December, 08 2019, 11:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Kassie Siegel, Center for Biological Diversity, (951) 961-7972, ksiegel@biologicaldiversity.org
Ryan Schleeter, Greenpeace USA, (415) 342-2386, rschleet@greenpeace.org
Thanu Yakupitiyage, 350.org, (413) 687-5160, thanu@350.org
500 Groups Call for Next President to Declare National Climate Emergency
10 Executive Actions in First 10 Days Could Jump-start Fossil Fuel Phaseout, Transition to Just Green Economy.
WASHINGTON
More than 500 conservation, environmental justice, youth, health, faith and labor groups today called on the next U.S. president to declare a national climate emergency. The plan urges the next administration to take 10 executive actions in its first 10 days in office to confront the climate crisis.
The groups' action plan calls for the use of existing executive powers to take bold and foundational steps on climate, including an immediate halt to new fossil fuel leases, infrastructure and exports. None of the actions require congressional support, so they can be taken by a new president regardless of political circumstances.
The 10 actions include significant investment in public renewable-energy generation, use of the Clean Air Act to slash greenhouse pollution, and prosecution of fossil fuel polluters. The groups are calling for the next president to ensure a just transition that protects workers and communities disproportionately harmed by the climate catastrophe and affected by the shift to a post-carbon pollution economy.
"Our house is on fire, but the government is failing to treat this like the emergency it is," said Jane Fonda, a climate activist with Fire Drill Fridays who supports the plan. "We are in the heart of the climate emergency now, and it is literally game over for our children and the planet if the next president does not act with the force and foresight of a first-responder-in-chief."
"Swift action to confront the climate emergency has to start the moment the next president enters the Oval Office," said attorney Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute and a lead author of a paper explaining the legal authority for each of the actions. "After years of denial and destructive policies, the new administration must lead a transformational effort to break free of dirty fossil fuels and create a fair clean-energy future."
Today's plan builds on the unprecedented global climate movement led by youth and supported by adults.
"The U.S. should lead in the progression toward climate justice and serve as a ground zero in decreasing economic inequality," said Isra Hirsi, the 16-year-old co-founder and partnerships director at U.S. Youth Climate Strike. "The president should not be hesitant in pursuing complete economic, infrastructural and environmental sustainability. The U.S. Youth Climate Strike and fellow youth climate strikers demand that the 2020 U.S. president declare a climate emergency immediately upon taking office and generate sufficient urgency in policy making. We urge executive action to accurately reflect the needs of those most harshly affected by climate change, including people of color and low-income communities."
The plan focuses on unlocking existing executive authority to start a wholesale transition to a regenerative and equitable economy.
"On day one, we expect the next president of the United States to lead with the urgency required to mitigate the climate crisis. These ten executive actions are the essential building blocks for the rapid and transformational change we need in order to address the catastrophic impacts already being experienced by present generations and worsening each year that world leaders play politics with peoples' lives," said Tamara Toles O'Laughlin, North America director of 350.org. "There can be no more compromise on how to address the climate crisis; we must phase out coal, oil, and gas immediately, make polluters pay for the necessary care and repair to our climate, and invest in a just transition that creates millions of jobs and prioritizes frontline communities, Indigenous communities, and communities of color. Our demands are clear, and we expect the next president to step up to address the crisis of our time."
"The first 100 days in office will be a critical test for our next president. This 10-point plan contains desperately needed actions that can be taken regardless of the situation in Congress, and taking it seriously reflects a real commitment to addressing the climate emergency that is already killing communities on a daily basis," said Collin Rees, senior campaigner at Oil Change U.S. "Ending handouts to Big Oil, Gas, and Coal, winding down fossil fuel extraction, investing in a truly just transition for workers and communities, and paving the way for a 100% renewable energy economy are no-brainers. The future of the planet is on the line, and we need a president willing to stand up to big polluters and do what needs to be done."
