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Global warming

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Scientists say the way to avoid catastrophic global warming is to lower atmospheric carbon dioxide levels to below 350 ppm (parts per million). The world hit a record 421 ppm on April 3.

Getting back below 350 ppm by the end of this century will require decreasing fossil fuel emissions by 10 percent per year and drawing carbon out of the atmosphere and into the biosphere by restoring the world’s forests, wetlands, and soils. Unless we begin these emergency climate actions now, the remaining global carbon budget for the Paris Climate Agreement’s goal of 1.5º C will be blown by 2027.

What comes next locks us into self-reinforcing cycles of mass species extinctions and ecosystem collapse, agricultural failures and mass starvation, resource wars and hundreds of millions of climate refugees.

Meanwhile, Biden’s corporate climate plan promotes fossil fuels and clearly allows fracking to continue and new pipelines to be built! Gas-fired power plants are supposedly going to use unprofitable carbon recapture and storage systems. Rather than investing in clean and proven renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, this plan clings to fossil fuels while promoting dirty, dangerous and costly nuclear power.

What little support there is in Biden’s plan for clean renewables is nothing more than disguised corporate welfare. These tax credits incentivize the markets at a leisurely pace that we simply cannot afford to move at.

We need ecosocialist solutions based on public enterprise and planning. Anything short of a rapid emergency transition to 100 percent clean renewables and negative carbon emissions is not going to address the very dark reality of this climate crisis. If you want to see what kind of investment is actually needed (and how we will make this happen), you can check out our website to see the Ecosocialist Green Party New Deal Budget.