Hawkins Urges Voters to Send a Message: Green Energy Transformation Is Only Way Out of Peak Oil, Climate Catastrophe, and Economic Depression
Howie Hawkins for Congress
25th District, New York
www.howiehawkins.org
Media Release
For Immediate Release: Saturday, November 1, 2008
For More Information: Howie Hawkins, 315-425-1019, hhawkins@igc.org
In his closing argument to voters of the 25th congressional district, Howie Hawkins said today that since the national Republican Party has conceded the 25th district and cut off financial support for their candidate, it was a two-way race in which voters are free to vote for the candidate that best expresses their positions on bringing the troops home, enacting health care for all, reviving the economy, securing energy supplies, and stabilizing the climate.
"A vote for Hawkins sends a clear message that we don't want any more wars for oil. A vote for Hawkins means that instead of throwing hundreds of billions away on Wall Street bankers, we want a World War II scale mobilization to build a new sustainable green infrastructure that is based on renewable energy and confronts the accelerating climate crisis that threatens to our very survival. That is the only way out of the interrelated crises of peak oil, climate catastrophe, and economic depression. It means a new national industrial policy that invests in building out a new green energy and industrial infrastructure instead of the military industrial complex. That is the only way now to energy security, climate stability, and economic recovery," Hawkins declared.
"Two years ago the Democrats asked the American people to give them control of Congress so they could end the war in Iraq. Well, the Democrats had their chance. They voted for three supplemental war-funding bills. Their so-called withdrawal plan in this election is only a partial withdrawal from Iraq. The only change they offer in this election is escalation in Afghanistan in return for a wasted peace vote they want to take for granted. Don't be fooled again. If you want real change on Tuesday, invest your vote in the Green Populist alternative," added Hawkins.
Hawkins noted that in a close three-way race, 35 percent of the vote could be the winning plurality. "Anything could happen in this year full of electoral surprises. I don't have poll data, but I do have feedback from campaigning on the streets. I know my support has grown with each debate that has been broadcast. I'm still in it to win it," Hawkins said.
"But forget the polls and the horse race," Hawkins continued. "Vote your issues. Vote for candidate who best represents what you want the next Congress to do. If you vote defensively for the lesser evil as a strategy for stopping the greater evil, you've got a self-defeating strategy. You are giving your mandate to the lesser evil even though you know that program won't solve the problems we face. Your vote will now be taken for granted. You silenced your voice. You eliminated your own policy preferences from the election and the politics going forward. Your vote has been wasted. It is far more effective politically to move the debate and the policies in the direction you want by voting for what you really want. Make the politicians come to you. At the very least, you will send a message to whoever is elected to represent our district. And in best case scenario, if enough people vote to send the message, they will send a messenger to carry the message," Hawkins said.
Hawkins said the central message of his campaign is "the need for clean energy transition of sufficient scale to address the interrelated crises of peak oil, global warming, and economic depression before it is to late. It requires progressive tax reform to make the super-rich and giant corporations pay their fair share and it requires dismantling the US military empire of over 700 military bases in over 100 countries, total military withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan, deep cuts in military spending, and redirecting the trillions of dollars saved into a two-decade crash program for a clean green energy and industrial transformation," Hawkins said.
"We need to build a renewable energy generation system based on solar, wind, geothermal, and non-crop biofuels. We need to retrofit every building in America for energy efficiency and renewable energy. We need to displace fossil-fueled roadways with solar-power railways for mass transit, inter-city passenger service, and moving freight. We need to rebuild our manufacturing and agriculture around green principles of sustainable production. All this will take trillions of dollars in new productive investments. We won't have the capital to invest in this transformation if we continue the global US military empire or corporate welfare for the rich they use to invest in a casino capitalism where financial profits now account for over 40 percent of total profits and siphon off capital from the real economy of labor and production that we now need to build a sustainable green economy," Hawkins said.
Hawkins noted that the global deflationary crash of security and commodity prices had vaporized many trillions of dollars of investment capital that will be needed for a green technology revolution as hedge funds, investment banks, insurance companies, currency and commodity speculators, and other assorted institutional arbitrageurs have been selling assets at fire sale prices to cover margin calls, investor withdrawals, credit default swaps, and other pressing liabilities that are rapidly mushrooming as the global debt Ponzi scheme deleverages. Much of the massive private and public debt overhang will never be repaid because the net income created by the real economy is insufficient to carry the interest burden.
Hawkins also cited two recent reports on oil production and accelerating climate change that indicate the crisis is even more serious than the financial meltdown.
The Financial Times reported on October 29 that leaked results of the International Energy Agency's study of oil depletion to be released in December find that oil output from existing fields will decline by 9.1 percent a year. That means that the equivalent of a new Saudi Arabia will have to come on line producing oil every 18 months just to keep oil production from declining.
"Oil production is peaking and we can expect not only skyrocketing prices going forward, but supply shortages that severely disrupt our lives and economy. We need a crash program now to power our economy and especially transportation with a new renewable energy infrastructure or our economy will be crippled even more by an energy and transportation crisis than it is now by crashing asset bubbles," Hawkins said.
Hawkins said the other report was even worse news. On October 20, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) issued a new climate change report, "Climate Change: Faster, Stronger, Sooner." The report updated all the latest scientific data and concluded that global warming is accelerating far beyond the worst case scenarios presented in the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a study of global warming by 4,000 scientists from more than 150 countries. WWF said the IPCC report is now out of date.
On example that illustrates the acceleration of global warming, the WWF report states, is the disappearance of Arctic sea ice 30 years ahead of IPCC predictions. Arctic sea ice may be gone completely within five years - something that hasn't occurred for a million years. The loss of Arctic sea ice could be a "tipping point" that results in rapid and abrupt climate change rather than the gradual changes forecast by the IPCC.
The WWF report predicted crop failure and famine due to the collapse of ecosystems on both land and sea caused by planetary heating. It recommended that the developed countries reduce carbon emissions at least 30 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, just twelve years from now. Reaching that goal will require a radical technological transformation that takes us far down the road to a carbon-free economy.
"Think of a global Katrina. Extreme weather, flooding, hunger, and masses of refugees. That is what the global warming crisis lays before us. Your vote is too important to waste on a lesser evil candidate that you vote for defensively in hopes of stopping the greater evil. Lesser evil policies are not going to get us out of these crises. We need to send a clear message that it is time to radically reorder our priorities," Hawkins concluded.
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