for the year now ties last year's record number of 110°F+ highs at 55 days. Expect a new record to be set tomorrow (forecasted highs of 110-115°F)."
The NWS warned Thursday that "unseasonably hot conditions are expected to persist into next week," projecting temperatures between 108-114°F in the Arizona city through Monday.
As the Arizona Republicreported earlier this week:
Not only was this the hottest summer on record in Phoenix, but in Flagstaff, Winslow, Kingman Douglas, and Tucson too.
"For most of the state, it's looking like the hottest summer on record," said Sean Benedict, the lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Phoenix. "There were several locations around Arizona that set the record for the hottest summer."
Climate Centralpointed out Tuesday that the extreme heat in and around Phoenix was "made at least four to five times MORE likely to occur (yes, even in early September) due to human-caused climate change."
As communities around the world have endured intense heat throughout 2024, scientists have warned it could break the 2023 record and become the new hottest year in human history. The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said last month that the most recent July was just barely the second-warmest July globally—ending a streak that lasted from June 2023 to June 2024, during which each month was the hottest on record.
"Globally, July 2024 was almost as warm as July 2023, the hottest month on record," C3S deputy director Samantha Burgess said at the time. "July 2024 saw the two hottest days on record. The overall context hasn't changed, our climate continues to warm. The devastating effects of climate change started well before 2023 and will continue until global greenhouse gas emissions reach net-zero."
Although C3S has not yet released its official findings for last month, Agence France-Pressereported Tuesday that the agency's preliminary data show that "August 2024 should be on a par with last year's record 16.82°C (62.28°F)."
The C3S findings slightly conflict with those of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which found that the latest July "was Earth's warmest July on record, extending the streak of record-high monthly global temperatures to 14 successive months." NOAA also hasn't yet released its data for August.
What climate experts agree on is that much more must be done to address the crisis created by fossil fuels. As World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said in response to this summer's findings: "Climate adaptation alone is not enough. We need to tackle the root cause and get serious about reducing record levels of greenhouse gas emissions."
In addition to transitioning from fossil fuels to green energy, some have called for going after corporate giants that continue to rake in record profits from their planet-wrecking products. In June, Public Citizen unveiled a legal memo detailing how local or state prosecutors could bring criminal charges against Big Oil for deaths from extreme heat—using Arizona as an example.
"Across all three states, 80% or more of Democrats and Independents support a permanent cease-fire and 60% or more disapprove of more weapons to Israel," said the IMEU Policy Project.
As the official death toll from Israel's U.S.-backed assault on the Gaza Strip topped 40,000 on Thursday, new polling showed that Democratic and Independent voters in three key swing states would be more willing to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in the November presidential election if she supported cutting off weapons to Israeli forces.
The poll was commissioned by the Institute for Middle Eastern Understanding (IMEU) Policy Project, conducted by YouGov, and initially reported on by Zeteo. It involved hundreds of Democrats and Independents in Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.
From July 25 through August 9, pollsters asked voters if and how the Democratic nominee pledging "to withhold more weapons to Israel for committing human rights abuses against Palestinian civilians" would impact their vote. In Arizona, 35% said they would be more likely to vote for her, versus 5% who said they would be less likely. The figures were similar in Georgia (39% versus 5%) and Pennsylvania (34% versus 7%).
Even bigger shares of voters said they would be more likely to support her in November if President Joe Biden—who dropped out of the race and passed the torch to Harris last month—secured a permanent cease-fire in Gaza. In Arizona, 41% said they would be more likely to vote for her, versus 2% who said they would be less likely. In both Georgia and Pennsylvania, it was 44% versus 2%.
"If the Democrats want Vice President Harris to be the strongest nominee possible going into November, then they should be demanding that President Biden stop the flow of weapons to Israel and secure a permanent cease-fire immediately."
"Across all three states, 80% or more of Democrats and Independents support a permanent cease-fire and 60% or more disapprove of more weapons to Israel," the IMEU Policy Project said in a social media thread sharing more results from the poll. "About a quarter of those surveyed across these states say the violence in Gaza will sway how they vote."
The group added that "57% of Arizonans surveyed say U.S. support for Israel has been 'too much' versus just 2% who say it has not been enough. 48% of Pennsylvanians say it has been too much versus 3% who say not enough, and 50% of Georgians say it has been too much versus 2% who say it has not been enough."
IMEU Policy Project executive director Margaret DeReus said in a statement that "this polling clearly shows that if the Democrats want Vice President Harris to be the strongest nominee possible going into November, then they should be demanding that President Biden stop the flow of weapons to Israel and secure a permanent cease-fire immediately."
"Not only are these policies popular, but they actually move voters from the 'undecided' or 'not voting' column and into the Democrats' column in the states Democrats will need to win," DeReus highlighted.
