Farmers and ranchers are acting to combat the climate crisis — we must follow their lead
By Jane Kleeb
Climate change is not a crisis that’s far off in the future. Climate change is here, right now.
It impacts rural and urban communities all across our country. As family farmers and ranchers in Nebraska and other rural communities well know, the climate crisis is impacting life as we know it — with wild weather extremes contributing to crop loss and hotter temperatures putting stress on livestock.
As the chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, I know that the climate crisis is a top priority for voters in my state.
As I write in my upcoming book Harvest the Vote: How Democrats Can Win Again in Rural America, family farmers and ranchers are confronting climate change with solutions while too many politicians sit on the sidelines.
Farmers and ranchers are installing wind, solar and water sensors while planting cover crops and trees.
They know what needs to be done on a micro level to address the climate crisis — just as local leaders in communities across the country know what needs to happen on the ground, town by town, state by state.
With less than 11 years to dramatically reduce our carbon emissions before the damage from climate change becomes irreparable, we have no time to waste.
We need to do everything we can to begin to transition our nation to 100 percent clean energy today.
That transition begins by keeping fossil fuels in the ground.
That means no new fossil fuel infrastructure.
No new permits for wells, pipelines, oil and gas operations of any kind.
And we need to ensure that those who work in the oil and gas industry get the training they need to get jobs in a clean energy economy — and they are guaranteed a just transition to those jobs.
That’s why we must build support for the Green New Deal legislation sponsored by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and supported by Bernie Sanders.
And we need to ensure we are holding our leaders accountable for taking action.
That’s why Our Revolution joined with other grassroots groups and state parties in calling on the Democratic National Committee to hold a full debate for 2020 presidential candidates focused solely on the climate crisis.
While the DNC voted against holding this debate, they did create a DNC Environment and Climate Crisis council, to be chaired by Michelle Deatrick, a leader with Our Revolution Michigan.
This new committee will focus on greening the DNC by taking measures to reduce the DNC’s carbon footprint, and working with important constituencies, such as the Sunrise Movement, to develop national climate policy within the party.
We are very proud of this progress, and it wouldn’t have happened without the dedication and commitment of Deatrick and other Our Revolution leaders.
As a voting member of the DNC, and a proud Nebraskan who fights to protect the land and water that gives us life, I will keep working with the activists, members and candidates who care so deeply about the future of our party to ensure we are doing everything we can to address the climate crisis before it’s too late.
