Antony Blinken: Addressing Climate Change a ‘Powerful Tool’ Against ‘Systemic Racism’

Breitbart 20/04/2021

While delivering a speech on the “climate crisis” from the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, Blinken said:

I spend a great deal of my time focused on threats to America’s security and interests – aggressive actions by Russia or China, the spread of COVID-19 [coronavirus disease], the challenges facing democracies. But an equally grave threat to the American people – and an existential one over the long term – can be seen right here, on the Chesapeake Bay, where the costs of climate change are already manifesting themselves.

Climate change would hit poor minority communities “the hardest,” Blinken proposed, adding that addressing the issue “offers one of the most powerful tools we have to fight inequity and systemic racism.”

The top U.S. diplomat predicted:

More frequent and more intense storms; longer dry spells; bigger floods; more extreme heat and more extreme cold; faster sea level rise; more people displaced; more pollution; more asthma. Higher health costs; less predictable seasons for farmers. And all of that will hit low-income, black and brown communities the hardest.

Meanwhile, Blinken admitted some American workers “would be hit hard” by the Biden administration’s response to the “climate crisis.”

However, he promised, “We won’t leave those Americans behind. We’ll provide our fellow Americans with pathways to new, sustainable livelihoods and support as they navigate this transition.”

Blinken warned the United States is “falling behind” China as the global leader of the renewable energy industry, adding climate change could serve as an economic “opportunity” for America.