October, 23 2009, 01:34pm EDT
Greenpeace Reaction to Obama Energy Speech
President Obama gave an energy-themed speech
today at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ahead of hearings on
the climate and energy legislation scheduled to be taken up by the
Senate next week.
Statement of Damon Moglen, Greenpeace's Global Warming Campaign
Director: "President Obama's speech comes at a
critical moment in the national conversation about how our country must
respond to the global warming crisis, and we welcome his renewed
engagement in this critical debate.
WASHINGTON
President Obama gave an energy-themed speech
today at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ahead of hearings on
the climate and energy legislation scheduled to be taken up by the
Senate next week.
Statement of Damon Moglen, Greenpeace's Global Warming Campaign
Director: "President Obama's speech comes at a
critical moment in the national conversation about how our country must
respond to the global warming crisis, and we welcome his renewed
engagement in this critical debate.
"However, with negotiations stalled just six weeks before international
climate talks in Copenhagen, the world needs President Obama to go
beyond political speeches and make firm commitments based on science.
"The climate and energy legislation passed in the House and now the
similar Senate bill have been a source of international disappointment.
The bills' weak targets for reducing emissions, and billions in wasted
giveaways to the coal industry, handicaps America's ability to build a
clean energy future at home and to provide global leadership on this
life and death matter.
"It is clear that Congress will not pass legislation this year that
goes far enough and fast enough in addressing the demands of climate
change. The President must get out of the back seat and take the wheel
of America's climate policy. At a domestic level, the President needs
to assert executive authority to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and
stimulate decisive growth in the clean energy economy.
"At the international level, Mr Obama should be articulating ambitious
vision and commitments for Copenhagen which are in-scale with the
global need to address climate change.
"Tomorrow, the most widespread day of global political action the
planet has ever seen will demand that world leaders secure a fair,
ambitious, and binding treaty at Copenhagen capable of preventing the
worst impacts of global warming. We hope President Obama will be
listening because today the American plan to address the crisis falls
short of this imperative."
Greenpeace is a global, independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
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'Make Polio Great Again': Alarm Over RFK Jr. Lawyer Who Targeted Vaccine
"So if you're wondering if Donald Trump is trying to kill your kids, yes, yes he is," said one critic.
Dec 13, 2024
Public health advocates, federal lawmakers, and other critics responded with alarm to The New York Timesreporting on Friday that an attorney helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. select officials for the next Trump administration tried to get the U.S. regulators to revoke approval of the polio vaccine in 2022.
"The United States has been a leader in the global fight to eradicate polio, which is poised to become only the second disease in history to be eliminated from the face of the earth after smallpox," said Liza Barrie, Public Citizen's campaign director for global vaccines access. "Undermining polio vaccination efforts now risks reversing decades of progress and unraveling one of the greatest public health achievements of all time."
Public Citizen is among various organizations that have criticized President-elect Donald Trump's choice of Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, with the watchdog's co-president, Robert Weissman, saying that "he shouldn't be allowed in the building... let alone be placed in charge of the nation's public health agency."
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According to the newspaper:
Mr. Siri is also representing ICAN in petitioning the FDA to "pause distribution" of 13 other vaccines, including combination products that cover tetanus, diphtheria, polio, and hepatitis A, until their makers disclose details about aluminum, an ingredient researchers have associated with a small increase in asthma cases.
Mr. Siri declined to be interviewed, but said all of his petitions were filed on behalf of clients. Katie Miller, a spokeswoman for Mr. Kennedy, said Mr. Siri has been advising Mr. Kennedy but has not discussed his petitions with any of the health nominees. She added, "Mr. Kennedy has long said that he wants transparency in vaccines and to give people choice."
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The Times pointed out that experts consider placebo-controlled trials that would deny some children polio shots unethical, because "you're substituting a theoretical risk for a real risk," as Dr. Paul A. Offit, a vaccine expert at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, explained. "The real risks are the diseases."
Ayman Chit, head of vaccines for North America at Sanofi, told the newspaper that development of the vaccine began in 1977, over 280 million people worldwide have received it, and there have been more than 300 studies, some with up to six months of follow-up.
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Asked about RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine record during a Time "Person of the Year" interview published Thursday, the president-elect said that "we're going to be able to do very serious testing" and certain vaccines could be made unavailable "if I think it's dangerous."
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Both comments generated concern—like the Friday reporting in the Times, which University of Alabama law professor and MSNBC columnist Joyce White Vance called "absolutely terrifying."
She was far from alone. HuffPost senior front page editor Philip Lewis said that "this is just so dangerous and ridiculous" while Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan declared, "We are so—and I use this word advisedly—fucked."
Ryan Cooper, managing editor at The American Prospect, warned that "they want your kids dead."
Author and musician Mikel Jollett similarly said, "So if you're wondering if Donald Trump is trying to kill your kids, yes, yes he is."
Multiple critics altered Trump's campaign slogan to "Make Polio Great Again."
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) responded with a video on social media:
Without naming anyone, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a polio survivor, put out a lengthy statement on Friday.
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"It's a big slap in the face for us once again," Amanda Lorah—who was sentenced by Conahan to five years of juvenile detention over a high school fight—toldWBRE.
Sandy Fonzo, whose son killed himself after being sentenced to juvenile detention, said in a statement: "I am shocked and I am hurt. Conahan's actions destroyed families, including mine, and my son's death is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power."
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Others have called on Biden—who earlier this month pardoned his son Hunter Biden after promising he wouldn't—to grant clemency to people including Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier and environmental lawyer Steven Donziger.
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As Israel continues to decimate the Gaza Strip with American weapons, 77 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives this week demanded that the Biden administration "provide a full assessment of the status of Israel's compliance with all relevant U.S. policies and laws, including National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20) and Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act."
Reps. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), and Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) spearheaded the Thursday letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, with less than six weeks left in President Joe Biden's term.
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