When we first introduced you to Adah Crandall, she was just 15 and already fighting a freeway in the backyard of her former middle school. A few months later, in the summer of 2021, she was leading youth climate activists in a weekly protest outside Oregon Department of Transportation headquarters in downtown Portland.
And one year ago this week, Crandall confronted a powerful state legislator in a hallway in the State Capitol in Salem.
Now Crandall has a full-time job with Sunrise Movement and has thrust onto the national stage after being arrested early Monday morning in Los Angeles. Crandall and about 40 other young climate activists coordinated a protest action outside the home of Vice President Kamala Harris.
In a video of her arrest sent to BikePortland (below), Crandall is in handcuffs with several officers around her and can be heard saying, over a chorus of supportive singing from other activists, “My home in Oregon is on fire and Biden is continuing to expand fossil fuels at record rates!”
I caught up with Crandall after she was released from jail and asked her about the protest, her activism in general, what it was like to be in jail, and what her next move will be…
Jonathan Maus
Sunday night on your Instagram stories, you were in such a good mood. Can you tell me happened after that last story when you’re saying, ‘Hey, we’re we’re gonna have a sleepover with the Secret Service!’ Take me through what happened after that.
Adah Crandall
On Sunday morning we started rallying outside of Harris’s house in LA, near the Secret Service blockade. And then a group of us ended up staying and camping out overnight. That was chill, and they didn’t try to arrest us for that, even though it’s technically illegal to camp out on the sidewalk. But then the next morning we did a road blockade and actually prevented cars from coming or going through the Secret Service blockade down the street. And then six Sunrise people were arrested, including three from Portland.
Jonathan Maus
Was it a pretty straightforward arrest? How did it happen?
Adah Crandall
Yeah, it was a pretty standard protest arrest.
Jonathan Maus
What is the specific ask of Vice President Harris? What demand was so important that it brought you to her house?
Adah Crandall
Sunrise has been running a national campaign trying to get Biden to declare a climate emergency. We did an action at this campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware a few months ago where a bunch of people got arrested sitting in the office — so this is a continuation of that campaign. And Kamala Harris is kind of a secondary target, because she is one of the people with the most influence over Biden, and could use her power as vice president to get Biden to declare a climate emergency.
The other thing is that in 2019, Kamala Harris actually said she supported a Green New Deal, and she co-sponsored a controversial resolution in the Senate. So we’re asking Harris to be the kind of leader now that she was in 2019, and don’t back down on those promises.
Jonathan Maus
Why do you think Harris hasn’t been as much of a climate champion as you’ve expected?
Adah Crandall
I think that there is a general sense among politicians that they’re they’re scared to take this really bold action. And the Biden administration is in a difficult place of trying to win the election, but also, the numbers show he needs the youth vote if he’s gonna’ win. And in order to get the youth vote, he needs to declare a climate emergency and call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
You know, a lot of people ask, ‘Well are you going to vote for Biden when it comes down to it?’ And the truth is, I don’t know. His administration is really out-of-touch with what our generation is asking for. And he can’t expect our votes to be given just because we’ve campaigned for him in the past.
Jonathan Maus
Why do you think it’s so difficult for Biden to declare a climate emergency. Isn’t it just a proclamation?
Adah Crandall
Yeah the climate emergency declaration is largely symbolic, but there also are a lot of tangible things that could happen if we declared a national emergency on climate. It would unlock federal powers to do things like; create green union jobs, use the force of the federal government to prepare communities for climate disasters, and actually put an end to the Fossil Fuel Era, do things like prosecuting oil executives for their crimes against humanity. And so there are a lot of bold things that could be done if a climate emergency was declared that are the type of climate solutions we need to actually meet the scale of this crisis. But Biden is being a coward. And he’s bought out by the fossil fuel industry and he’s not fighting for everyday people and young people across the country — even though he needs our votes in November.
Jonathan Maus
Why are you combining climate change activism with the pro-Palestine, ceasefire in Gaza demand?
Adah Crandall
Because sunrise is an organization that is fighting for the liberation of all people and sees the climate crisis, as, not just an issue in the US; but a global issue. Fighting against a genocide is very much a part of our values. And we simply can’t have a president that is literally funding the bombing of children overseas while climate disasters are killing people here every day. So I think a big part of it is to highlight the dichotomy of that. And also, these are like the two biggest issues that are swaying Gen Z and the youth vote this election.
Jonathan Maus
You started your activism here in Portland, now you’re working on more national issues. What is your current role at Sunrise?
Adah Crandall
I started as an organizer in Portland. I graduated high school and joined like the national Green New Deal for Schools team. So most of my job is coaching students around the country to run local school district climate campaigns. And sunrise has about 120 chapters around the country. We’re doing a combination of local-issue based campaigns on things like transit and housing, and then also have hubs that are doing local organizing for this national climate emergency campaign targeting Biden.
Jonathan Maus
What’s next for you?
Adah Crandall
I’m working full-time on the Green New Deal for Schools campaign. I’m planning to move to Chicago for the summer to help run a summer camp with the Chicago Sunrise chapter for their campaign and support student organizing there. And nationally, with Sunrise’s climate emergency campaign, we have a big day of action coming up on Earth Day in partnership with Friday’s for Future where they’re going to be teach-ins planned all over the country targeting local congressional representatives and asking them to call on Biden to declare a climate emergency.
