La Opinion denounced Proposition 23 earlier this week, recommending that voters vote no on the dangerous proposition in November. This follows a long list of newspapers that have joined with California’s leading businesses and environmental leaders to reject Proposition 23.
The newspaper cited the fact that only oil companies would benefit from Prop 23, whereas other industries, including green tech would lose. “Many would suffer for the financial gain of a few,” and not just in a business sense. La Opinion also cited the health benefits that come along with restricting greenhouse gas emissions – because of the correlation between reducing carbon emissions and other forms of air pollution.
La Opinion’s rejection of Prop 23 comes as the Yes on 23 forces are attempting to play their misleading and disproved claim that Prop 23 would lead to more jobs in the minority community. Many groups have organized around the state with environmental justice organizations to defeat Prop 23, contacting voters to discuss why Prop 23 is so dangerous to California as a whole, but particularly minority communities.
“Prop 23 adds insult to injury. Immigrant groups, especially Latinos, are disproportionately harmed by greenhouse gases and toxic emissions,” the Wonk Room published in a recent post. In fact, Latinos are the ethnic group most likely to value clean air – probably because 1 in 6 suffers from asthma.
“In the fight against climate change, Latinos and immigrants are a strong ally. Latinos make up about 20 percent of the electorate and 37 percent of the population in California. Polls have shown that Latino voters don’t accept the false choice between the economy and the environment. Latinos are the most likely racial/ethnic group to consider regional air pollution a big problem, as well as the most likely group that considers the effects of global warming is already happening.”
So bravo to La Opinion for calling Prop 23 exactly what it is – a huge giveaway to the oil industry, from the state of California. Luckily, there is enough time to beat Prop 23 – and that’s the way the vote seems to be trending. Good thing La Opinion is paying attention.
Guest blogger Araceli Ruano is CAP’s Senior Vice President and Director of California. Andrew Fitzgerald Adams also contributed.
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Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
What can I do to help being in Europe?
I’m very worried about coming events in your country and feel like my fate is being decided while I’m powerless to change anything.
Regarding: ” . . . only oil companies would benefit from Prop 23 . . . ‘Many would suffer for the financial gain of a few’”
“Prosperity for a few founded on ecological destruction and persistent social injustice is no foundation for a civilized society.”
– “Prosperity Without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet,” Tim Jackson, 2009, ISBN 1844078949
#1 Some European, “What can I do to help being in Europe? . . . powerless to change anything.”
Since civil defense is an important part of any war effort and there must be a war against climate change with complete military urgency, accelerated civil defense activities including education and action on local scales especially in large urban areas would be a very important step toward net-zero emissions and responsive governance facilitating positive change.
One critical path
Bring emissions down to extremely low levels
Rapid reduction of CO2 from the oceans
#3 fj2
Thanks but my question wasn’t “how can I combat climate change?” but “what can I do to make prop 23 fail?”.
I’m already active in quite a lot of ways in the fight against global warming. Maybe not in the best possible way but at least I’m consoled by the feeling that I can do something.
But what I don’t know how to prevent is corporate backed extremists from grabbing power, thus possibly blocking worldwide cooperation on emissions reductions for the coming decade. I’m not sure whether in 10 years there will still be the same stable geopolitical climate needed for cooperation, as increasing disasters, food shortages and conflicts over water and resources will make international relations deteriorate. (India-Pakistan, Egypt-Sudan, USA-Mexico, Canada-Russia, Bolivia-Chile, Limpopo region,…).
I kind of feel like a Polish Jew in the 20′s, unable to stop Hitler from being elected and knowing what the consequences would be. The big difference is that anyone in this position person could have still made the choice to flee before it was too late. I have nowhere to go to escape from the consequences of global warming.
#4 Some European, “what can I do to make prop 23 fail?”
International concern about Prop 23 can help a lot and can be expressed in many ways and since this is ultimately a global issue is important that your leaders and media be informed of your serious concerns. It may be one of the first major battles in the fight against climate change.
Joe Romm has posted this many times on this blog:
Here are five things you can do to win this fight:
1.Visit the “No on 23″ website, learn the facts & sign up: http://www.StopDirtyEnergyProp.com [11].
2.Educate yourself on how California’s climate & energy laws have created companies & jobs: http://www.CABrightSpot.com [12].
3.Tell your friends by email, on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/StopDirtyEnergyProp, at work, & everywhere else.
4.Participate in the debate. Write letters to the editor and post comments on blogs & websites.
5.Contribute (click here https://secure.donationsafe.com/sde/ ). The other side’s leader, right-wing California Assemblyman Dan Logue, has publicly said he expects the oil companies to spend $50 million.
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@Some European: Another thing you can do:
If you go to https://call.barackobama.com/campaigns/CA140 and put in a California zip code (like the famous “90210″), you will be given names and numbers of Democratic voters in California. The script tells you to ask them to vote, then to vote for Boxer for Senate and Brown for governor. Boxer is good and Brown is OK; both of their opponents are crazy right-wing millionaires trying to buy the seats.
But there’s nothing to stop you from also telling people to vote no on 23. If people are willing to talk (about 5% of the people you get), you can even tell them to vote yes on 25, no on 26 (because taxes[25], and fees and environmental fines[26] should take 51%, not 67%, to pass).
It helps if you speak Spanish – almost half of the people you’ll get have Spanish surnames, and perhaps a third of those prefer to speak Spanish. Next most common is Vietnamese, in my experience.
(Obviously, you should only do this at a reasonable hour in California, although I assume the website checks that.)
ps. I make my calls from Mexico, using Skype – it’s cheap.