Dear Senator Sanders,



Many of us in the climate justice movement are thrilled that you are running for president. We see in you a potential game-changer in the greatest battle ever faced by our nation – a battle we have yet to join in any serious fashion, much less to lead. We have reason to believe that you understand the climate crisis. But we have concerns, too. We have been hopeful before.



We had high hopes for Barack Obama, too. Notwithstanding President Obama’s newfound sense of urgency, his is a presidency that enshrined the oxymoronic “clean coal” in a State of the Union address, continues to dawdle on the Keystone XL pipeline, and has just opened up new territory for drilling in the turbulent Arctic Ocean, even though the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe, in the comparatively placid waters of the Gulf of Mexico, happened on his watch.



It is gratifying to see that, after a six year learning curve, the President is beginning to show the appropriate sense of urgency. “But he has done more for the environment than any president before him” is a textbook example of damning by the faintest of praise. The US government has access to the world’s foremost climate scientists, yet its response to their ever more insistent calls for action has been, at best, disengaged and perfunctory.



You have a good record in the Senate: you introduced a carbon tax with Sen. Boxer, opposed Keystone XL, and have secured money for energy efficiency and solar, as you note on your website. Unfortunately, none of these efforts have been successful so far in lowering our CO2 emissions, and climate scientists warn that we are out of time: climate change is upon us, and it’s now a question, not of prevention, but of mitigation, and how bad we’re going to let it become. We are long past the time when incremental changes are appropriate.



Your campaign page on climate change cites your positions as a legislator, but says nothing about what you would do when you switch to the Executive branch.



There are many good proposals out there: 350’s divestment campaign and demand for an end to subsidies; Sierra Club’s and Greenpeace’s call for an end to coal, oil, and gas leases on federal lands; and Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s revenue neutral carbon fee and dividend, on the demand side. Pope Francis is even calling for us to throw consumerism and capitalism on the ash heap of history.



“Unless we take bold action on climate change,” you say. What specific bold actions will you take as President? Do you support the above proposals? Do you have other plans? We cannot afford another president who “believes in” climate change but behaves for six years as if it’s no urgent matter.



What we are asking, Senator, is if our hopes are well-placed this time. We need to know if our government will be our ally, or continue to be our most substantial obstacle to change.