McKibben will be a good influence

Bill McKibben was just selected by Bernie Sanders to serve on the platform committee of the Democratic National Convention, along with scholar and racial justice activist Cornel West, Native American activist Deborah Parker, Minnesota Congress member Keith Ellison, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus and Palestinian rights activist and scholar James Zogby, who founded the Arab American Institute.

Some readers will remember Mr. McKibben’s visit to Fresno in September 2013 when he spoke to a packed auditorium at Fresno City College about global climate change. Mr. McKibben’s appointment is significant to those who desperately worry about the climate changes that our earth is enduring and hope that Mr. McKibben will influence what is being discussed at the Democratic National Convention.

Here are just a few things happening to our planet: we’ve had 12 straight months of record-busting temperatures, with February and March the hottest ever recorded, we’ve had the highest wind speeds ever recorded in the western and southern hemispheres, and we’ve watched the rapid death of vast swaths of coral, as hot oceans triggered by far the largest bleaching event ever recorded.

When will the “climate deniers” in Congress wake up!

This story was originally published May 26, 2016 at 5:12 PM with the headline "McKibben will be a good influence."