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susan sarandon
Celebrities Join Greenpeace in Demanding Biden Go Big on Global Plastics Treaty
"Will you be the president who helped put an end to the plastic pollution crisis, or someone who let it spiral further out of control?"
May 18, 2023
Actors known for their environmental advocacy—including Jane Fonda, Jason Momoa, Joaquin Phoenix, Susan Sarandon, and Laura Dern—joined Greenpeace USA on Thursday in an open letter to U.S. President Joe Biden urging his administration to "protect the planet from plastic pollution" and slash carbon emissions "by supporting a strong global plastics treaty."
"We appreciate your leadership in securing a global oceans treaty that creates a path to protecting 30% of our oceans by 2030," the letter's signers told Biden. "Winning the treaty was truly a historic moment, one of the greatest environmental achievements in history."
"We're calling on President Biden to put aside fossil fuel and plastics industry interests and lead us on the path that prioritizes human health, biodiversity, and our communities."
"At the end of May, delegates from around the world will convene in Paris for the second round of negotiations on a global plastics treaty," the letter continues, referring to talks hosted by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
"While you have signaled support for this treaty, the U.S. position is not yet strong enough," the letter argues. "Currently, the U.S. is not calling for a cap on plastic production—which is the only real way to stop plastic pollution. In 2021, the U.S. only recycled a mere 5% of plastics produced."
\u201cDozens of public figures have joined Greenpeace USA in calling on @POTUS to support an ambitious, legally binding Global #PlasticsTreaty that caps plastics production and supports solutions like refill & reuse! \ud83d\udc4f\n\nThank you for lending your voices \ud83d\udd3d https://t.co/qc5IOkuYsX\u201d— Greenpeace USA (@Greenpeace USA) 1684427402
The letter continues:
Plastics are polluting and harmful at every stage of their life cycle—from extraction to disposal. Ninety-nine percent of plastics come from fossil fuels; cutting plastic production will make a significant dent in carbon emissions. There are communities living next to refineries and petrochemical facilities who are bearing the combined brunt of the climate and plastic crises. People living near these facilities—overwhelmingly people of color—face higher rates of cancer, asthma, and adverse birth outcomes.
"President Biden, you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help our climate, our oceans, and our communities this year by supporting a strong and ambitious global plastics treaty," the signers asserted. "The decision you make on this critical issue will help define your legacy—will you be the president who helped put an end to the plastic pollution crisis, or someone who let it spiral further out of control? We're calling on you to do the right thing."
Other actors who signed the letter include Rosana Arquette, Alec Baldwin, Ed Begley, Ted Danson, Piper Perabo, Kyra Sedgwick, William Shatner, and Shailene Woodley.
\u201cPLASTIC IS EVERYWHERE \ud83d\udc40 \n\nWe need a Global Plastics Treaty Now! \n\u26a0\ufe0fSign the petition >> https://t.co/HYJelSJO2i\u201d— Greenpeace USA (@Greenpeace USA) 1683904641
Greenpeace is proposing a seven-point plan for the global plastics treaty:
- Achieve immediate, significant reductions in plastic production, establishing a pathway to end virgin plastic production;
- Promote a shift to refill- and reuse-based economies, creating jobs and standards in new reuse industries and supporting established zero-waste practices;
- Support a just transition for workers across the plastics supply chain, prioritizing waste pickers who collect approximately 60% of all plastic that is collected for recycling globally;
- Promote noncombustion technologies for plastic stockpiles and waste disposal;
- Institute the "polluter pays" principle for plastic waste management and for addressing the health and environmental costs throughout the plastics life cycle;
- Significantly improve regulation, oversight, safety, and worker protections for existing recycling facilities; and
- Require transparency about chemicals in plastics and eliminate all toxic additives and chemicals used in the plastics life cycle.
"Many environmental groups and frontline communities are disappointed with the U.S.' current position on the treaty, as it does not call for a cap on plastic production and instead focuses on recycling," Greenpeace USA senior plastics campaigner Lisa Ramsden said in a statement.
"Recycling will never solve the plastic waste problem," Ramsden added. "We must stop plastic waste at its source, and we're calling on President Biden to put aside fossil fuel and plastics industry interests and lead us on the path that prioritizes human health, biodiversity, and our communities."
