With Georgia's Senate runoff election underway, a pair of local environmental activists are spreading their message about the need to fight climate change. 

"Our biggest message is that people need to be thinking about the climate when they're voting because people don't realize the South is really going to be — we're already being hit and we will be hit by climate change," Natasha Dörr-Kapczynski, co-founder and communications coordinator of Georgia For The Planet, a nonprofit advocacy group, told Cheddar. 

She said her group is working to inform voters about the candidates' positions on climate change, which in her opinion favor Democratic challengers Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, both having advocated for rejoining the Paris Climate Accords, rebuilding the Environmental Protection Agency, and protecting Georgia's coastline. 

Jordan Madden, a coordinator at Sunrise Movement Clayton County and an intern for Democratic State Rep. Becky Evans, is looking ahead to the incoming Biden administration for a more ambitious national plan to address climate change. 

"First off, I'm looking for a Green New Deal," he said. "That is number one and our top priority over the next 10 years with this climate mandate."

He highlighted the need to help "Black and brown communities" who will be disproportionately impacted by climate change both in the U.S. and around the world. He also called on these same groups, particularly those employed in the fossil fuel industry, to become active themselves by unionizing and calling on their elected officials to address these concerns. 

Dörr-Kapczynski noted that outside of the closely watched Senate runoff election, there is another local race Tuesday that is also crucial to the planet: the Public Service Commission, which regulates Georgia Power, the state's main utility. 

She explained that the regulator is in charge of shaping energy policy in the state, including whether or not there is a transition away from coal and other fossil fuels. 

"That's why it's very important to elect some new faces in there," she said. 

Share:
More In Politics
What’s in the legislation to end the federal government shutdown
A legislative package to end the government shutdown appears on track. A handful of Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to advance the bill after what's become a deepening disruption of federal programs and services. But hurdles remain. Senators are hopeful they can pass the package as soon as Monday and send it to the House. What’s in and out of the bipartisan deal has drawn criticism and leaves few senators fully satisfied. The legislation includes funding for SNAP food aid and other programs while ensuring backpay for furloughed federal workers. But it fails to fund expiring health care subsidies Democrats have been fighting for, pushing that debate off for a vote next month.
Federal Reserve cuts key rate as shutdown clouds economic outlook
The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring even as inflation stays elevated. The move comes amid a fraught time for the central bank, with hiring sluggish and yet inflation stuck above the Fed’s 2% target. Compounding its challenges, the central bank is navigating without much of the economic data it typically relies on from the government. The Fed has signaled it may reduce its key rate again in December but the data drought raises the uncertainty around its next moves. Fed Chair Jerome Powell told reporters that there were “strongly differing views” at the central bank's policy meeting about to proceed going forward.
Load More