"The climate crisis cannot be limited to one of fossil fuel emissions and infrastructure," explained Anthony Rogers-Wright, policy coordinator for Climate Justice Alliance. "Frontline communities, already being hit first and worst by this crisis, have always understood that the climate crisis is a crisis of justice, and its root causes are white supremacy, patriarchy, and colonization. The next President cannot stand by, wait for Congress to act and preside over a perpetual interregnum -- we have no more time for that. This set of executive actions puts the fossil fuel, and other iniquitous industries that treat our communities like sacrifice zones on notice, while offering a suite of actions the next president can promulgate on day one to address systemic and institutionalized injustices. At the same time, we're also putting the next Congress on notice to get serious about dismantling this crisis, or the people will circumvent you with all available means."
"Millions of Americans are rising up to demand our government tackle the climate emergency and hold fossil fuel corporations accountable," said Charlie Jiang, climate campaigner for Greenpeace USA. "But oil and gas companies like ExxonMobil and Shell continue to block progress while drilling recklessly toward climate disaster. Our next president can and must lead from day one to protect workers and communities, speed the transition to 100 percent renewable energy, and say 'no more' to the fossil fuel executives standing in the way of a Green New Deal."
"The climate crisis is already here, and Americans will no longer accept weak efforts or excuses for inaction," said Nicole Ghio, senior fossil fuels program manager at Friends of the Earth. "The next president must be ready to take meaningful action on day one to address this emergency and prioritize people over profits. That means leaving fossil fuels behind, ensuring justice for frontline communities, and making polluters pay for the harm they cause."
"The United States government has long acted to advance the interests of corporations over people, and under Trump the government has lowered the bar even further. The U.S. continues to act at the behest of big polluters like the fossil fuel industry by ignoring science, blocking climate policy, and putting big polluter profit over the needs and demands of people," said Sriram Madhusoodanan, climate campaign director of Corporate Accountability. "The next administration must start a new chapter in U.S. history, kick polluters out of climate policymaking, make them pay for the damage they've knowingly caused, and take every action possible to advance urgently needed, internationally just climate action."
"The next president will enter office with the U.S. far behind on climate policy, with oil and gas extraction recklessly expanding, and atmospheric methane pollution spiking. But it will also be a time of unprecedented momentum to take bold and necessary climate action thanks to people driven movements fighting for change everywhere," said Lauren Pagel, policy director at Earthworks. "Executive action alone is not enough to make a just transition away from fossil fuels, but it is essential to bolster the progress from climate leadership happening now in state capitals and communities across the country."
"The climate crisis can't be solved by one country alone. The next administration must drastically ramp up climate action in the U.S., and it must also drastically increase our support for climate action in poorer countries," said Niranjali Amerasinghe, executive director of ActionAid USA. "The climate emergency is global, and the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world have the fewest resources to cope with its impacts.
This set of executive actions would put the U.S. on the right track toward doing its fair share of climate action. We do need Congress to act in order to provide the level of financial and technological support that developing countries truly need -- but with these executive actions, the next president has a huge set of tools in their toolbox to jumpstart proactive, justice-based solutions."
"If the next administration is to drive down climate pollution to a safe level it will require strong executive actions right out of the gate," said Patrick McCully, climate and energy program director for Rainforest Action Network. "These actions must be ambitious, science-based, quick to scale, driven by the values of equity and justice, and the administration must be unconcerned by the inevitable squealing from the fossil fuel industry and its financial and political backers."
"The science is very clear: In order to stand a chance of avoiding the worst effects of climate chaos, our society must transition off fossil fuels almost entirely in the coming decade. This will require our next president to kickstart the urgent transition on day one," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. "The rapid transition to a clean, renewable energy future should start with a ban on fracking and all new fossil fuel infrastructure -- period."
"Climate change is an existential threat not only to Americans, but to people and communities across the globe. Our next President can't waste any time -- tackling the climate crisis needs to be a Day One priority," said Richard Wiles, executive director at the Center for Climate Integrity. "That can't happen without addressing the roots of the climate crisis and those responsible: Big Oil. The fossil fuel industry knew their products caused climate change and spent the last 30 years lying about it. Any real solution must first hold the industry accountable for its decades of deception and the long-term consequences that resulted."
