Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump’s pick to be the new Attorney General, claims that taking action against climate change will actually hurt poor people in America. Clearly this man has no idea who is being affected by corporate pollution. The Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.
Transcription of the above video:
Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Justice, told Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins in an interview that climate change, fighting climate change I should say, is actually going to hurt poor people throughout the world. According to Jeff Sessions, if we take actions to clean up the environment or produce renewable energy, that’s really going to hurt poor people, so we probably shouldn’t do it. His argument is this. He’s looking at developing nations, and he says, ‘Look, in areas where there’s electricity, the lifespan is twice as much as an area where there’s not electricity.’ That’s his argument. I don’t even know exactly what that has to do with climate change action. I really can’t wrap my head around that kind of stupidity. My brain can’t go that dumb in order to analyze his statement.
What we do know is that poor people, especially in the United States and in developing countries, are actually disproportionately affected by climate change. They’re the ones who have power plants in their backyards spewing pollution into the air, and dumping it into the water supply that they drink from. It’s not the people living on the country clubs in their three-story mansions. They don’t have to worry about that stuff. They live far, far away from the industrial plants in the United States. It is the poor people, specifically people of color in the United States, who are more affected by climate change. It’s what’s known as environmental racism, and you can look at it across the board. Look at some of the biggest environmental lawsuits in this country. It’s the poor people who get poisoned by corporate pollution.
Look at the city of Flint, Michigan. Affluent people there weren’t drinking contaminated water. It’s the poor people, the people that the government, the Republican-controlled government, doesn’t care about. They only want to use them as political pawns when it’s convenient for them, like Jeff Sessions saying that climate change hurts poor people. No, pollution hurts poor people and the working class. Not being able to afford to take your child to the doctor because they have asthma because of the carbon emissions, that hurts poor people more than it hurts the wealthy, Jeff Sessions, and you living in the state of Alabama that actually has a ton of pollution in the air, you should know better.
I, as a child, for about a year and a half, lived in the city of Birmingham, Alabama. It was during that time as a result of the air pollution I developed asthma, a condition which I still have today, so I know what I’m talking about. I’ve literally been there and done that, Jeff Sessions. I know how it works. I know how it affects people. You cannot honestly think that fighting climate change is going to hurt poor people, or the working class, or anyone, to be honest. Hell, even the wealthy benefit from addressing climate change. Even if we impose strict regulations on their businesses, it still doesn’t hurt their bottom line, and we have seen that. We have seen it time and time again. You want to throw the coal industry in my face on this issue, but the reason the coal industry is dying is because coal demand across the globe has plummeted, and the industry itself all over the world is dying.