Jonathan Maus
Is there anything about the arrest that you want to say in terms of, what it means for you personally?
Adah Crandall
It’s obviously not an easy decision to put your body on the line like that. But to me, it is an action that meets the stakes of the crisis. And I think we’re going to need to be brave and be bold and do a lot of really scary things to win this fight. And, yeah, it was terrifying [to get arrested]; but it felt really powerful. And I feel really grateful for the organizers that organize with me. And being in jail and hearing my friends singing from cells down the hallway was kind of a beautiful moment, despite how miserable we all were.
Jonathan Maus
Thanks, Adah. Thanks for sharing. I really appreciate it.
Adah Crandall
Thank you.
Thanks for reading.
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Great interview and kudos to Adah Crandall for working hard and getting what can only be a dream job for someone just out of high school. Reading the interview I realized I was a little jealous of modern opportunities to be honest. She also has an impressively frank assessment of the President.
You think he has done nothing in America?? His own country is not the only place he hasn’t helped. You only need to go back in history a little bit to see how little he does for the environment. He did nothing to prevent the environmental degradation of Iraq and Afghanistan by American burn pits that has resulted in so far hundreds if not thousands of deaths of Americans (not counting all the victims still living in those countries) including his own son…
It’s amazing how fast the “science” changes, especially when the political winds blow. Kessler claimed that Biden exaggerated the problem in 2019…
and now it’s realized that he was absolutely right as were all the veterans who died from no longer rare cancers that were caused by environmental conditions.
Of course as Vice President he could have done something about the burn pits during the 8 years he was in power if he had actually cared which HE DID NOT DO. He could easily be considered an environmental war criminal along with President Obama.
He has been a disaster for young people for a long time. In 2005 he led the way in preventing student loan relief through bankruptcy…
…and while Vice President did nothing to counteract President Obama’s ruthless drone program overseas…
I truly wish her the best in her continuing career battling government environmental insanity as the climate crisis has already come to fruition in many other countries and will find it’s way here eventually.
Obama is a war criminal. Biden is an environmental criminal.
Funny that your Cult leader is the only one spending his days in a courtroom.
Bikeportland championing MAGA views by posting this is not surprising anymore.
You’re flat out an idiot for assuming my political preferences. You are wrong and tiresome. I don’t like to be so blunt, but your lack of awareness calls for it.
If you have anything to refute what I am saying, feel free to try. Do you ever get tired of using MAGA to try to shut people down? I really enjoyed the debate on safe public transportation last week because it was non partisan and bad actors such as yourself couldn’t use their favorite political slur or dog whistle to shut down another person when their arguments couldn’t be countered with observation or logic.
You get away with calling people idiots here as you protected…
This is a BINARY CHOICE election for you smart people.
It’s either Trump or Biden. If you don’t like or support or vote for Biden then you are a Trump supporter because one will win and one will lose.
It’s pretty obvious and when you claim you are not MAGA but will help elect MAGA, you are one.
Not in Oregon. You can vote for whomever you want and it won’t affect the outcome one whit.
You could campaign for Biden. You could sell your house and donate the proceeds to the election campaign. You could quit your job and knock on every door you can physically get to from now until the election. You could do all those things, but you’re not. You must want Trump to win, you’re a MAGA Trump supporter!
See how silly that is? Not voting for Biden is not supporting Trump. Voting for Trump is supporting Trump. There are infinite things you could do to help Biden more and you’re not. If anything, trying to get him to change is doing the most to help him because if he actually did change that might improve his chances.
Furthermore, pointing out that doing unpopular things suppresses turnout is just a statement about facts. It’s not a matter of opinion. You’re just getting mad at the messenger.
American support for Israel is abut 60% in every poll.
Your tiny world view doesn’t matter.
Is the world in your mind broken down into Biden supporters and MAGA, and no other options? I didn’t see anything in there about MAGA, only justified criticism of Biden/Obama, and frankly, it includes criticism of Bush (indirectly).
https://www.aclu.org/news/national-security/trumps-secret-rules-for-drone-strikes-and-presidents-unchecked-license-to-kill
This is the guy you will help elect.
I can be like Jake and cut and paste.
That’s actually very helpful. It’s something we can all look at and become more knowledgeable about a subject rather than relying on partisan furor. I try to bring as many open source receipts as I can on uncomfortable discussions as I know a lot of people find it more pleasant to have a good guy vs bad guy outlook.
I see President Trump made it slightly easier to drone folks overseas than his predecessor, President Obama which is bad. I would suggest posting a comparison of the numbers of people killed by President Trump’s drone ROE (Rules of Engagement) versus the number killed by President Obama’s ROE. If you do it would also be accurate to work in the number of Americans killed overseas (by drones) by either President.
This is such a cop-out. People like being able to heat their houses and schools and businesses. When we had the January freeze, fossil fuels saved actual lives of people who would have frozen to death otherwise.
I’m so tired of activists saying all we need to do is “ban” fossil fuels and all of our problems will be solved. Please come up with credible ways* to replace fossil fuels and then I will listen.
My bike is a highly credible way for me to replace fossil fuels but I am one in ten thousand. Why is that? How about Adah and her smart young colleagues figure out a solution to that problem?