On Tuesday, UNEP published a report contending that global plastic pollution can be reduced by 80% by 2040 if countries and corporations enact major changes using existing technologies. However, the report was criticized by some environmentalists for promoting the burning of plastic waste.
\u201cThe exclusion of civil society from the plastics treaty negotiations is unprecedented in multilateral negotiations. Goes against the grain of participatory democratic principles that the @UNEP is supposed to uphold!#PlasticsTreaty @third_pole @BBCWorld @LeFigaro_News @lemondelive\u201d— Dharmesh Shah #PlasticsTreaty (@Dharmesh Shah #PlasticsTreaty) 1684285907
UNEP has also come under fire in recent days for issuing just one pass per organization attending the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations in Paris.
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'Not Looking to Keep Pelosi': Why Susan Sarandon Is Endorsing Berniecrat Shahid Buttar for Congress
"He is the leader that we need right now to take on the influence of money in politics, the environment, criminal justice reform and labor rights, which will not survive or tolerate any more centrist inaction."
Feb 25, 2020
There is a school of thought which posits that a Bernie Sanders presidential nomination could undermine down-ballot Democratic candidates come Election Day. This notion was on full display over the weekend as Pete Buttigieg attacked Sanders after the Vermont senator won eight times as many delegates as he did in the Nevada caucuses, while cementing his position as the undisputed Democratic front-runner.
"I believe the only way to truly deliver any of the progressive changes we care about is to be a nominee who actually gives a damn about the effect you are having, from the top of the ticket, on those crucial, front-line House and Senate Democrats running to win, who we need to win, to make sure our agenda is more than just words on a page," Buttigieg said in his Nevada concession speech. The former South Bend, Indiana mayor then accused Sanders of "ignoring, dismissing, or even attacking the very Democrats we absolutely must send to Capitol Hill in order to keep Nancy Pelosi as speaker, in order to support judges who respect privacy and democracy, and in order to send Mitch McConnell into retirement."
One prominent Sanders supporter was quick to opine that there are some Democrats who should be sent packing, not back to Capitol Hill. Academy Award-winning actress and progressive firebrand Susan Sarandon hit back at Buttigieg, saying she would be glad to see House Speaker Nancy Pelosi forced into retirement. "We're not looking to keep Pelosi because there's a progressive running against her who supports Medicare for All and the Green New Deal among other things," she tweeted, urging her followers to check out Shahid Buttar's upstart campaign.
Sarandon had previously endorsed Buttar, tweeting last month that "he is the leader that we need right now to take on the influence of money in politics, the environment, criminal justice reform and labor rights, which will not survive or tolerate any more centrist inaction."
Buttar's recognition and support are growing in the San Francisco district he hopes to represent and beyond as Californians, who moved the date of their primary from June to Super Tuesday, mail in their ballots or prepare to head to the polls on March 3. However, he faces an uphill battle against Pelosi, who has represented California's 12th congressional district since 1987 and enjoys all the financial and other benefits that 33 years of incumbency and the house speakership confer. Buttar is nevertheless well-placed to make the November ballot due to California's unique system in which the two top candidates in the primary advance regardless of party affiliation. No other current candidates come close to Buttar's level of name recognition or support.
Much of that support comes from the usual corners. Buttar has been endorsed by SF Berniecrats, which is the local Our Revolution group, as well as by the local chapters of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) and others. Buttar also boasts endorsements from prominent national figures including Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King, Women's March co-chair Linda Sarsour and Harvard professors Cornel West and Lawrence Lessig.
Buttar, a Stanford law graduate and constitutional lawyer who in 2004 filed the first marriage equality lawsuit in the state of New York, was most recently director of grassroots advocacy for the San Francisco-based digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). He launched his 2020 campaign by decrying the "essential threats" of corporate control and government surveillance.
"Watching Nancy Pelosi vote against proposed surveillance reforms made me want to quit my job and run against her," Buttar said. And he did. On the campaign trail, he takes every opportunity to paint himself in stark contrast to Pelosi. He repeatedly links the homelessness and health care crises, noting that the leading cause of the former is the crippling cost of the latter.
"How barbaric is it that in the country that is supposed to be the richest in the world there are people without shelter because they got sick?" he asked at his campaign launch, before asserting that Pelosi "is committed to the interests of for-profit health insurance companies before the health of patients."
