Andrew Revkin on the Death of the Climate Bill

<a href="http://zinasaunders.com/">Illustration: Zina Saunders</a>

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Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that he will not bring a comprehensive climate bill before the Senate this session. A bill, which called for a cap-and-trade policy to regulate carbon emissions, was approved by the House in June 2009 but the measure lost momentum in the Senate. Is this the end of cap-and-trade? PBS Need to Know‘s Alison Stewart asks New York Times Dot Earth blogger Andrew Revkin to share his reporting on the subject to find out what happened and what might be next.

 

This podcast was produced by Need to Know for the Climate Desk collaboration.

Click here to watch an animation by Zina Saunders illustrating how Congress gambled with our future when they killed the climate bill.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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