The solution seems simple enough — a combination of electric vehicles and transit where it makes sense (which will decrease as automation arrives). Electric vehicles (including electric cargo bikes) are here, and we’ll continue to see growing adoption in coming years. I see no other possible solutions. There are exactly zero hints that people are on the cusp of taking up cycling en masse.
EV technology is here, and it doesn’t require a huge lifestyle change. If we want to hasten the transition, we need marketing and charging/vehicle storage infrastructure.
Electric individual cars won’t save us. We’ll need denser cities where it is easier to walk, bike and take transit to all the things you need in your daily life. So many cities, including Portland, have zoned the majority of their city for 5,000 s.f. or larger “single-family” lots. We need cities full of 4-story apartment buildings, like you see in many parts of the Alphabet district in NW Portland. Places where there are enough customers that business want to locate there. Where there are enough riders that it makes sense to increase transit service. Places where the demand for biking facilities outweighs the demand for car accommodatioon. Not “transit where it makes sense”, but allow high enough density in as many places as possible so transit DOES make sense there.
Of course they won’t. They are necessary, but hardly sufficient.
Denser cities are great in some ways, but rebuilding everything is a multi-generational project that a large number of Americans want no part of. EVs are available (and being purchased) today.
It seems exceedingly unlikely that people will abandon their suburban homes anytime soon, so those folks will still need ways to get around. We know that our current model of transit simply does not work for most of them, whereas EVs probably will.
Doug, you say “Electric individual cars won’t save us,” but I would add to your critique that “Density won’t save us either.”
I am currently already able to get everything I need in my SW Portland neighborhood on my bike. But I’m the only person doing it – or one of a handful of people doing it.
So what would get people to do more by bike? One solution posited constantly in BP is: build cycling infrastructure so more people feel safe on the roads. I don’t need it but if others do, then we should build it.
Your solution is to force everyone to live cheek by jowl, stacked on top of each other in apartments. But clearly Americans don’t want to live that way – they want a little space. You’d turn every suburb into Manhattan. But have you been to Manhattan and seen how choked with cars it is?
I’m sorry but the density solution is also not a solution. Something larger and more profound will need to happen before people choose bikes, walking, and transit over cars.
What Americans want and what is environmentally, fiscally, or physically sustainable are, unfortunately, not in alignment. Inevitably, the want will lose.
With respect, I think you may be misunderstanding the charge here.
The issue isn’t that fossil fuel companies continue to provide essentials so long as alternatives aren’t up to the task. Nobody’s standing outside NW Natural demanding they shut off peoples’ heat during winter.
The issue is that fossil fuel execs have known exactly how harmful their business is for at least 40 years, because their own scientists told them, and their response was to double down at every opportunity. Rather than start investing in alternatives once they became aware of the problem, they invested in silencing critics, spreading misinformation, discrediting alternatives, and in lobbying and supporting politicians who were willing to go to bat for them despite knowing where that would ultimately lead.
These kids aren’t mad because we dare heat our homes with fossil fuels. They’re mad because the adults in the room should’ve spent the last 40 years trying to figure out alternatives, and instead chose to sell future generations up the river at every turn.
And so the solution they’ve “figured out” as you’ve called for them to do, is that in order to finally make serious progress toward alternatives, we need to first get the people who’ve spent decades obstructing that progress out of power. Hopefully once that’s done the process of truly resolving this issue at a systemic level can finally begin in earnest.
Matt, that’s another convenient bit of historicizing (or whatever you’d call “making up your own history”).
For one thing the fossil-fuel industry is huge, encompassing regulated utilities that provide energy that is essential to modern living, like natural gas and electricity that comes from natural gas (PGE never talks about how much of their electricity comes from fossil fuel but it’s around 80%, including coal-fired power from Idaho), private and publicly-held companies that refine and sell gasoline, etc. I don’t think you can make such a sweeping statement and maintain credibility.
When we are all addicted to something, it’s just so much easier to blame our supplier instead of ourselves. And an addict will always find a way when the supply is cut off. Give us the methadone for our fossil-fuel addiction and then we can make our suppliers irrelevant.
This is a conversational interview. Putting an end to fossil fuels is the goal, nobody proposed we immediately stop their use today cold turkey. It’s so tiring having people make these silly strawman arguments as if the people you’re talking to didn’t think of that. It’s lazy. You know she knows you can’t stop fossil fuels literally today, and we shouldn’t just put all oil execs in jail today across the board.
It’s impossible to use natural language in a perfectly unambiguous and exhaustively specific way that can’t be twisted to mean something silly. So assume good faith instead of wasting everyone’s time assuming a cartoonish impossible interpretation of someone’s statements. Especially when on a general level you agree (replacing fossil fuels, fighting climate change), which apparently you do.
We should do so only where it can be proven they have committed an actual crime. Not publicizing your company’s internal research would probably not suffice.
But John, *she* is the one who made the cartoonish statements! “Prosecuting oil executives for crimes against humanity” is just one rung up from Trump’s chants of “Lock her up.”
I will listen to activists like Adah when they start making nuanced and informed arguments, backed by evidence, about actions we should take.
“nuance” and “activists” are pretty much mutually exclusive.
I’m guessing she didn’t walk to LA.
