Milwaukee, WI – Last night at the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump officially accepted the nomination as the presidential candidate for the Republican Party.

JL Andrepont of 350 Action responded:

“Trump is a climate denier and authoritarian, so we knew his speech at the Republican National Convention would be racist, dangerous, and inflammatory. It certainly was all of those things. But Trump is banking on us becoming desensitized. So here is the reality behind the ‘drill baby drill’ chants, and his vows to close the borders on day one when climate change is rapidly worsening a global migration crisis: 

A Trump administration would add an additional 4 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere by 2030, at a time when we urgently need to be reducing those emissions if we want a livable planet. The difference between Trump’s plans and Biden’s would be $900 billion in climate damages. That means millions more losing their homes to increasing climate disasters. It means millions more lives lost. It means worsening food and water shortages. And it means choosing to have a wealthy few continue to profit while many of the rest of us suffer or die. 

Trump also wants us to believe that this future is already written: that he and others running with similar platforms all down the ballot have already won. They haven’t. And our movement is only growing, so you better believe: Trump and his allies wouldn’t have to scream ‘drill baby drill’ if not for the chorus of our voices. 

Our movement has never relied on a single candidate. We will hold whoever is elected accountable and push them towards climate justice just as we always have. But that becomes exponentially more difficult if Trump is elected. This is just one step, but an important step on our path to climate justice: we must vote out Trump and all who share his platform, even as we know how much we will still have to build. We are fighting to preserve our chance to build the world we want.”