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
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US Dodges Growing Calls for Probe of Mass Graves at Gaza Hospitals
"Somehow I don't think the U.S. State Department would defer to Russia as a credible source to investigate itself if a mass grave were discovered in Ukrainian territory it had occupied," said one legal expert.
Apr 24, 2024
While continuing to give Israel billions of dollars in support to wage war on the Gaza Strip, the Biden administration this week has declined to join the growing global demands for an international probe into mass graves discovered at hospitals in the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Two journalists on Tuesday questioned Vedant Patel, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, about the administration's response to the hundreds of bodies found at Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital and Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis as well as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk's call for an independent investigation.
"Would you support such an independent investigation?" Said Arikat asked during a press briefing. Patel responded, "Right now, Said, we are asking for more information... That is squarely where we are leaving the conversation."
Patel added that "I don't have any details to match, confirm, or offer as it relates to that. We're aware of those reports, and we have asked the government of Israel for additional clarity and information. And that's where I'm at."
When Said asked a follow-up about potential U.S. support for a probe, Patel reiterated that the administration is awaiting information from the Israeli government.
Later, Niall Stanage asked Patel to explain U.S. "resistance" to supporting a probe, the spokesperson insisted that "it's not about resistance to this particular situation, it is me not wanting to speak in detail about something which Said posed as a hypothetical question when, from the United States' perspective, I don't have any additional information on this aside from the public reporting."
After Patel again stressed that the administration has asked Israel for more information, Stanage inquired, "And do you believe the government of Israel is a credible source in enlightening you?"
The spokesperson interrupted Stanage to say, "We do."
While supporting the six-month Israeli assault on Gaza that the International Court of Justice has found to be plausibly genocidal, the Biden administration is also arming Ukrainians' resistance to a Russian invasion. Brian Finucane, a senior adviser for the Crisis Group's U.S. program and a former legal adviser at the State Department, pointed to the latter.
"Somehow I don't think the U.S. State Department would defer to Russia as a credible source to investigate itself if a mass grave were discovered in Ukrainian territory it had occupied," Finucane said on social media in response to Stanage's questioning.
Meanwhile, European Union spokesperson Peter Stano made clear Tuesday that the E.U. supports an independent probe.
"This is something that forces us to call for an independent investigation of all the suspicions and all the circumstances, because indeed it creates the impression that there might have been violations of international human rights committed," Stano said. "That's why it's important to have independent investigation and to ensure accountability."
Human rights groups around the world joined the call for an independent investigation on Wednesday, as the official death toll in Gaza hit 34,262 with 77,229 people injured and thousands more missing and presumed dead beneath the rubble.
In an Arabic statement translated by Al Jazeera, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said that the number of bodies found in the mass graves is "alarming, and requires urgent international action, including the formation of an independent international investigation committee."
The group added that some of those killed were subjected to "premeditated murder as well as arbitrary and extrajudicial executions while they were detained and handcuffed."
Amnesty International senior director of research, advocacy, policy, and campaigns Erika Guevara Rosas said in a statement that "the harrowing discovery of these mass graves underscores the urgency of ensuring immediate access for human rights investigators, including forensic experts, to the occupied Gaza Strip to ensure that evidence is preserved and to carry out independent and transparent investigations with the aim of guaranteeing accountability for any violations of international law."
"Lack of access for human rights investigators to Gaza has hampered effective investigations into the full scale of the human rights violations and crimes under international law committed over the past six months, allowing for the documentation of just a tiny fraction of these abuses," she noted. "Without proper investigations to determine how these deaths took place or what violations may have been committed, we may never find out the truth of the horrors behind these mass graves."
Guevara Rosas continued:
Mass grave sites are potential crime scenes offering vital and time-sensitive forensic evidence; they must be protected until professional forensic experts with the necessary skills and resources can safely carry out adequate exhumations and accurate identification of remains.