I like the Sunrise Movement, they seem like good people, and Adah’s words only solidify that opinion. It really is absolutely wild how steadfast our politicians are on topics like this. I mean, from the Democrat side. They clearly are facing down an election they’re not very likely to win, and straight up refusing to budge on issues that are actively, directly, preventing people from voting for them. It’s wild. If they really believed this election was as important as they say, you’d think they would be willing to make some concessions like Adah’s talking about.
Agree with you on this and it really cuts to the quick on the propaganda the campaigns are turning out versus what their actions actually are. Also how little regard the campaigns seem to have for the mental capacity of actual voters that they think they can get away with it.
What are some of the specific “concessions” you think Democrats should be making to address Adah’s complaints that will also attract more popular support?
The stakes in this election are about as high as they get, and I agree with you that it doesn’t look good.
Well, since the two issues specifically mentioned by Adah were climate change and Palestine, budging a little on either of those would be cool. Maybe not expanding oil drilling and pipeline building, and maybe putting real actual pressure (not thoughts and prayers) on Israel to stop their massacre, cool things down there, stop giving them the weapons used to do the massacre. Those are some issues really destroying the will of anyone remotely on the left to support this government in almost any way.
But these are just my suggestions off the top of my head. Given more thought I can’t believe they’re not coming up with anything.
Biden is budging on Palestine, and has done more on climate change than any other president (an admittedly low bar). I expect him to do significantly more on climate if re-elected (especially if Democrats gain control of congress).
Whether going further on either issue would boost Democrats’ electoral prospects is highly speculative and somewhat doubtful. Anyone can see that Trump would be far worse on both issues, so sabotaging Biden over them would be utterly self-defeating.
Agree to disagree, and the fact that he hasn’t is part of his abysmal approval rating. But we don’t have to veer off onto that topic.
Just one more time bro.
Biden’s approval ratings are higher now than they’ve been for the past 6 months. They’re still awful, but they’ve been this low ever since he botched the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
https://thehill.com/homenews/4594603-biden-approval-rating-highest-since-november/
Don’t worry, Trump will win the election and he won’t budge, he will help blow it up.
Drill baby Drill also.
The angry young people who are up in arms about Gaza might be surprised to learn the views of Trump.
A real well educated bunch that they are….
I think I understand the reference here: you’re mocking the Dems for asking for “one more election” to really turn things around. . . yet again.
Sure, every election is sold as “the most important election of our time,” and every candidate has a laundry list of laudable goals on their website. That’s the reality of marketing, though. What do you expect them to say?
In reality, it’s not like a house gets built in one day. For example, Oregon has moved significantly to the left, and that has had all sorts of implications for public policy over various kinds, but it’s taken many decades, and taken consistent electoral support for the leftmost party to achieve.
Politics is a process. That process gave us the IRA; it could give us much, much more!
This is not the win you think it is.
The IRA will not meet even the anemic climate goals the USA has agreed to and modeling suggests that it will only reduce current emission trends by a pathetic ~13% (a >2 C trajectory). To meet IPCC <2 C climate goals we need reductions similar to those we saw during the height of the pandemic but ‘murricans are incapable of even the smallest sacrifice for the greater good. I hate ‘murrica and I hate Portland.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adg3781
On the other hand, the IRA is a truly massive subsidy of predatory corporate ‘murrica.
In other words, the IRA won’t save us. Of course it won’t, but it is one step in a long journey.
One step on a long journey to 2.4-2.7 °C.
If these trends continue, our climate-crisis denial may be the moral equivalent of a household of 4 shooting their neighbor and burying the body in their back yard.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-24487-w#Sec6
Given the popular dislike of inflation, and the very visible cost of gas, Biden would be ill advised to put more limits on oil production.
I totally understand the frustration with the rampant drilling and burning, but the median voter is neither as far left nor as environmentally engaged as I am, and it’s useful to recall that, from time to time. Without a large number of votes from such voters, Biden will lose, and *we* will lose a shot at further climate change legislation for another four years, at least.
In our usually very liberal Portland there is a shockingly large segment of voters (not a majority, but anyway) that worship their orange haired god. They claim he’ll solve the border issue (they forget that they themselves were immigrants at one time), the economy will magically be better (many of their relatives are on welfare), and everyone will have spending money. I’m sure if I asked them about climate change they’d deny it right and left.
And of course you can’t talk to those groups. It makes me very sad to see how divisive this country has become.
You say a shockingly large percentage of Portlanders support Trump? Seriously? Based on what metric? I’ve been here 10 years and haven’t heard a single person say they like Trump.
i feel like the most conservative person on here and i’m not voting for trump…lol i did once, as a protest vote, that was my protest, instead of lighting occupied buildings on fire.
Gotta admit, one must have a wild victimhood complex to be sitting near/in front of the personal residence of the second in command of the most powerful country on the planet and then argue that more people should live under Hamas. The concept of a woman protesting their actions in front of their home would be completely incomprehensible for the leadership of Hamas, yet we spend hundreds of billions of dollars per year, so she can safely travel 1000 miles from her home, which is burning by the way, to sit in the street under palm trees and when arrested, she is released in a few hours without a fine/bail.
The most important thing to this young American women is Gaza and climate change.
Her own body autonomy she will sacrifice to help get Trump elected.
Brilliant.
