Make presidential candidates discuss climate change

An unusual coalition of activists and party insiders in the Democratic Party is squaring off with Tom Perez, the party’s national chair. The issue: whether to devote one of the Democratic presidential primary debates to the climate crisis.

It is time for Perez to listen to the members of his party who want to put a spotlight on this threat to everything we depend on.

News networks are trying to fill the void, but Democratic National Committee rules won’t let them hold a presidential debate without DNC sponsorship. CNN announced last week that it will hold a “climate town hall,” where audiences question one candidate at a time. Unfortunately, town halls are sparsely watched and generate none of the excitement of debates. Many people don’t even know that CNN held town halls with presidential candidates in April. A threat to human life on earth needs be a focal point, not a dry footnote.

The movement for a climate policy debate began with youth activists and has caught fire among local Democratic leaders as county party chapters from Los Angeles County to MiamiDade rush to pass resolutions in support.

Here in the Bay Area, support is clear. The Democratic Party chapters for Alameda, Santa Clara and Marin counties are likely to pass resolutions in August calling for a Democratic climate debate. San Francisco, Sonoma and Contra Costa counties have already done so.

I am one of the Contra Costa residents who brought a resolution to my county party. I believe we must place urgent focus on the climate crisis in the 2020 election.

But Perez has steadfastly refused to allow a climate debate. DNC members who disagree are bringing the matter to a vote at the committee’s summer meeting Aug. 22-24 in San Francisco.

Why the urgency? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported last year that we must cut greenhouse gas emissions nearly in half by 2030 to prevent a climate catastrophe. The winner of the 2020 presidential election will be the last U.S. president to have a chance to set us on that path.

The Democratic Party has claimed to be the party that voters can turn to for a serious response to the climate threat. Yet in the first party debates this year, many Democratic candidates seemed unprepared to go beyond a brief acknowledgment of the issue.

Every candidate should be working to mobilize the public to protect this country and the world from climate breakdown. Far short of mobilization, politicians and media have not even kept the public informed of what we’re facing.

For example: How many Americans know that the climate crisis, escalating a massive drought in Central America, is driving refugees to our southern border? We continue to discuss immigration policy without discussing the far larger migrations that will happen as the planet heats and the consequences worsen.

As they prepare for a climate debate, candidates will immerse themselves in the effects of the climate crisis on every aspect of our lives and our political system. They will make clear to the public what is at stake, starting a dialogue that continues into the election cycle.

Candidates presenting and defending their climate plans clearly and in depth will focus attention and excitement on our climate mobilization, pushing leaders to act on climate knowing that the public will back them.

And this isn’t just about Democrats. Many Americans are looking for ideas from both sides of the aisle. The left doesn’t have a monopoly on climate.

Although the White House is doubling down on denial, moremoderate Republicans acknowledge the climate crisis and discuss market-based solutions. When Democrats make climate the focal point of the 2020 election, Republicans will need to bring their own solutions to the forefront to win the votes of the American center.

We already have the technology and the resources to win the war against climate breakdown. All we need is the political will. It’s time for a major political party to put climate on the stage.