Quote:Vice President Kamala Harris used a meeting Thursday to argue climate change is a root cause of migration from Central American countries.

“We are looking at extensive storm damage because of extreme climate, we’re looking at drought,” Harris said.

Harris met with foundation leaders on the ongoing migrant crisis as people from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala flood the Southern border through Mexico.

Because of the changing climate, Harris argued, people in the region faced a struggling agriculture industry, food scarcity, food insecurity, and extreme poverty.

“Again, we’re looking at the issue of climate resiliency, and then the concern about the lack of economic opportunity,” she said.

The Biden administration posits damage from Hurricanes Eta and Iota in 2020 devastated the region, a climate event that continues pushing climate migrants to the United States. In February, Biden signed an executive order for the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs to draft a report on the impact of climate change on mass migration.

Harris repeated the challenges in the region were daunting, but she expressed her intention of offering people hope.

“We have to give people a sense of hope, a sense of hope that help is on the way, a sense of hope that if they stay, things will get better,” she said.

Harris cautioned the problem was “not going to be accomplished overnight.”

“If it was easy, it would have been solved a long time ago,” she said.

Quote:Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas parroted Joe Biden’s handlers’ position on “the climate crisis” during the virtual Leaders Summit on Climate on Thursday, reaffirming DHS’s commitment to adapting a response to the “climate emergency” to include steps to battle the “national security threat” of the “existential threat of our time.”

For those of you keeping score at home, Mayorkas also deemed the “climate crisis” a threat to “global security,” as well. Special Climate Envoy to the President [rolling-eyes emoji], John Heinz-Kerry was seen furiously nodding his whacked-out head in approval. [sarc]

Here’s part of what Mayorkas said, via the Homeland Security Today website:

“The impacts of the climate emergency on both our national and collective global security are vast. At the Department, we must — and we will — do more to address the climate crisis.

“DHS will implement a new approach to climate change adaptation and resilience, and we will do so with the sense of urgency this problem demands.”

Incidentally, I wonder what the secretary’s “national security threat” opinion is on illegal aliens — including COVID-positive “migrants” and two men on the FBI’s terrorism watchlist — streaming across the southern border? You ‘spose he sees the same “sense of urgency this problem demands”?

“SaggPondCapital” summed it up, perfectly.

“Home Land Security wants to turn focus to ?…… GLOBAL WARMING ! China , Islamist terrorists , #Antifa and #BLM laugh their asses off”

As well as Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, and every other America-hating dictator on the planet. But, hey — “progressive” priorities are “progressive” priorities, right Joe?

Several specifics, via the DHS site (emphasis, mine):

Secretary Mayorkas announced the launch of the DHS Climate Change Action Group, a coordinating body composed of the Department’s senior leadership that will drive urgent action to address the climate crisis and will report directly to the Secretary. […]

DHS also recently published a public Request for Information on how the Department’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can ensure that its programs advance equity and increase resilience for all – especially among those who are disproportionately at risk from the impacts of climate change. [Uh-huh.]

This request will enable FEMA to perform its time-honored mission of “helping people before, during, and after disasters” under modern conditions. In direct response to the reality of the climate emergency, this request will also serve as the basis to reorient FEMA’s efforts in furtherance of its longstanding goal of “building a culture of preparedness.”

Further, Secretary Mayorkas announced action to reduce emissions and promote resilience and adaptation in collaboration with the Department’s partners across every level of government and the private sector. DHS is leading the way in the adoption of electric vehicles with the goal of electrifying 50 percent of our fleet by 2030.

[Electric vehicles are in your future, as well; get used to it. And then some.]

This is a key initiative of the Biden-Harris Administration’s “Infrastructure Plan,” which if passed, would identify $174 billion in electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure nationwide. By integrating EVs into the DHS fleet, the Department will support the reshaping of the transportation sector and reduce carbon emissions.

[Noted environmentalist AOC reportedly “giddy” over DHS announcement.]

Think about that last line. The Homeland Security Department under Biden believes part of its job is to “reshape” the type of car you drive. No doubt just one more example of why a growing number of Americans wish they could have a 2020 election “do-over.”

Is Biden About to Exacerbate America’s Crisis?