It is absolutely upside down, mind bending, to accuse people calling to end a genocide of having a victim complex. That is crazy. Also her protest and sign were about climate change, although she did link it to the genocide which is fair. Ultimately, the fact that Biden supports this genocide (with actions if not words) is absolutely going to hurt his election chances and no amount of dehumanizing lies from the likes of you can make people unsee the atrocities we see daily now.
Did you Unsee the hundreds of rapes and murders on Oct. 7?
Not going to dignify that drivel with a direct response. Just going to say, no amount of your kicking and whining changes how bad Biden et al are hurting the election chances. Do with that info what you will, I’m sure it will amount to no more than looking for ways to relieve your cognitive dissonance by blaming the messenger.
One disgusting horrific slaughter of civilians does not justify another.
On a more practical note, Israelis and Palestinians are going to have to figure out how to live with each other, and it’s hard to imagine how that can happen while people who have lived through the past 6 months have anything to say about it.
Stay tuned!
Okay, then it’s a moral superiority complex to lecture everyone else about either of these topics because there is nothing stopping her from going to Gaza to help or from walking into the woods and living a subsistence lifestyle. Both would probably be great experiences for her and provide some context about why Israel is an ally and Hamas isn’t and why civilization (but for all its issues) is sort of cool.
Protest is an important, longstanding part of our democracy, and it’s good to see young people engaged in activism, and not just video games or social media!
I guess I’m getting old, because I disagree with their targeting, in this case. If carbon emissions are the point, seems like advocating for carbon-free energy permitting reform would reduce emissions faster. We won’t get to zero carbon if we continue to make it illegal to build most new solar, wind, and nuclear power alternatives.
The Sunrise movement has a bad record, in that regard.
And this admission is exactly why I really loathe climate movement incremental reformism.
This kind of passive response in the face of ecocide is too little and far too late.
It was time to do this a decade ago:
What I think of the USAnian climate movement:
Hey man, the CEI Hub is right there, by all means feel free to decommission it, pick it apart, demolish it, burn it, and blow it up. Be the change you want to see in the world.
Transformative change will never happen because of the actions of an individual. The belief that individual actions make a difference is a liberal/progressive lie.
I agree with you on all counts. But you can’t avoid the fact that you, too, live here and aren’t doing the things that need to be done. Organizing, putting your life on the line, risking your freedom. That stuff is scary (or nebulous in the case of organizing), there is a reason people do it so rarely or are so reluctant. It’s really hard to budge people out of the place of comfort they have in the one life they have to live. I don’t know how we make that happen. It has to happen, but the possibly black-pilled truth is people might not rise up and do anything about climate change collectively until their life is made unbearable by it. I don’t know. Also breaking through propaganda (e.g. that voting is the solution) and increasing things like labor organizing can help.
The left in the USA is tiny and ineffectual due to factionalism and lifestylism so the mass movement that Malm envisions seems out of reach here. Other regions may be our best hope.
This is good in and of itself but when the time-line for change is a decade…
Linking climate crisis with genocide in Gaza? Seriously? Funny but just today the President of some country in the Middle East that will go unnamed (I’m sure everyone knows who it is) threatened again that they would wipe some country on the Mediterranean and its people off the map. Is it any wonder why commenters here are skeptical of any chance to win a national election in November? It’s protests like this and what occurred in Dearborn, MI on April 5 that has the average moderate or independent voter rethinking their choices.
Military action is one of the largest contributors to CO2 emissions. Just on a purely practical level, if you don’t care about nuance.
That country threatening to retaliate (against an attack on them) is exactly why, from a purely self interested view, we should be trying to de-escalate things there, not pretend like the US has no influence.
Absolutely, positively, yes. And we have been.
https://apnews.com/article/biden-iran-israel-netanyahu-g7-missiles-drone-62cba0eaac095115f8386397b3ded2f4 [to pick one of about 100 stories]
And not just CO2 emissions, but rather all the toxic substances literally blasted and burned into the environment due to the perceived exigencies of combat. So Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine (where we are sending DU ammunition)
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-send-its-first-depleted-uranium-rounds-ukraine-sources-2023-09-01/
and all the other combat zones are being polluted at a horrific rate which affects all of humanity. I do agree with you that we as a nation should be doing all that we can to de-escalate wherever we have the leverage needed to do so which includes a serious look into why we seem to supply both sides in so many conflicts around the world and why we produce so many munitions. In my earlier post I said that Obama and Biden are complicit in horrible environmental crimes, I assumed that people would understand that Bush and Cheney are also just as complicit.
You called Barack Obama, ex president of the US a War criminal.
That implies a lot of things like prison and execution.
That got published here.
Its beyond just civil discussion, BP should ban you.
Doubtful, I would expect Mr. Maus to agree with those sentiments. This site has become shockingly anti-American and anti-democracy as of late.
This is a shockingly stupid take.
In all sincerity and with uncharacteristic bluntness: You first. You’re awful and toxic. You bring all the value of a crotchety old partisan yelling at clouds.
Go away. Please.
I think nearly every moderate voter would need to Google Dearborn, MI April 5th to know what you are talking about. I know I did, and I’m moderate/athiest.
No chance I’m voting for anyone but Biden in November (unless he croaks first).
Jonathan,
Did you ask what mode of conveyance Adah and her fellow Portland climate change activists used to get to Los Angeles and back?
Was it?
