OCCUPY ELGIN, OCT 22, 2016 MAKE THE CLIMATE AN ELECTION ISSUE!

Occupy Elgin will  gather from 1:00 PM till 2:00 PM at the corner of Kimball Street and Grove Avenue in Elgin on Saturday, October 22nd, 2016.  Our message will be a call to make the Climate Crisis an Election Issue.

Below is the text of the flyer we will distribute. Click on the links for documentation and background.
Humans now face the most serious threat we have ever faced.  Climate Change could destroy civilization as we know it. Hurricanes, floods, droughts, and wildfires will increase in intensity and frequency.Species we depend on will go extinct.  Famine , wars, and human migration will increase as people flee for their lives. Just surviving will get quite expensive.
The US Defense Department says that Climate Change is a top threat to national security, a bigger threat than terrorism.
It may already be too late to stop a climate catastrophe.  But if we act immediately and drastically, we could possibly avoid the worst outcomes.
Yet climate is barely mentioned in this campaign season, at the presidential level or even in races for Congress and the Senate.  The candidates, the major political parties, and the media refer to it only briefly and casually.
That’s because the fossil fuel industry and the banks and hedge funds invested in them are  making billions of dollars extracting fossil fuels from the earth.  They don’t want to stop raking in those profits yet.

Renewable energy: wind, solar, and geothermal, along with new battery technology could supply the energy needs of the world IF we made a massive investment in them immediately.

We would need to retrofit our buildings,  engage in large scale conservation of resources, redesign our cities and our infrastructure, and shift our economy to a more co-operative model.We will also need to substantially support  the workers and communities which now depend economically on fossil fuels as we transition to a new economy. It will require a massive shift in our thinking, and our relationships. Change of this magnitude can be painful and disorienting for each of us.

The mainstream media is especially at fault in their refusal to educate themselves and their audience about the threat and the solutions.   Instead, they support the message of their powerful owners and advertisers.

It is up to us, the citizens and the voters to demand that our candidates, our political parties, and especially our news media must address climate change immediately.   When we go to the polls, we should vote for those candidates brave enough to challenge the enormous power of  these entrenched interests.

Links to more supportive documents:

We must not build any more fossil fuel infrastructure.

The Sky’s Limit: Why the Paris Climate Goals Require a Managed Decline of Fossil Fuel Production

A Superfund for Workers 

Ocean Acidification

What would a Just Transition to renewable energy look like?

How could the transition to renewable energy benefit us?

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