Welcome back to the show, Al. How are you? -I’m doing great. How are you doing? -I’m doing well. I can’t help but start by mentioning the fact that when you were on the show in November in the studio, it was the middle of impeachment, and you were saying it was as dangerous a time as we’ve lived through, and yet it seems incredibly quaint now.
This does seem to be a pattern that every time we think that things are really bad, they unfortunately get worse. How are you feeling right now? -[ Laughs ] Well, yeah. It’s a scary time in many ways because everybody, whether you’re a Republican or Democratic or Independent or something else — just about every single group is feeling that there’s nobody really in charge, or at least not in charge in a positive way.
And back when we talked before, that’s exactly the time period when the country should have been moving full speed ahead to make preparations for the pandemic about which we had already been warned.
-You weren’t necessarily warned during the Clinton-Gore administration, but you were prepared. Um, I’ve read that President Clinton had read a book about biological warfare and took it seriously, and you did begin stockpiling medicine.
You did begin stockpiling vaccines. How hard is it to watch an administration that does not take this seriously as a threat? -Well, it’s hard. Of course, it’s much harder to watch and listen to the families that have gone through such horrific experiences, and I won’t recap them here.
We’ve all been going through that, vicariously, for most, thankfully. But it’s hard. Yes. And, um, you know, it’s connected to climate in this sense. The scientists who warned us about the pandemic included the very best epidemiologists and virologists in the world, and they warned us to prepare for a pandemic that was almost exactly like the one that we’re struggling with now.
So when we hear the climate scientists arguing for even longer that we need to do something to stop the onrushing climate crisis, the lesson seems clearly that it’s best to listen to them. One other thing they have in common — both the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis hit the communities of color and the poorest Americans first and hardest and, in that process, reveal the really stark and incredible inequities and injustices that have been allowed to go on for way, way too long.
We got to do something about it. -Certainly in parts of the United States and worldwide, it does seem like governments are taking this very seriously. It does seem like we are mobilizing against police brutality in a way that we maybe haven’t ever before.
Does that give you confidence that we can do the same for climate? -I really believe, Seth, that we are witnessing a kind of general awakening. I don’t think these things compete. I don’t think it’s, you know, a zero-sum situation, where the more attention paid to the pandemic, the less attention paid to these other things.
I think, for example, about the gains made by the LGBTQ community over the last decade or so. Those gains are not going away. They’re being consolidated. We just had a significant Supreme Court victory consolidating them.
Gender equity gains of the last several years, they’re being consolidated. And I think that this awakening has touched people in cities all around the world after the heinous George Floyd murder. It was such a horrible event and such a cue for people to take off whatever blinders they had on to see and understand the incredible injustice that we have allowed to persist for so long.
And, by the way, the burning of fossil fuels, which creates the global-warming pollution mainly, also creates the air pollution that elevates the death rates under COVID-19. There have been multiple studies showing that communities and counties that have more air pollution from burning fossil fuels have a significantly higher death rate from the pandemic.
That’s true in other countries, as well. So we need to — we need to put the Black Lives Matter agenda in the center of the plans now being developed for a green recovery. We need a just transition so that those who are likely to suffer economically if we don’t provide them with better jobs in this transition are taken care of.
-Welcome back to the show, Al. How are you? -I’m doing great. How are you doing? -I’m doing well. I can’t help but start by mentioning the fact that when you were on the show in November in the studio, it was the middle of impeachment, and you were saying it was as dangerous a time as we’ve lived through, and yet it seems incredibly quaint now.
This does seem to be a pattern that every time we think that things are really bad, they unfortunately get worse How are you feeling right now? -[ Laughs ] Well, yeah. It’s a scary time in many ways because everybody, whether you’re a Republica or Democratic or Independent or something else — just about every single grou is feeling that there’s nobody really in charge, or at least not in charge in a positive way.
And back when we talked before that’s exactly the time period when the country should have been moving full speed ahead to make preparations for the pandemic about which we had already been warned.
-You weren’t necessarily warne during the Clinton-Gore administration, but you were prepared. Um, I’ve read that President Clinton had read a book about biological warfare and took it seriously, and you did begin stockpiling medicine.
You did begin stockpiling vaccines. How hard is it to watch an administration that does not take this seriously as a threat? -Well, it’s hard. Of course, it’s much harde to watch and listen to the families that have gone through such horrific experiences, and I won’t recap them here.
We’ve all been going through that, vicariously, for most, thankfully. But it’s hard. Yes. And, um, you know, it’s connected to climate in this sense. The scientists who warned us about the pandemic included the very best epidemiologists and virologist in the world, and they warned us to prepare for a pandemic that was almost exactly like the one that we’re struggling with now.
So when we hear the climate scientists arguing for even longer that we need to do something to stop the onrushing climate crisis the lesson seems clearly tha it’s best to listen to them. One other thing they have in common — both the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis hit the communities of color and the poorest Americans first and hardest and, in that process, reveal the really stark and incredible inequities and injustices that have been allowed to go o for way, way too long.
We got to do something about it. -Certainly in parts of the United States and worldwide, it does seem like government are taking this very seriously It does seem like we are mobilizing against police brutality in a way that we maybe haven’t ever before.
Does that give you confidenc that we can do the same for climate? -I really believe, Seth, that we are witnessing a kind of general awakening. I don’t think these things compete. I don’t think it’s, you know a zero-sum situation, where the more attention paid to the pandemic, the less attention paid to these other things.
I think, for example, about the gains made by the LGBTQ community over the last decade or so Those gains are not going away They’re being consolidated We just had a significant Supreme Court victory consolidating them.
Gender equity gains of the last several years, they’re being consolidated And I think that this awakenin has touched people in cities all around the world after the heinous George Floyd murder. It was such a horrible event and such a cue for people to take off whatever blinder they had on to see and understand the incredible injustice that we have allowed to persis for so long.
And, by the way, the burning of fossil fuels, which creates the global-warming pollution mainly, also creates the air pollution that elevates the death rate under COVID-19. There have been multiple studies showing that communities and counties that have more air pollution from burning fossil fuels have a significantly highe death rate from the pandemic That’s true in other countries as well.
So we need to — we need to put the Black Lives Matter agenda in the center of the plans now being developed for a green recovery. We need a just transition so that those who are likely to suffer economically if we don’t provide them with better jobs in this transition are taken care of.
Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=LBtOp4GTUts
