The United States is positioned to lead the global fight against climate change, but that opportunity will be squandered if Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is elected in November, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore said Tuesday during a rally in Miami. “Climate change is real, it’s urgent, and America can take the lead in the world in addressing it.,” Clinton said. “We here in America can develop new clean energy solutions. We can transform our economy. We can rally the world to cut carbon pollution.”
Clinton reminded the crowd of Trump’s stance on climate change, which is essentially that it doesn’t exist. Trump has previously called climate change a hoax created by the Chinese. “Look at it this way: Our next president will either step up our efforts to address climate change, to protect our planet, to protect our health, and to create good jobs that cannot be outsourced by growing our clean energy economy. Or, in the alternative, we will be dragged backwards and our whole future will be put at risk,” Clinton said.
The campaign stop in Miami coincided with the region’s recovery from the landfall of Hurricane Matthew last week. Clinton and Gore did not go so far as to directly attribute the cause of the hurricane to climate change, but Clinton did suggest that the storm was “likely more destructive because of climate change.”
The former secretary of state noted several other negative effects to climate change, such the rising sea levels threatening Miami, the expanded habitat of disease-carrying mosquitos and ticks due to higher temperatures, and more severe and lengthier periods of drought. “We cannot risk putting a climate denier in the White House. At all. That is absolutely unacceptable,” Clinton said. “We need a president who believes in science and who has a plan to lead America in facing this threat, creating good jobs, and yes, saving our planet.”
Addressing climate change will require a clean energy revolution, according to Clinton, the leader of which stands to make economic gains. “The clean energy superpower of the 21st century is probably going to be either Germany, China, or us—and I want it to be us. And I want you to be part of making it us,” she said. “We need to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy and create high-paying jobs, building and installing more solar panels and wind turbines.”
Clinton reiterated her pledges to install 500 million new solar panels across America by 2022, to ensure the generation of enough renewable energy to power every home in America by the end of the decade, and to cut oil consumption by one-third. “We can get there by investing in cutting-edge research, to keep developing cheaper and better clean energy technologies, investing in clean energy infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, putting big partnerships together between states, cities, and rural communities. We can do all of this and create millions of good-paying jobs as we do,” she said.
On top of pressing the importance of taking action against climate change, Gore reminded the Floridians of the importance of a single vote. “Your vote really, really, really counts a lot. You can consider me as an Exhibit A of that truth,” he said, referencing his loss of the 2000 presidential election, which came down to the votes from Florida, many of which were contested due to poorly designed ballots.