1) Airplane
2) Train
3) Bus
4) Car
5) Bicycle
6) Walking
What’s the relevance? If the kids believe that their actions could help turn the tide on carbon emissions, why should their infinitesimally small personal share of those emissions prevent them from using mass transit?
Ah, but I bet they want *you* to freeze in winter.
You are in Oregon, she protested in California. Nobody in either place needs natural gas for heating their home .
2 million people in Oregon have natural gas heat.
What are you talking about?
I’m talking about nobody needs natural gas in Oregon to heat their home. Same way nobody (almost nobody) needs a Ford F-150 yet they’re everywhere. What people currently do is irrelevant, the whole entire thing we’re talking about is changing what people currently do.
Oregon climate is so mild you can trivially heat your home with an air source heat pump which also brings other benefits (no need for ducting if you use a mini split, individual room control, etc).
Gas furnaces only last 10-20 years at best (or parts break that cost more to replace than to replace the furnace sadly), so there are furnaces being replaced constantly. None of them should be replaced with more gas.
Wahoo, I own a 20+ year old F-150 too! I must be the worst of the worst. I better be watching out for the pitchforks and tar coming to my house!
cmon, my furnace is from 1989, probably before, idk before we bought it.
Are you going to pay for everyone to convert from Gas to Electric (or some other method of heating)? I used to have a gas furnace and I’ve replaced it with a heat pump as primary and gas auxiliary/backup. I also plan to replace the rest of the gas appliances in my house, but those will happen when the current one’s break.
Or are you going to step up and offer me funds to change over sooner?
If you have a point to make, starting with a caricature doesn’t help.
Obviously heat pumps should be subsidized such that they’re cheaper than gas to install when replacing old appliances. It’s one of the most obvious things in the world. I did the math and it actually would emit less carbon to literally burn gas to make electricity to run a heat pump than to heat directly with the gas, even counting transmission losses. It’s crazy.
Funny thing is, that has been true for decades (in mild enough climates like Oregon, and everywhere in the continental US now), and the fact that heat pumps are relatively rare is due to an annoyingly successful PR campaign by gas companies.
Tax credits offer a partial offset; there may be other sources depending on your income.
If you* wait until your gas furnace breaks to upgrade, you’ll be stuck in the position of being cold and not really wanting to explore your options so you’ll go with the easy, known, fast, sure thing, which is a new gas furnace.
I preemptively replaced my gas water heater with a heat pump unit because I wanted to do so on my timeline rather than its. My furnace is next.
*Not really you, because you already have a heat pump, but all the other yous out there who don’t.
I do. I live in Bend where it gets quite cold. A retrofit to electric for my 1-bedroom apartment would cost several thousands of dollars. My landlord has made a real effort to keep my rent within reason, but he would have no choice but to pass the cost along to me. My gas bill, including water heater and range, ranges from around $25 a month in the Summer to $75 in the Winter, but only because I keep my thermostat at 62 degrees and bundle up in Winter.
You don’t need to “retrofit” anything to go electric, it isn’t a retrofit. It uses the same infrastructure (ducting) you use for gas, or better, doesn’t use ducting at all. The gas furnace is going to stop working, and when that happens, it should not be replaced with more gas.
But I don’t know why you even chimed in, you have no input on what heats your house as a renter (a sad fact that I’d like to see changed). And your landlord would not pass anything on to you if they replaced the furnace when it goes out with a subsidized heat pump system.
I’m sure if you wanted to buy your landlord a new heating system, they’d be onboard. Or you could ask nicely for your landlord to spend their money. Or split the cost.
Or do you have other ideas for how to control what heats the house you are renting?
I’d rather not personally give a free gift to the landlord out of my pocket, so no I don’t think that’s reasonable.
My thought is that gas heating for rentals should be legislated out of existence (obviously as existing furnaces need replacing). And if the way to get there is to subsidize the cost difference (I realize heat pumps are still for unknown reasons slightly more expensive), then that’s how I think it should be done. The other big one is heat pump water heaters. I just love heat pumps, they’re like magic.
Gas furnaces should go the way of oil furnaces and buried oil tanks and asbestos insulation and all the rest. There are better alternatives and the downsides of the gas make it worse than just a neutral “everyone should get to choose” kind of thing.
We can’t even get the city or county to eliminate gas hookups in new construction, which seems the lowest hanging fruit on that tree. We’ll keep trying, though.
You didn’t address how to give tenants get a say in how their rented house is heated, especially if they’re not willing to pay anything, though I suppose they always have the option of not renting if they don’t like the source of their heat (maybe they want gas instead of electric).
Buuu…buuuu…buuuttttt the city declared a symbolic climate emergency!!!!??!!
Indeed they did. And our most identifiably pro environment city council member (Rubio) cut a secret deal with Zenith (and reduced bike parking requirements in apartments and…)
I am pretty disgusted with our current city leadership.
I have wall gas heaters in two rooms. There is no ducting. They would have to be removed. Electric units would be installed. There would clearly need to be sheetrock and paint work done. Add to that, the City of Bend charges significant fees every time this kind of conversion is done. And, to add to your ignorance, you miss the fact that I don’t have to turn on my gas heaters. I could plug in electric heaters. I do have a choice. Other than those realities, you wear spot on in your comments.
That’s pretty dehumanizing for the people that would freeze to death in every community near the Sierra.
Gas isn’t the only heating option available. Put more thought into your quips, please.
