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Mother Nature: 1.
President Donald Trump: 0.
That's the scorecard from the southern border after gusts of wind of up to 37 miles per hour took down a section of the president's much-vaunted border wall in Calexio, California.
The steel wall sections that toppled under the winds, which fell in the Beaufort Scale as "moderate gale" force gusts, were held in place by concrete anchors that had not fully set, according to reporting from the Guardian.
Watch the winds blow the wall over:
News of the collapse drew mockery from opponents of the president's immigration policy.
"Point and laugh everyone, just point and laugh," immigration activist Juan Escalante said on Twitter.
Billionaire Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer quoted Trump's own words in a tweet linking to a news story about the wall's collapse.
\u201c"I own buildings. I'm a builder; I know how to build. Nobody can build like I can build. Nobody. And the builders in New York will tell you that. I build the best product." -@realDonaldTrump\n\nhttps://t.co/Ygj6vKqrdQ\u201d— Tom Steyer (@Tom Steyer) 1580347471
The news even drew amused reaction from across the Atlantic.
"What a perfect visual metaphor for a presidency fuelled by hot air," said Scottish National Party politician John Nicolson.
With less than one week to go before the Iowa Caucuses in the monumental 2020 elections, and unprecedented action needed to slow climate change, Vote Climate U.S. PAC is releasing our updated, national, 2020 Presidential Voter's Guide
Vote Climate U.S. PAC's Voter's Guide is a tool to help voters make climate change a top, priority. As Americans head to the voting booth in the presidential primaries, the Center for Climate Change Communication's poll says that 71% of Americans want the federal government to do more to address climate change.
Karyn Strickler, President of Vote Climate U.S. PAC said, "Climate change is an existential threat to humanity and our way of life. The first step to slow climate change is to elect the candidate who has the most ambitious plan to get off fossil fuels and put a fee on carbon. It's up to voters to choose the candidate with the highest climate calculation in 2020, perhaps one of our last chances to prioritize climate change in the voting booth. Our Voter's Guide makes it easy for every American to vote climate."
Our unique Voter's Guide assesses every Democrat and Republican running for president. It goes well beyond a normal score card to include not only position, but also leadership, putting a fee on carbon and candidate's climate plan (endorses the Green New Deal, supports carbon dioxide removal, advocates 100% renewable energy by 2030, and keeps fossil fuels in the ground.) Our climate calculations show separation between frontrunners in the Democratic primary.
"The difference between Democratic frontrunners for president on climate change in our Voter's Guide is significant. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Tom Steyer are tied for the highest score, each with an overall climate calculation of 93.75. By contrast Joe Biden's climate calculation is 81.25. With our timeline so short and the climate emergency we face, the difference between a 93.75 and an 81.25 could be the difference between a livable planet and not, when you're electing a U.S. President. Those scores compare to Republican incumbent Donald Trump who is a climate zero," said Karyn Strickler, President of Vote Climate U.S. PAC.
The higher climate calculations for Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders comes partially from Joe Biden's failure to advocate for action on climate change as a top priority issue and to advocate for 100% renewable energy by 2030. In his climate plan Biden calls for a 100% clean energy economy and net-zero emissions by no later than 2050. Senators Sanders and Warren have both committed to 100% renewable energy by 2030.
Vote Climate U.S. PAC's voters guide is accessible and simple to use. Go to our Voter's Guide page, where you can find our climate calculations. Take them into the voting booth and choose the candidate with the highest score. Click the green + button for more details on each candidate. Our Voter's Guide scoring criteria explains how our climate calculations were developed.
Vote Climate U.S. PAC is doing the research now and will rate all U.S. House and U.S. Senate incumbents and challengers, giving climate calculations to each, as we did in 2018. We will also add a "Climate Rankings" page, where we look at the big picture of American politics and climate change, by analyzing our research data for party and regional differences. It will include a national, best-to-worst listing and climate heroes and zeroes.
Slowing climate change will depend upon what we do. We encourage voters to join us in making 2020 a climate-action election.
Tom Steyer has narrowly passed Elizabeth Warren for second place in the Greenpeace climate 2020 candidate scorecard [1], Pete Buttigieg improved to fourth place over Joe Biden, and Michael Bloomberg dramatically improved his score from a D+ to a C+ grade. Bernie Sanders continues to lead the ranking, the only candidate to earn an A+ grade.
Greenpeace USA Senior Climate Campaigner Jack Shapiro said:
"As record-breaking fires rage across Australia and flooding consumes Indonesia, the weight of the climate crisis is impossible to ignore. With primary voting right around the corner, no candidate can afford to put climate policy on the backburner. Voters deserve to know how the next president will protect their communities from further climate-fueled storms, droughts, heatwaves, and fires.
"We're glad to see Steyer, Buttigieg, and Bloomberg step up with new contributions, and particularly glad to see an increased focus on justice and inclusion. Communities facing the worst impacts of environmental racism and climate-fueled extreme weather have long been leading the fight for a green and peaceful future--it's time they had an ally in the White House to back them up. Still, the field has a ways to go to catch ranking leader Bernie Sanders, the only candidate whose platform delivers the fossil fuel phaseout we need to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis."
The current top ten is:
Donald Trump remains in last with an F, the only candidate with zero out of a possible 100 points.
Steyer increased his ranking after supplementing his responses to Greenpeace's climate 2020 survey, in which he committed to more detailed policies to achieve environmental justice and inclusion. Buttigieg increased his grade from a B to a B+ following the release of his Indian Country Plan and Douglass Plan, acknowledging the intersections of Indigenous sovereignty, racial justice, and climate change. And in the last month, Bloomberg has signed the No Fossil Fuel Money pledge, released new plans for the buildings and transportation sectors, and come out in explicit support of the Green New Deal. He rises to a C+ grade, passing Andrew Yang and John Delaney.
Cory Booker, Julian Castro, and Marianne Williamson have been removed from the ranking after dropping out of the race. They had been ranked fourth, fifth, and ninth respectively.