In Antarctica, a new study shows that the gigantic West Ice Sheet is melting twice as fast as previously thought. This would cause three feet of sea level rise alone, which, added to sea level rise across the globe, could total six feet or more by the year 2100.
Off the coast of Australia, the Great Barrier Reef is experiencing the worst coral bleaching ever seen. This is disastrous news because coral provides critically important habitat for millions of species of fish and marine life. It is the canary in the ocean coal mine. Once the coral starts dying off, everything else dies too.
If that wasn't bad enough, we also learned of a bombshell report written by Harvard researchers about the horrific effects of fracking.
Fracking, short for "hydraulic fracturing," is the process by which natural gas is manufactured. It was once billed as a great step forward in energy extraction. It was thought to be cleaner than traditional fossil fuels. Years ago, it was heralded as a silver bullet that could help us combat Climate Change.
Unfortunately, none of that is true.
The fracking boom has exacerbated Climate Change because it leaks extraordinary amounts of toxic methane gas into the air. As Bill McKibben explains, methane is actually worse than carbon dioxide.
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have many differences, but none more stark than their positions on fracking.
Bernie is 100% against fracking. He wants to ban in nationwide. Meanwhile, Hillary sold fracking to the world as Secretary of State, touting it as "the cleanest fossil fuel available for power generation today."
When asked at a recent debate if she supports fracking, Clinton danced around the issue without ever providing an honest answer. When it came time for Bernie's rebuttal, he gave a much shorter, direct response: "no."
Which brings us to the pivotal New York primary coming up on April 19th.
The latest polls have Hillary up by 20 points or more in the Empire State, which makes sense because it's her home turf. She represented the state for two terms as a Senator. She has decades of experience in New York politics and has forged countless connections with party bosses and establishment elites throughout the state.
However, the same polls showed a similar point spread in Michigan just a few weeks before Bernie ended up pulling off a monumental upset. Yes, Bernie is the underdog in New York, but he's riding a wave of incredible momentum. In recent weeks, he's posted an impressive string of massive, blow-out victories in Utah, Idaho, Hawaii, Alaska and Washington. His campaign also announced that they've raised more than $43 million in grassroots donations for the second consecutive month.
So how can Bernie keep the momentum going and pull off the upset in New York?
By focusing on fracking.
It wasn't until early 2010 that fracking really became a national issue. This was thanks in large part to Josh Fox's brilliant documentary Gasland, which blew the cover on the fracking crisis plaguing our country. Fox's film was a wake-up call. It illustrated how fracking was unsafe and completely unregulated. It showed how fracking is destroying our environment by polluting drinking water and causing illness and disease and, sadly, how no one in the government was being honest about its true effects.
Fox's clip of a man lighting the water coming out of his sink on fire became the "holy shit" moment that turned the tide against fracking.
While Fox's documentary was exposing the horrific effects of fracking, New York became ground zero for the anti-fracking movement. For years, farmers and regular working people protested against fracking and new natural gas pipelines. They held sit-ins, petitioned public officials and demanded that the state ban the practice outright.
The groundswell of grassroots opposition forced New York to conduct a massive study on fracking that took more than six years to complete. When the results came back that fracking was unsafe and exacerbated Climate Change, Governor Andrew Cuomo banned fracking state-wide in early 2015.
The fracking ban was a monumental victory for the planet and regular New Yorkers fighting to keep their water clean, their land free from earthquakes and their public spaces free from exploitation by the fossil fuel industry. The anti-fracking blueprint popularized in New York was then spread across the country. The same tactics helped stop the Keystone Pipeline and are helping to stop countless other natural gas pipelines across America.
On the campaign trail, Bernie has hammered Hillary on her support for fracking and the fact that she takes millions of dollars from the fossil fuel industry. It appears to be taking its toll on the Secretary of State. At a recent event in New York, Clinton lashed out a Greenpeace reporter who called her out for taking money from Big Oil.
Clinton says "I am so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about me." Unfortunately for Hillary, facts do not lie. Her campaign and Super Pacs have taken more than $4.5 million from lobbyists, donors and bundlers connected to the fossil fuel industry.
By responding so defensively, it's obvious that the issue is getting under Clinton's skin.
New Yorkers, more than anyone else in country, know how important it is to elect a leader that will act boldly to address Climate Change.
Rising sea levels are at New York City's door. During Super-Storm Sandy, they were nearly washed away. In the rural parts of the state, New Yorkers saw their water and land being polluted by fracking and they fought a war to stop it. Climate is not some side-issue for the people of the Empire State, it is a major issue that affects them and their future directly.
As they head to the polls on April 19th, New Yorkers can elect someone who takes money from the fossil fuel industry or someone who doesn't. They can elect someone who championed fracking worldwide or someone who wants to ban it completely.
If you're a New Yorker who cares about climate, it should be an easy choice to make.