You failed to ask the two questions on most peoples’ minds: (1) Do you have any evidence that actions like these actually have any impact on public policy? and (2) Do you have any concern for the drivers stuck in traffic with their engines idling? I consider these, and freeway shutdowns, as a non-violent form of terrorism and should be treated accordingly. Mandatory jail time and stiff fines. Yes, protest at public gatherings and speak before political committees, but stopping traffic is just wrong, and I am pretty sure, counter-productive. You’re creating a lot more climate-change skeptics.
Amazing how effective the Russian-Iranian propaganda campaign has been. Not only is it sabotaging the presidential election to ensure another Trump victory, it’s also derailing efforts to slow climate change.
And never in a million years would I have expected environmental activists to actively campaign for the destruction of Israel.
I bet this was what it felt like as a moderate conservative watching the GOP lose its mind in 2016. We’re all so very gullible.
Not to mention blatant antisemitism which these young “progressives seem almost proud of.
You haven’t seen one hint of antisemitism, in these comments or any of the stories posted here. If you can find it, cite your sources, otherwise stop lying.
Adáh accused Israel of committing genocide which is a blatant lie.
Israel is explicitly a Jewish state.
Accusing Jewish people of committing genocide is repulsive given 2000 years of history.
It is not a lie, it is a legal accusation that is considered plausible by the international court of justice.
Israel can’t hide behind the tragedy of the Holocaust to get away with this. Using that as a shield is disgusting.
Are you saying that Jews are categorically incapable of committing genocide, that they can but no one should be so impolitic as to point it out if they do, or just that they are not doing so presently?
I did not say that at all.
You appear to be a smart guy, Genocide is the systematic extermination of a people or ethnic group.
Israel is Not doing that.
There are 2 million people in Gaza, 30,000 unfortunately have been killed.
There is no evidence that Israel are planning to kill the remaining 2 million.
It is simply not true, not happening and people who say it is are just propagandists or liars.
It’s absolutely appalling that you are fabricating a legal definition of genocide to win an internet political argument.
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
09 December 1948
General Assembly resolution 260 A (III)
https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-prevention-and-punishment-crime-genocide
John, BB wrote “blatant antisemitism which these young progressives seem almost proud of.” That statement is broader than this thread. It is not hard to find instances of anti-Semitism among supporters of Gaza. Here is an essay by Franklin Foer in a recent Atlantic: The Golden Age of American Jews Is Ending.
Foer writes about Bay Area anti-Semitism, and it is not hard to find other examples. Of course it is possible to disagree with or be critical of the Israeli government without being antisemitic. What is troubling is how easily that criticism steps into targeting American Jews. I have personally witnessed this in Portland, among a small group protesting an author talk at Powells. The protesters were ignorant, misinformed and out of line.
(The anti-Semitism I’ve seen reminds me of my dog who got all excited when I had to chase my hens away from a racoon. You could see his thought bubble, “Oh boy, you mean it’s OK to chase the chickens now? I’ll help!” People slip into anti-Semitism way too easily.)
I agree with you on the broader dangers of anti-semitism as a basis for protesting against Israel, however in the specific comment BB makes along with his accusations of MAGA and the other comments of those pesky russkies, anti-america and anti-democracy I find I support John V’s assessment.
I’ll add regardless of how one feels about the Israeli government’s actions, most supporters of Gaza do not denounce their proxy government leadership groups like Hamas or Hezbolah. They actually celebrate what they stand for which is ludicrous. The fact remains there is only one side of the conflict that officially calls for the extermination of a people group and nation in all its platforms whether it’s an infamous Middle East country or its shadow groups. If that’s not anti-semitism then I don’t know what is. Hitching your climate activism wagon to support for Gaza is downright foolish and will only drive more voters to the other side.
There is only one side of the conflict that is ACTUALLY exterminating another group.
The official policy of Hamas which has large support in Gaza is the extermination of Jewish people in the Middle East.
*** Moderator: deleted last sentence, name-calling ***
I count no less than 20 comments from you on this article. It must be exhausting trying to keep up with correcting everyone’s take on this issue. /s
This whole line of conversation is ridiculous. Who is worse? The side killing tens of thousands of civilians, bombing cities to rubble, or the side that would do the same if given a chance? It’s an impossible and pointless question. Even if you had an answer, what would you do with it?
The only important question is how to bring this conflict to an end and find a peaceful way forward.
Ok, but you and I know that’s not what BB means. He’s equating anti war progressives with antisemitism. He’s lying. Don’t give him the credit to pretend like he’s making this nuances argument about secret antisemites feeling free to come out of the woodwork now. He’s not leaving open even the hint that anyone could actually be against this genocide without being antisemitic and I find that repulsive. This is how you let a genocide happen.
Hi John, I disagree with your characterization of BB. BB tends to get inflammatory, it’s their personality, and I’ve not posted their comments in the past because of that. If you strip away some of the hot-headedness, I don’t see that BB’s position is much different from what many Democrats believe. There’s been a divide for a while now, on many issues, between younger progressives and older liberals (like myself).
My theory is that the younger generation has had the privilege of coming of age at a time when many of the battles over sexism and anti-Semitism have been fought and largely won. Older people can remember a time when things were different. So yeah, it surprises me the causes young women choose to become passionate about when 18 of our United States have severely restricted or outlawed abortion.
