May, 30 2018, 12:00am EDT
Bill McKibben and 350 Action Endorse Kevin de Leon (D-CA) for the U.S. Senate
Today, author Bill McKibben and 350 Action, a national organization working to change the politics of climate change, endorsed Kevin de Leon (D-CA) for the U.S. Senate. Read De Leon's answers to 350 Action's candidate questionnaire here.
WASHINGTON
Today, author Bill McKibben and 350 Action, a national organization working to change the politics of climate change, endorsed Kevin de Leon (D-CA) for the U.S. Senate. Read De Leon's answers to 350 Action's candidate questionnaire here.
"Kevin de Leon has been a strong champion of clean energy--and an effective one, using his power in Sacramento to make change happen against the strong opposition of the fossil fuel industry," said 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben. "He won't just vote the right way in DC, he will make the climate justice debate come alive!"
"California is seen as a leader in climate action, but there's so much more that must be done," said 350 Action Executive Director May Boeve. "Kevin de Leon has authored several bills to push the needle on climate in his home state, including California's SB100 for a 100% renewable energy transition. He is rising to the challenge to make California a true leader on climate that goes above and beyond what we've seen nationally, and not a moment too soon."
On the connection between healthy communities and environmental justice, De Leon wrote in his questionnaire, "Public health is the cornerstone of environmental and environmental justice policy, and will always be among my highest priorities. Environmental justice is at the core of the health problems suffered by people of color--especially our children and parents--who live and work in the inland areas of Los Angeles, the Central Valley, and San Diego. It is ironic that economic interests often argue against strong environmental protection based on costs, when those costs do not take into account the millions of dollars spent every year in emergency room costs, job and school absenteeism and the like. These are the true economic costs associated with pollution, and they are a real world experience for most of the communities I represent."
350 Action is empowering voters across the country to make a direct impact in the most important climate races in the nation. This year, 350 Action has also endorsed U.S. congressional candidates Deb Haaland (NM-1), Jess King (PA-11), Kaniela Ing (HI-1), and Thomas Heckroth (IA-1), and gubernatorial candidates Cynthia Nixon (D-NY), Ben Jealous (D-MD), Cathy Glasson (D-IA), Andrew Gillum (D-FL), and Bob Massie (D-MA).
350 is building a future that's just, prosperous, equitable and safe from the effects of the climate crisis. We're an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.
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Violent Arrest of Emory Professor Spotlights Brutality of Police Crackdown on Campus Protests
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Emory University economics professor Caroline Fohlin approached several police officers who were holding a student down on the ground on Thursday and demanded an explanation—but by the end of the day videos of her own arrest became some of the most widely circulated images of the rapidly spreading anti-war movement on college campuses across the U.S.
As she knelt down to ask the university officers, "What are you doing?" another law enforcement agent grabbed her arm and pushed her away before repeatedly ordering her to "get on the ground."
"Stop it!" Fohlin yelled before the officer pushed her to the ground and called for more police to help subdue her.
Fohlin then screamed, "Oh my God!" as the police pushed her down and told the police that she was a professor at the university as they held her on the ground.
Fohlin's arrest—after which she was detained for 11 hours and then charged with "battery of a police officer"—came a week after Columbia University suspended more than 100 students for setting up an encampment in solidarity with Gaza, where more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed by the U.S.-backed Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since October, and allowed police to arrest them. The mass arrests only served to galvanize students and faculty at Columbia and at dozens of other schools, with more than 400 peoplebeing detained so far.
The American Association of University Professors called the arrest "antithetical to the mission of higher education."
"Our institutions exist to foster robust exchanges of ideas and open dialogue in service of knowledge and understanding," said the group. "Sometimes that includes open dissent. Peaceful campus protests should never be met with violence."
Foreign policy expert Trita Parsi suggested that Fohlin's arrest was among the on-campus incidents that have strained the Democratic Party's argument that "democracy is on the ballot in November."
"To sustain this level of blind support for Israel, the U.S. must erode its own democracy. And that is what we see happening on U.S. campuses now," said Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, sharing a video of police tasing an Emory student who was already being held down on the ground.
Emil' Keme, a professor of English and Indigenous studies at Emory, toldDemocracy Now! on Friday that the scene on campus resembled "a war zone," especially after university and Atlanta police deployed tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters.
"I started feeling the tear gas, and I held arms with some people," he said. "We were being pushed back out of the encampment. And the student I was holding arms with, she was then arrested and the next thing I knew I was on the floor and I was being arrested."
Writer Abdullah Shihipar said Emory president Gregory Fenves—and all university administrators who have allowed the arrest of students who have peacefully protested, including several who have unilaterally altered school codes in order to ban protests—should resign.
"It has been a disgusting and embarrassing week for higher education," said Shihipar.
The crackdown on Emory students and faculty came a day after Texas state troopers descended on the University of Texas at Austin campus, some on horseback, and clamped down on a student walkout there, arresting more than 50 protesters.
Also on Thursday, students at Indiana University and Ohio State University (OSU)—where more than 30 and a dozen students were arrested, respectively—reported seeing snipers stationed on the rooftops of campus buildings, which an Ohio State representative denied.
The Biden administration has not directly addressed the protests or their demands since Monday, when President Joe Biden suggested the nationwide student uprising is "antisemitic."
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Irene Khan, the United Nations special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, said Thursday that the protests spreading across the U.S. and internationally are a sign that "the Gaza crisis is truly becoming a global crisis of the freedom of expression."
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On Friday, MSF published unnerving testimony from several members of its staff, including Dr. Ruba Suliman, who works at the Indonesian Field Hospital in Rafah, an overcrowded city in southern Gaza that Israeli forces are preparing to invade.
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