The latest climate report issued by the UN makes it clear that even the words crisis and emergency are insufficient now. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said it himself: We are plunging “headlong into climate disaster.”

For years, experts told us a +1.5°C increase from pre-industrial levels would be catastrophic – the point of no return that had to be avoided at all costs.

That goal was the basis of the Paris Climate Accords; a matter of survival for low-lying nations in the Global South; and a matter of long-term survival of the human species.

In late 2023, new research predicted we would hit +1.5°C in 2024, and that we were on a collision course with +2°C.

Now? We’re SURGING towards 3.1°C warming – DOUBLE the calamity scenario that has been the anchor of all climate legislation for decades.

I will not sugarcoat this: 3.1°C threatens the very survival of our species. We are still well below that threshold and already experiencing deadly superstorms, crop failures, and mass climate migration.

This news comes on the heels of DEVASTATING floods that swept Appalachia, wiping out entire towns, taking lives and livelihoods with them.

Just a few days ago, similar flooding slammed into Valencia, Spain and the surrounding region, after more than a YEAR’S worth of rain fell in the course of 8 hours.

Each of those storms killed OVER 200 people. And they are a drop in the bucket of the climate disasters headed our way.

The UN’s report this week did not hesitate to get to the point, dedicating the first page of their 100 page report to a single message in big red letters:

What is evident throughout this report, from the title to the closing citations, is that not a single major, developed nation has accepted responsibility for repeatedly prioritizing corporate profits over human survival, nor taken any of the measures necessary to change course.

We need a president who understands that human survival is NOT negotiable, and willing to take the radical measures necessary to guarantee that. That’s what you will get from a Stein-Ware administration.

The UN report makes it clear that the United States is the single biggest barrier to enacting the policies we need at the global scale – due in large part to endless militarism and genocide.

If the Pentagon and all its attendant agencies were a country, it would be one of the largest carbon emitters in the world. This is hidden from both the public and the policymakers by the fact that weapons manufacturers like Boeing “exclude” their military contracts from their corporate climate portfolios.

Each time we perpetuate and facilitate armed conflict, we are massively increasing those carbon emissions.

Israel has dropped so many American bombs on Gaza, now spreading into Lebanon, that the total explosive yield is many times more than the number dropped on Dresden during WW-II. In fact, the total munitions are equivalent to multiple atomic bombs.

Even if the kinetic warfare were to end immediately, far more carbon emissions will be required to rebuild what Israel has destroyed with their genocidal campaign.

All this leads to a grim conclusion: If the war doesn’t kill you, the climate disaster will.

The climate emergency doesn’t care how rich you are, how big your house is, or even how much political power you wield. It’s coming for all of us if we do not radically alter course.

I’ve been fighting for climate justice my entire life because I know that change is mandatory – and I also know it is possible.

I’ve seen people rise up and mobilize in the face of a crisis time and again. I know that the solutions are within our grasp and that we have the collective capacity to save our planet and our people.

As your president, I will declare a climate emergency on DAY ONE and immediately begin mobilizing the full force of the federal government to respond to the crisis AS a crisis.

You can read more about my plans for climate justice here. As always, thank you for being in this fight with me.

In solidarity and gratitude,

Jill