That doesn’t make it OK to bomb the crap out of a place, but I do think it is a dumb move to try to link global warming and Palestinian rights.
“These young progressives seem almost proud of blatant antisemitism”.
If you strip away all of it, and replace it with a different statement, it does seem reasonable. One where you don’t call criticism of Israel’s government antisemitism or pretend white supremacists taking advantage of a chance to criticize Jews are the same as “these” young climate and social justice activists. Who are “these young progressives”? This wild blanketing and just making up words to put in peoples’ mouths is the kind of thing you don’t have to do if your argument has any merit.
I do not understand a person who is surprised that people would choose to be passionate about not massacring tens of thousands of innocent civilians in their homes. This is a big deal, and it’s specifically relevant to Americans since we fund it so heavily. It’s not something to sweep under the rug. Older generations should harken back to the good old time of the Vietnam war, where young people were also protesting a blatant massacre. Much of that before Roe V Wade had even happened yet! What were those women thinking? Or if you need another historical comparison, consider apartheid South Africa. Why on Earth would any young activist have ever cared about that? Of course people care about it. What a joke.
John,
Women were working on reproductive rights a long time before Roe v Wade.
Anti-apartheid was my generation’s cause. And how those young activists went about successfully achieving their goals in a relatively short time should be studied. They focused on getting their respective colleges to divest from companies which did business with South Africa.
Where I went to school, activists set up tents outside the president’s office and camped out until divestment was addressed. They were on-message always, and strategic. They knew where they could apply pressure and realistically get something done. The divestment by colleges snowballed into a larger divestment movement, and things in So Africa eventually changed.
And by the way, I think Israel should stop bombing Gaza. And I think global warming — hell, I’ve been worried about it for 30 years.
And of course, people can pick the cause that inspires them.
If you think the ‘battle over antisemitism’ has been largely won, then, I respectfully say you have not been paying attention to the news. As a boomer, I can recall a few incidents of verbal antisemitism in my youth and college days (UC Berkeley, a former nexus of free speech and true diversity, emphasis on former). Probably as many in ten years as are reported today in 10 days. I wonder if you have noticed in all the news reports that the vast number of incidents that are reported are perpetrated by the very generation that you let off, not by my generation of ‘older people’.
Huh? reread what I wrote.
I did and that is exactly what you said ‘my theory is that young people grew up in an age where the battle over anti-Semitism (sic) has been fought and largely won’. Please tell me what I am missing?
You are misquoting me, I wrote, “Many battles over.” That’s part of what you are missing. The other part is that I didn’t say that anti-Semitism or sexism had been defeated.
There are no longer covenants prohibiting Jews from living in certain neighborhoods; no longer a blatant quota system limiting the number of Jews admitted to a University; there are now accommodations for religious observers of the Saturday Sabbath; making anti-Semitic remarks is not acceptable like it once was.
And why the “[sic]” after anti-Semitism? If it’s good enough for The Atlantic, it’s good enough for BP.
The generally accepted spelling is one, unhyphenated word, according to the Oxford dictionary, but yes, other spellings do appear. No biggie. Your sentence/meaning is pretty fuzzy after several re-readings, but my take was that you were saying/implying that antisemitism was not particularly a big issue for young people and I think they, and you, are very wrong, if you think that is true.
I think anti-Semitism is a big issue, and that young activists are not taking it seriously enough. That’s why I linked to a recent Atlantic cover story about anti-Semitism and youth activism concerning Gaza. I can’t write any more clearly than that.
Antisemitism has become a bit of a bludgeon, used to clobber anyone who criticizes Israel or their conduct in Gaza/West Bank.
This unfortunate (but perhaps inevitable) dilution of the meaning of antisemitism may perversely give people license to express antisemitic ideas a little more freely than they might otherwise.
Also, when you look for something everywhere, you’ll see it everywhere, even where it isn’t. Most people here have experienced that.
Did you read the Atlantic article? Real live, in-person, anti-Semitism happening to school children.
I have read most of that article, and it contains some really nasty stuff.
I was speaking more broadly. I recognize there is plenty of real antisemitisim out there, but there is also a lot of labeling things antisemitic that are really just a criticism of Israel or expressions of solidarity with a very reasonable Palestinian desire to be out from under the Israeli boot (which, for the near to medium future, has become completely impossible).
I think most of the American “conversation” about the conflict simply creates strife and division here while having no impact there, and seems to consist primarily of finding fault and assigning blame with one party or another.
As I wrote elsewhere, it no longer matters who started it. What we really need are people willing to find a peaceful solution.
I agree with most, maybe all, of your comment. I didn’t get involved with anything political until my late twenties, and I’ve off and on intensely volunteered for things ever since.
But it took moderating this thread for me to realize that all my volunteer efforts (land use or education) have always been local. I never thought much about that till now.
Did you see the Columbia U Protests?
Chants supporting Intifada?
Its not vague and not just critics of Israel.
Its a hip fad thing for misinformed people and they are either dense or antisemitic.
I will take my toxic responses and leave.
The non partisan crowd here can whistle in the wind.
Seems that one can be anti-Israeli government actions and not be antisemitic.
I think all the leaders in the middle east suck. Doesn’t make me hate the actual citizens or their religious affiliations.
what does gaza have to do with the environment, she lost me.