The absence of forensic experts and the decimation of Gaza's medical sector as a result of the war and Israel's cruel blockade, along with the lack of availability of the necessary resources for the identification of bodies such as DNA testing, are huge obstacles to the identifications of remains. This denies those killed the opportunity to have a dignified burial and deprives families with relatives missing or forcibly disappeared the right to know and to justice—leaving them in a limbo of uncertainty and anguish.
Noting that the International Court of Justice directed Israel to preserve evidence in its initial genocide case order, Guevara Rosas said that "amid a total vacuum of accountability and mounting evidence of war crimes in Gaza, Israeli authorities must ensure they comply with the ICJ ruling by granting immediate access to independent human rights investigators and ensuring that all evidence of violations is preserved."
"Third states must pressure Israel to comply with the ICJ orders by allowing the immediate entry into the Gaza Strip of independent human rights investigators and forensic experts, including the U.N.-appointed Commission of Inquiry and investigators of the International Criminal Court," she added. "There can be no truth and justice without proper, transparent independent investigations into these deaths."
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Sanders Launches Probe of 'Outrageously Overpriced' Ozempic and Wegovy
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee chair said that the popular medications "will not do any good for the millions of patients who cannot afford them."
Apr 24, 2024
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday opened an investigation into an "outrageously overpriced" medication manufactured by a Denmark-based company whose value by market capitalization is larger than the Scandinavian country's gross domestic product.
Sanders (I-Vt.), who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, sent a letter to Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, CEO of Novo Nordisk. The company makes semaglutide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist used to treat Type 2 diabetes under the brand name Ozempic and, when sold as Wegovy, to treat obesity in adults with at least one weight-related comorbidity.
"The scientists at Novo Nordisk deserve great credit for developing these drugs that have the potential to be a game-changer for millions of Americans struggling with Type 2 diabetes and obesity," Sanders acknowledged. "As important as these drugs are, they will not do any good for the millions of patients who cannot afford them."
"Further, if the prices for these products are not substantially reduced they also have the potential to bankrupt Medicare, Medicaid, and our entire healthcare system," he added.
Sanders continued:
Today, Novo Nordisk is charging patients in the United States up to 15 times more for Ozempic and Wegovy than it charges patients in Canada, Europe, or Japan. For example, your company charges $969 in the United States for one month of Ozempic but just $155 in Canada and just $59 in Germany. Further, Novo Nordisk charges Americans $1,349 for one month Wegovy but just $140 in Germany and just $92 in the United Kingdom.
"Meanwhile," the senator noted, "researchers at Yale University estimate that both of these drugs can be profitably manufactured for less than $5 a month."
"The result of these astronomically high prices is that Ozempic and Wegovy are out of reach for millions of Americans who need them," Sanders said. "Unfortunately, Novo Nordisk's pricing has turned drugs that could improve people's lives into luxury goods, all while Novo Nordisk made over $12 billion in profits last year—up 76% from 2021. That is unacceptable."
As of March 2024, Novo Nordisk was Europe's most highly valued company by market capitalization. Its $554 billion market cap is significantly higher than Denmark's annual gross domestic product of approximately $410 billion, according to International Monetary Fund figures.
Sanders also pointed out that Novo Nordisk is charging different prices for Ozempic and Wegovy, even though they're "the exact same drug."
"Novo Nordisk charges Americans with obesity nearly $400 more every month than those with Type 2 diabetes for the same product provided in similar doses," he wrote.
"The unjustifiably high prices of Ozempic and Wegovy are already straining the budgets of Medicare and Medicaid and severely limiting access for patients who need these drugs," the letter says. "Last year, researchers at Vanderbilt University's Department of Health Policy and the University of Chicago's Department of Medicine estimated in the New England Journal of Medicine that it would cost Medicare over $150 billion a year to cover Wegovy and other similar weight loss drugs."
"To put this in perspective, the cost of all retail prescription drugs covered by Medicare in 2022 was less than $130 billion," Sanders added.
"As chairman of the committee, I am asking Novo Nordisk to substantially reduce the price of Ozempic and Wegovy so that these important drugs can be available to Americans with Type 2 diabetes and obesity," he wrote.