Addressing what is arguably the greatest crisis facing humanity, Buttar, who backs the Green New Deal, lamented that "our species is in crisis because we are more committed to fossil fuel extraction than we our to the lives of your children and your grandkids."
"Climate change is not just a threat to future generations," he said. "People are dying today from the effects of climate change." Buttar then blasted Pelosi for "deriding the only visionary solution that's been proposed to the climate crisis as a dream."
Many in the political establishment have dismissed Buttar's lofty aspiration as a dream. However, Buttar and his growing group of supporters are confident that victory is possible through the strength of a people-powered campaign that lays out a stark choice between business as usual--the business of greed, violence and ecological destruction--and the better world that so many residents of a city of dreamers believe is possible.
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The Ghastly Return of the Federal Death Penalty
The most significant factors in determining whether or not a person is given the death penalty are the location where they are tried, whether they are poor, and the race of the victim.
Aug 15, 2019
On July 25, in a surprise announcement, U.S. Attorney General William Barr said that the federal government would be resuming executions, with five scheduled in the coming months. This overturns an effective moratorium on the federal death penalty that has lasted over 16 years.
"Punishment must be swift," Barr said.
Just a week later, President Donald Trump exploited the mass killings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, by demanding not an assault weapons ban, but that capital punishment "be delivered quickly, decisively and without years of needless delay." Needless delay? Since 1973, over 160 wrongfully convicted people have been freed from death row.
Trump's death penalty dictate is a tragic step backward.
In fact, the death penalty is rapidly losing favor in the United States. Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia have banned executions, while four more states have formal moratoriums in place. Around the world, 106 countries have outlawed capital punishment, and another 28 either have moratoriums or don't carry out the death sentences. Trump's death penalty dictate is a tragic step backward.
"I'm not surprised that William Barr did this or the Trump administration wants to expedite federal executions," renowned anti-death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean said on the "Democracy Now!" news hour. "It's their whole way of approaching everything: the way is through violence to try to solve social problems." Prejean is the Catholic nun who rose to global prominence in 1995 after her book "Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty" was turned into an Oscar-winning film starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn.
In her new memoir, "River of Fire," Prejean eloquently describes the path that led her from a life as a semi-cloistered young nun in New Orleans in the 1960s to become one of the world's most celebrated and effective campaigners against capital punishment. In it, she writes, "From years on the road talking with people in every state of this nation I realized that most folks have never reflected deeply about capital punishment and have almost no information about how the penalty actually works--or doesn't work."
Prejean co-founded a group, Survive, that works with the families of murder victims. Bud Welch lost his daughter Julie in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, which killed 168 people. Timothy McVeigh was later executed for the crime. Welch said on "Democracy Now!": "One cannot go through the healing process at all when you're living with revenge. And that's all the death penalty is, revenge. It is not a deterrent. It doesn't, as the media says, bring closure to family members."
The Death Penalty Information Center presents clear and compelling statistics on the 2,500 people currently on death row in the U.S., and how unjustly the death penalty is implemented. The most significant factors in determining whether or not a person is given the death penalty are the location where they are tried, whether they are poor, and the race of the victim. For example, over half of all death sentences are handed down in just 2% of U.S. counties. Similarly, over 75% of capital punishment cases involve murders where the victim was white. According to the DPIC, "In Louisiana, the odds of a death sentence were 97% higher for those whose victim was white than for those whose victim was black. Jurors in Washington state are three times more likely to recommend a death sentence for a black defendant than for a white defendant in a similar case."
Not only is the death penalty administered in an unjust, biased way, but it is also irreversible. Death is final. Clifford Williams Jr. and Charles Ray Finch became the 165th and 166th death row prisoners to be exonerated. Each of these innocent African American men spent over 40 years on death row. With the expedited execution schedule fancied by Trump and Barr, they would have been long dead.
Helen Prejean believes Trump and Barr "seem to have no understanding about how the courts work. They can claim all they want that they're going to fast-track this and speed up these executions, but there is the Constitution, and there are the appeals." While her focus remains on grassroots organizing, she also points to the importance of dedicated death penalty defense attorneys.
One such lawyer is Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. The group's Legacy Museum and the accompanying lynching memorial is deeply moving, documenting the 400-year history of African Americans, from enslavement to Jim Crow to the current crisis of mass incarceration.
Said Stevenson on "Democracy Now!," "The death penalty is lynching's stepson."
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