January 31, 2021

Bill McKibben, The New Yorker

As the new administration takes more steps to address the climate crisis, we have checked in on responses from some AWTT truth tellers. 

Bill McKibben was stunningly optimistic about the Biden initiatives, calling it a “landmark day:”

“January 27th was the most remarkable day in the history of America’s official response to the climate crisis, at least since that June afternoon in 1988, when NASA’s James Hansen told a congressional committee that the planet had begun to heat. On Wednesday, in the course of a few hours, the Biden Administration took a series of coördinated actions that, considered together, may well mark the official beginning of the end of the fossil-fuel era.”  Read full story here

Our Children’s Trust – representing the Juliana v. U.S. youth plaintiff’s – was somewhat more circumspect: 

“We applaud this long overdue national leadership from the White House to address the crisis at home. However, we know beyond the power of words, U.S. climate action must include numeric standards that protect children’s rights & emission reductions based on the best available science of climate stabilization. The President ordered that these emissions standards must be identified but, we already know what they are. … Our Plaintiffs are listening …”  See Facebook post here

Recognizing the significance of the moment, Rev. Lennox Yearwood also reflected on the “many of us who should have seen and did not get to see this day … who have literally died in this battle, …”  Read more at about Lennox’s and other activists’ responses at truthout