Watch What Bill McKibben Calls 'One of the Best and Most Straightforward Videos about Climate Change I've Ever Seen From a Political Leader'

"I believe that if we are bold--if we have the courage to take on the fossil fuel industry, if we are prepared to invest in sustainable energy--we can make the necessary changes to save our planet." (Photo: David McNew/Getty)

Watch What Bill McKibben Calls 'One of the Best and Most Straightforward Videos about Climate Change I've Ever Seen From a Political Leader'

With the last five years the hottest since records began, Senator Bernie Sanders says that "What Trump and his friends in the fossil fuel industry are doing is criminal."

Bill McKibben, the author numerous books on human-caused global warming and co-founder of the global action group 350.org, said on Friday morning that he had just watched "one of the best and most straightforward videos about climate change I've ever seen from a political leader."

It was a video posted online by Sen. Bernie Sanders, who represents McKibben's homestate of Vermont. Sanders also remains one of the most tireless voices in Congress about the threat of the climate crisis and one of the few who has proposed legislation ambitious enough to impress both climate scientists and the community of activists demanding a rapid and complete transition off fossil fuels.

With the hottest years on record all occurring in the last five years--and with no end in sight--Sanders warns in his new video that "we cannot simply sit back and allow this beautiful planet to be destroyed."

Here it is:

"My simple message to all of you," Sanders concludes in the video, "is that we have got to stand up together, we have got to fight back, we have got to get active in the political process, and we have got to make it clear that the issue of climate change is certainly one of the great issues facing our nation and the entire planet... I believe that if we are bold--if we have the courage to take on the fossil fuel industry, if we are prepared to invest in sustainable energy--we can make the necessary changes to save our planet. And that is exactly what we have to do."

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