Day 4: Student Climate Forum with Klobuchar, Yang, and Steyer
Concord, NH
Today, thanks to Dr. JSM's vast connections, we were invited to a special event, a Student Climate Forum with presidential candidates and some campaign surrogates speaking and answering questions from students. It was a great event idea, but ultimately it made me wish even more that the DNC and Tom Perez wouldn't have blocked a Climate Change Debate from taking place. This event, however, was originally supposed to have more candidates in person, but many couldn't attend because today was the date of the impeachment vote and they had to be in the Senate. Senator Amy Klobuchar was the only Senator that could make it before she flew to D.C. Andrew Yang and Tom Steyer were also able to attend in person because they hold no office in the House or Senate. The rest of the cadidates had surrogates.
First up was Amy Klobuchar. She told that horrible joke about Trump calling her snow-woman and her responding by asking how his hair would fair in a snow blizzard. It was just as bad in person as on television. Unfortunately, it seemed as if she did not tailor her speech toward climate in particular. It was just her typical stump speech. She is definitively of the view that simply getting Trump out of office will solve most of our problems. She is not of the view that Trump is just a symptom of a larger crisis and that the US needs structural change. Also, she still supports fracking. Not good. More info on fracking here: https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/8/15/20805136/climate-change-fracking-methane-emissions
We had to leave to go to the State House so when we returned I only caught the end of Andrew Yang's speech. It is obvious that the purpose of his candidacy is just to advocate for his view that Artificial Intelligence (AI) needs to be taken more seriously as a change-agent in society. His solution to the job-losses he sees coming from AI is to put in place a Universal Basic Income (UBI). I could dive in to his proposal more, but this is not the place. Here's what I will say about his main, or only, issue: UBI used to be supported by politicians of both sides. In fact, President Richard Nixon supported a version of it. It is a good thing that people like Mr. Yang are shifting the Overton Window on issues such as UBI.
Tom Steyer is a weird man. Sometimes, it seems as if that is a prerequisite to being a billionaire. Wearing his tartan belt and tie, Mr. Steyer talked about the harsh reality of climate change and the radical steps that he believes need to be taken to mitigate the worse effects and shift us from our current trajectory. Nothing he said I really disagreed with. He spoke on corporate regulations and the power of the government to enforce them. But there was one word he refused to say that I truly believe is imperative to the fight against climate change. That word is nationalization.
All-and-all he seems like a fine person. Perhaps, he is trying to redeem himself from massively profiting off of the destruction of the planet. However, it is obvious from his polling that he should be spending his money on voter registration or something actually useful. On another note, he should be taxed at World War II levels.
Today, thanks to Dr. JSM's vast connections, we were invited to a special event, a Student Climate Forum with presidential candidates and some campaign surrogates speaking and answering questions from students. It was a great event idea, but ultimately it made me wish even more that the DNC and Tom Perez wouldn't have blocked a Climate Change Debate from taking place. This event, however, was originally supposed to have more candidates in person, but many couldn't attend because today was the date of the impeachment vote and they had to be in the Senate. Senator Amy Klobuchar was the only Senator that could make it before she flew to D.C. Andrew Yang and Tom Steyer were also able to attend in person because they hold no office in the House or Senate. The rest of the cadidates had surrogates.
First up was Amy Klobuchar. She told that horrible joke about Trump calling her snow-woman and her responding by asking how his hair would fair in a snow blizzard. It was just as bad in person as on television. Unfortunately, it seemed as if she did not tailor her speech toward climate in particular. It was just her typical stump speech. She is definitively of the view that simply getting Trump out of office will solve most of our problems. She is not of the view that Trump is just a symptom of a larger crisis and that the US needs structural change. Also, she still supports fracking. Not good. More info on fracking here: https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/8/15/20805136/climate-change-fracking-methane-emissions
We had to leave to go to the State House so when we returned I only caught the end of Andrew Yang's speech. It is obvious that the purpose of his candidacy is just to advocate for his view that Artificial Intelligence (AI) needs to be taken more seriously as a change-agent in society. His solution to the job-losses he sees coming from AI is to put in place a Universal Basic Income (UBI). I could dive in to his proposal more, but this is not the place. Here's what I will say about his main, or only, issue: UBI used to be supported by politicians of both sides. In fact, President Richard Nixon supported a version of it. It is a good thing that people like Mr. Yang are shifting the Overton Window on issues such as UBI.
Tom Steyer is a weird man. Sometimes, it seems as if that is a prerequisite to being a billionaire. Wearing his tartan belt and tie, Mr. Steyer talked about the harsh reality of climate change and the radical steps that he believes need to be taken to mitigate the worse effects and shift us from our current trajectory. Nothing he said I really disagreed with. He spoke on corporate regulations and the power of the government to enforce them. But there was one word he refused to say that I truly believe is imperative to the fight against climate change. That word is nationalization.
All-and-all he seems like a fine person. Perhaps, he is trying to redeem himself from massively profiting off of the destruction of the planet. However, it is obvious from his polling that he should be spending his money on voter registration or something actually useful. On another note, he should be taxed at World War II levels.
Comments
Post a Comment