Throughout the presidential primary process, when Biden was still at the top of the ticket, a nationwide movement emerged encouraging voters to select "uncommitted" or take similar action, depending on the options for each state's ballot.
Hundreds of thousands of primary voters—including over 100,000 in the battleground state Michigan—took the opportunity to show the Biden-Harris administration that they oppose U.S. support for Israel's assault on Gaza, which the International Court of Justice is deliberating as a possible case of genocide.
The U.S. administration is involved in ongoing cease-fire negotiations—which resumed in Qatar on Thursday—but also continues to arm Israeli forces, approving roughly $20 billion in additional U.S.-made weapons for the nation's military on Tuesday.
Last week, Layla Elabed and Abbas Alawieh, two Michigan voters who co-founded the Uncommitted National Movement, spoke with Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The movement said that the Democratic nominee "shared her sympathies and expressed an openness to a meeting with Uncommitted leaders to discuss an arms embargo."
However, Phil Gordon, national security adviser to Harris, also said the vice president "has been very clear: she will always ensure Israel is able to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups. She does not support an arms embargo on Israel. She will continue to work to protect civilians in Gaza and to uphold international humanitarian law."
Noting Gordon's statement from last week, Norman Solomon of RootsAction wrote in a Thursday opinion piece for Common Dreams that "if maintained, that stance will continue to be a moral catastrophe—while increasing the chances that Harris will lose" to the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.
Solomon recalled when another wartime president bowed out of the next race and backed his vice president: In 1968, Hubert Humphrey became the nominee at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, amid protests over the Vietnam War. He ultimately lost to Republican President Richard Nixon.
While Harris has already locked up the nomination via an online process, the Illinois city is set to host the DNC again next week. Anticipating thousands of protesters denouncing "U.S. complicity with the methodical killing of so many children, women, and other civilians in Gaza," Solomon urged Harris to learn from recent polling and the example of Humphrey.
"We are deeply disappointed in this ruling, but will not be deterred from doing everything in our power to communicate to voters the truth of the Arizona Abortion Access Act," said the campaign behind the ballot measure.
While celebrating that Arizona voters will get to weigh in on an abortion rights ballot measure this November, reproductive rights advocates on Wednesday blasted a state Supreme Court ruling about language in a related informational pamphlet.
Overturning a decision from the Maricopa County Superior Court, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that Republican legislators' use of "unborn human being" to refer to a fetus in the pamphlet "substantially complies" with the state's impartiality requirements.
"The Arizona Supreme Court today reversed the trial court's well-reasoned ruling and held that the phrase 'unborn human being'—a watchword for anti-abortion advocates with no basis in medicine or science—is somehow impartial or objective," the Arizona for Abortion Access campaign said in a statement.
"This means that Arizona voters won't get to learn about the questions on their ballot in a fair, neutral, and accurate way but will instead be subjected to biased, politically charged words developed not by experts but by anti-abortion special interests to manipulate voters and spread misinformation," the campaign continued.
"We are deeply disappointed in this ruling," the campaign added, "but will not be deterred from doing everything in our power to communicate to voters the truth of the Arizona Abortion Access Act and why it's critical to vote YES to restore and protect access to abortion care this fall."
The Arizona Abortion Access Act is a proposed state constitutional amendment that would prohibit many restrictions on abortions before fetal viability and safeguard access to care after viability to protect the life or health of the patient. The office of Arizona's secretary of state formally certified the proposed ballot measure on Monday.
The campaign to get the measure on the ballot garnered national attention earlier this year, when the Arizona Supreme Court upheld an 1864 abortion ban that includes no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. Although Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs signed legislation to repeal the ban less than a month later, reproductive rights advocates have continued to emphasize the importance of passing the amendment.
Arizona is one of several states where reproductive freedom measures are—or soon could be—on the ballot in November. Rights advocates have increasingly pushed and succeeded in passing such measures since the U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority reversedRoe v. Wade two years ago, which set off a fresh wave of GOP efforts to enact state abortion bans.
The battle over the Arizona pamphlet is connected to a broad push by the anti-choice movement to ultimately end abortion care by recognizing fetuses and embryos as people with legal protections and rights.
This strategy has even influenced the latest Republican Party platform, which says that "we believe that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied life or liberty without due process, and that the states are, therefore, free to pass laws protecting those rights."
The platform was finalized last month, shortly before the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, announced U.S. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate—a decision that further stoked fears of what a GOP victory in November would mean for abortion rights at the federal level.
Trump and Vance are set to face Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who have strong support from reproductive rights groups. Planned Parenthood Action Fund president Alexis McGill Johnson recently declared that they "are the only people we can trust to ensure that everyone has the freedom to make decisions about their own bodies."