The cold seeped under my coat as I stood outside the Brunswick Junior High School on Election Day. I was there working on behalf of the Sunrise Movement, a national youth-led climate action group, to encourage voters to consider the climate when casting their vote.
It is clear that young people both in Maine and across the nation significantly contributed to Joe Biden’s victory. Maine also re-elected Sen. Susan Collins, who describes herself as a moderate Republican able to work with Democrats on bipartisan legislation. Many Maine voters split their ticket for President-elect Biden and Sen. Collins. It is time for Biden and Collins to join forces to promote a solution to the climate crisis which, according to a recent Bangor Daily News poll, the majority of Maine residents support.
Maine’s economy is heavily dependent on agriculture, fisheries and tourism-related recreation (such as skiing), and all these industries will be impacted by the climate crisis. Climate change is causing increased rainfall and flooding on farmland, warming seas are leading to fish migrating farther and farther north, and decreasing snowfall may diminish winter recreation. Rising temperatures will bring new agricultural pests as well as the potential for new diseases such as those associated with ticks and mosquitoes. We need to act now to prevent this threat to our way of life here in Maine.
With the help of Sunrise Bowdoin, the town of Brunswick stepped up and declared a climate emergency. Now, over a year later, it’s time for the state and the nation to follow. On some level, we are beginning to see real change. Here in Maine, Gov. Mills has created a climate council that includes a group of scientists, industry leaders and bipartisan local and state officials who are responsible for developing a climate action plan for the state. On the national level, Joe Biden has stated that the Green New Deal is a critical framework for his climate policy and has appointed John Kerry to be the first special presidential envoy for climate to his cabinet. Mainers need to forcefully advocate for continuing action to address the climate crisis.
Maine can lead on climate action. Collins has a proven record of working with Democrats to support bipartisan environmental legislation. In 2009, Sen. Collins co-sponsored with Democrats the CLEAR Act, requiring the president to create greenhouse gas targets amounting to an 83% reduction from 2005 levels by 2050. In 2002, she blocked former President George W. Bush’s plan to open the Arctic National Wildlife refuge for drilling. In recent years, she has been a co-sponsor of bills prohibiting withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord. With Maine’s oceans warming 99% faster than the world’s oceans, weather patterns changing across the state, and sea levels rising, we are reaching a critical juncture.
National action on the climate crisis will only be possible if Democrats and Republicans work together to pass bold climate legislation in Washington. Sen. Collins has campaigned as a moderate Republican willing to work across the aisle with Democrats. If she truly believes this, she must reach out and work with the president-elect and his party.
We must continue to insist both President-elect Biden and Sen. Collins work together to stop the climate crisis. So please join me in protesting, calling and writing letters if and when Biden and Collins do not make climate a priority. Bring your friends, and we can make the 2020s the decade of the Green New Deal.
Leila Trummel of Yarmouth is a sophomore at Bowdoin College majoring in environmental studies and government and legal studies.
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