are any of the candidates walking the walk on climate change?

[Fresh_Start]

have any of them changed to electric car or hybrid car?
have any of them added solar panels or windwill or anything to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels?

are any of them using reusable cups instead of creating unnecessary waste?

they are wealthy so not expecting them to live in a tiny house...but what are they doing in their own lives to show their commitment?

[patricia92243]

1. Interesting question - don't know how to find the answer.

[Fresh_Start]

4. i've been searching and haven't been able to find the answer

the pictures of homes that I have been able to find don't show any panels or windmills...

One of Gore failures was that they wasn't walking the walk..so it made it easier to dismiss the concern about climate change.

None of these people are hurting .. so throwing some panels on a building should be the least thing that they do.

[frazzled]

2. No one has asked them

But it's a question everyone should ask themselves. We all make trade-offs. For myself, we own a 13-year-old hybrid Prius, but for most of the week take public transportation; we eat mostly at home, so don't often have to use any throw-away utensils or cups; we recycle religiously. But living in a 40-unit building in the city, we don't have the personal option for solar or wind. We have been converting to LEDs in our own unit, etc. But I'm sure we waste in some other ways (I always think I use too many paper towels because I cook a lot, and tend to do things like dry herbs and vegetables with them; and use them for cleaning.)

I must say, though, I don't know that it's an important question for candidates. Their personal usage is not nearly as big an issue as policies toward larger-scale carbon footprints created by industrial users. All the candidates seem to have strong policy positions regarding fossil-fuel regulation.

We all do our little parts, but the politicians have to look at the big regulatory picture.

[OnlinePoker]

3. I seem to recall that Warren and Sanders buy carbon offsets.

I really don't know how valid these are as they seem like one group paying for the right to pollute.

[Fresh_Start]

5. carbon offsets are pretty useless

it is not hard is it to actually do something when you have money so why aren't they?

i finally could afford PV and got it installed within months of being able to afford it.

and no, its not a money saving measure...payback is ~10+ years so we're doing it for the planet and the future

[patricia92243]

6. "it is not hard is it to actually do something when you have money so why aren't they?"

Bloomberg personally, out of his own pocket, pays the dues so the USA can stay in the clean air parts of the UN since Trump took us out of it.

He has stopped several hundred coal mines. I can't remember the other things right off. But they are there.

[Fresh_Start]

7. yes, I saw Bloomberg is taking action

still wondering about the rest.

Climate change is a long time issue for me (literally since the 1980s when I registered as Green in NYS for my first election). Don't worry I haven't been Green Party for 30 years.

[Blue_true]

11. Bloomberg is paying the USA's dues for the Paris Climate Agreement.

That is working out to around $6 million per year. He has paid it for the last 3 years after Trump refused to have the Treasury pay. Bloomberg has also invested $500 million dollars in a clean energy invention development initiative that aims to produce 100% of the nation's energy from clean sources by 2030. So, I say that he is doing a lot more than talking about the problem.

[k2qb3]

8. The more we learn about the scale of the problem the harder that becomes.

Our whole civilization is built on grain agriculture and that's really the root of the problem.

I'd be happy just to see meaningful policy objectives, but that's getting harder all the time too.

ETA- yeah carbon offsets are a bad joke, many of them are actually harmful, biomass and palm oil farms make matters worse.

[Fresh_Start]

9. yes, its hard. that is why it is important to take all the steps we can

as individuals and a nation.

I have a high school down the street. I live in a town with mass transit...but yet there are hundreds of students driving .5-5 miles in a car alone rather than taking mass transit.

its a good school in a good relatively affluent community but they aren't willing to inconvenience themselves.

I don't expect the young to save us.

[Blue_true]

10. Bloomberg has paid around $6.5 million per year to the UN

to keep the USA current in the Paris Climate change agreement, after Trump refused to pay from the Treasury. Bloomberg has also put $500 million dollars into a clean energy development consortium. He is doing a lot more than installing solar panels and driving an E Car.

[Fresh_Start]

12. GOP was able to effectively dismiss Gore because Gore wasn't walking the walk

Surely Bloomberg owns a piece of property somewhere where he can put on a solar array..even on top of an office building.

[Blue_true]

13. My guess is his buildings have energy saving features, which is effectively

putting up solar panels. Wall Street has been into energy conservation for more than a decade, everything from the windows to cooling and heating systems saves energy. It is a cost thing for them, they save millions per year in energy costs.

[Fresh_Start]

14. and honestly I knew Bloomberg was actively working on actions to address climate change

I wanted to know more about the other candidates.

[Blue_true]

15. That really should be a debate question.

It is one thing to talk about banning fracking, but has a person walked the talk with their past personal decisions. For example, if Bernie Sanders don't have solar panels or windmills at his three homes to save energy, can he really criticize a guy like Bloomberg's energy policy?