Existing law empowers the government to step in to lower drug prices in service of the public interest. Under the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980—legislation meant to promote the commercialization and public availability of government-funded inventions—federal agencies reserve the right to "march in" and authorize price-lowering generic alternatives to patented medications developed with public funding.
However, U.S. administrations—including President Joe Biden's—have been loath to exercise "march-in" rights.
Under pressure from the public and lawmakers led by Sanders, Novo Nordisk last year announced that it would cut prices by up to 75% for some of its insulin products.
Responding to Wednesday's letter, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America—Big Pharma's leading lobbyist—accused Sanders of "attacking an innovative company to advance a political agenda instead of addressing the real cause of affordability challenges."
Noting Novo Nordisk's bigger-than-Denmark market cap, Warren Gunnels, the HELP Committee's majority staff director, wrote on social media that the company "made over $12 billion in profits last year by, among other things, charging Americans $969 for Ozempic while it can be purchased for $59 in Germany and costs $5 to make."
"Our political agenda is to end this greed," he added. "Guilty. As. Charged."
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Texas State Troopers in Riot Gear Crack Down on UT Students' Gaza Protest
"Why do we even have these institutions of higher learning if we won't let students speak their conscience and protest?" said one University of Texas professor.
Apr 24, 2024
This is a developing story... Please check back for possible updates...
Civil rights advocates on Wednesday expressed alarm at a rapid escalation by Texas state troopers who descended on a student-led protest at University of Texas at Austin, which was organized in solidarity with Gaza and other U.S. college students taking part in a growing anti-war movement.
UT students gathered on campus at midday and were promptly given two minutes to disperse by state troopers, who had already been called to the scene.
The troopers were equipped with riot gear, with some carrying assault rifles and several stationed on horses.
Erick Lara, a 20-year-old sophomore, told The Dallas Morning News that the nonviolent protest transformed "within minutes" after the police began arresting demonstrators.
"I didn't think it would escalate this far," he told the outlet. "And I didn't think there would be this much police intervention from what's supposed to be a peaceful protest. Not very peaceful when there's a bunch of aggressors around, especially on horses."
The organizers called the gathering "The Popular University" and said it was aimed at pressuring UT to "divest from death."
The protesters walked out of their classes to demand UT divest from weapons manufacturers in order to end its complicity in Israel's U.S.-backed assault on Gaza, which has killed at least 34,262 Palestinians.
Student-run newspaper The Daily Texanreported roughly 50 state troopers were deployed to stop the initial protest of about 150-200 people.
Ryan Chandler, a reporter for NBC affiliate KXAN-TV and UT alum, reported that there were at least 10 students detained.
"Went here for four years, never saw anything like this," said Chandler, posting a video of a group of police pushing one student to the ground and arresting them.
Joseph Pierce, a Stony Brook University professor who attended graduate school at UT, also said the escalation was an unusually "drastic response to students advocating for an end to the genocide of the Palestinian people."
"It is a response that did not occur when in 2005 we protested the anti-gay marriage bill; in the late 2000s when we protested anti-immigration bills; in the 2010s when we protested the open-carry bill," Pierce said. "It is a clear attempt at silencing Palestinian and anti-Zionist Jewish voices."
The students faced the state troopers in a standoff on the university's main street.
"This violence against peaceful student protesters at UT Austin is absolutely horrifying—and should be condemned in the strongest terms by every politician and mainstream journalist," said former New Yorker editor Erin Overbey.
UT media and Middle East studies professor Nahid Siamdoust said the university "brought out everything but the kitchen sink to make sure" students couldn't erect an anti-war encampment like students at Columbia University, New York University, and other schools across the U.S. have in recent days.
The university had informed organizers with the on-campus Palestine Solidarity Committee on Tuesday that exercising their First Amendment rights in support of Palestinians in Gaza would "violate our policies and rules."
"The freedom to protest is integral to our democracy," said the ACLU of Texas Wednesday amid reports of the crackdown. "UT Austin students have a First Amendment right to freely express their political opinions—without threats of arrest and violence."
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