climate

Update: Tonight, we'll find out whether the canditates will break the silence on climate change. Join us at 8 PM EST for an online debate watch party, featuring a live chat and a livestreamed youth town hall.

Here at WeArePowerShift, we have Mitt Romney's best interests at heart.

Really, we do. Let me explain. Together with you and the rest of the climate movement in the US, we've been pressuring Romney and Obama to break the silence on climate change. And it turns out that ending the #climatesilence could do both campaigns a lot of good. Here's why:

Both Romney and Obama can count on the diehards of their respective parties. Looking strictly at the polls, loyal Republicans and Democrats don't decide the election; independents do. Independents tipped the scales in Obama's favor last time around, and Romney knows he must recruit them to his camp if he wants to win.

And guess what? Independents heart responsible climate policy!

"President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. MY promise … is to help you and your family." Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, August 30, 2012.

"I am proud to announce the Massachusetts Climate Protection Plan, the first in the history of the Commonwealth and among the strongest in our nation."- Governor Mitt Romney, 2004. 

"The most momentous foreign policy line was Romney's applause line on climate change . . . [it] signposts one of the most consequential ways that we've failed our children -- and the important role played by the modern Republican party in that failure."- Prof. Dan Nexon, Assistant Professor at Georgetown University, Department of Government and School of Foreign Service, and International Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

Climate Tipping Points Approaching Sooner Than We Thought

The weekend is off to a dystopian start. In an article published by the journal Science, a group of eighteen scientists warn that the earth could reach environmental tipping points by the end of the century. Increasing carbon emissions and industrialization could cause unpredictable changes on a scale not seen since the glaciers retreated 12,000 years ago.

There wasn’t a dry eye in the entire room, and I sat there transfixed, tears rolling down my face. Former Vice President Al Gore was telling the crowd how, twenty years ago, he felt the hand of his son Albert slip out of his grasp as his family was walking home from a baseball game. Choking back grief, he recounted how his son ran into the middle of the street. A car slammed into Albert, sending his body skidding across twenty feet of payment. He miraculously survived, but Mr.