Biden, who in three months has put his pen where his mouth was throughout his pandering presidential campaign, has committed to “study” — Democrats conduct “studies” after first determining exactly what they plan to do — offering “asylum” or other legal protections to “people displaced specifically because of climate change.” AKA: “climate refugees.”

If (when) Biden pulls the trigger (pun intended) on America this politically-expedient insanity, the U.S. would (will) become the first country on the planet to do so.

Let’s pretend your assertions are correct, Ed. For the hell of it.

Why, then, is it America’s job to accept every “refugee” on the planet with open arms? Biden has all but installed northbound-only people movers along the southern border. When will enough be enough? Never mind; rhetorical question.

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Edward Markey. Three peas in a left-wing pod.

Yet the lapdog liberal media wants you to believe the first two are “pragmatic moderates.” Do they think you’re stupid? No. Do they think there are plenty of Americans who are? Absolutely. Therefore, you don’t matter.

Anyway, in summary, the DHS said:

The climate crisis poses a significant threat to both DHS operations and the American people.

It is vital for the Department to provide leadership and take proactive measures to minimize its environmental impact across the United States and globally.

The actions announced today – on Earth Day – demonstrate DHS’s commitment to bold action on climate change.

Back to Biden’s “climate refugee” silliness, for a sec. I wonder if any sane countries (assuming a few still exist), will welcome “climate refugees” from America who seek refuge from Planet Looney Tunes leftist policies?

Almost four months into 2021, 2020 ain’t got nothin’ on this crazy year.

Quote:World leaders joined President Joe Biden Friday to close his virtual climate summit with stories of their own national drives to break free of climate-wrecking fossil fuels — Kenyans leapfrogging from kerosene stoves to geothermal power and Israeli start-ups scrambling to improve battery storage.

“We’re gonna do this together,” Biden exhorted, speaking live to a Zoom-style screen of leaders of national governments, unions, and business executives around the world.

Biden's closing message echoed the sentiments of Kenyan President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, who told the summit: “We cannot win this fight against climate change unless we go globally to fight it together.”

The second and final day of Biden's summit of 40 world leaders made the case for massive investment now — in the U.S. and around the world — for prosperous as well as cleaner economies in the long run.

Compared with the United States and other wealthy but carbon-dependent nations, Kenya stands out as a poorer nation closing the technology gap despite limited financial resources. It has moved in decades from dirty-burning coal, kerosene and wood fires to become a leading user and producer of geothermal energy, wind and solar power, all aided by mobile-phone banking.

The summit's opening on Thursday saw a half-dozen nations, including the United States, pledge specific, significant new efforts to cut emissions. Other summit speakers, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose country is the world's top climate polluter, held out the possibility of deepening their commitments, in China's case by easing back on building of coal-fired plants.

Biden's own pledge, nearly doubling the U.S. target for cutting emissions from coal and petroleum this decade, depends on his keeping political support from voters and securing more than $2 trillion for a nationwide infrastructure overhaul.

“The commitments we've made must become real,” Biden said Friday, speaking to the home audience as much as the international one. “Commitment without doing anything is a lot of hot air, no pun intended."

He wondered aloud if there was “anything else you can think of that could create as many good jobs going into the 21st century.”

The coronavirus pandemic forced the summit into its virtual format, with a TV talk show-style set created in the White House East Room. Cabinet secretaries stepped in as emcees to keep the livestreamed action moving.

It was all in service of an argument officials say will make or break Biden’s climate vision: Pouring trillions of dollars into clean-energy technology, research, and infrastructure will speed a competitive U.S. economy into the future and create jobs while saving the planet.

While technological development and wider use has helped make wind and solar power strongly competitive against coal and natural gas in the U.S., Biden said investment also would bring forward thriving, clean-energy fields “in things we haven’t even thought of so far.”

Republicans are sticking to the arguments that then-President Donald Trump made in pulling the U.S. out of the 2015 Paris climate accord. They point to China as the world’s worst climate polluter — the U.S. is No. 2 — and say any transition to clean energy hurts American oil, natural gas and coal workers.

It means “putting good-paying American jobs into the shredder,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor Thursday in a speech in which he dismissed the administration’s plans as costly and ineffective.

Much of the proposed spending to address climate change is included in Biden’s infrastructure bill, which would pay for new roads, safe bridges and reliable public transit, while boosting electric vehicles, clean drinking water, and investments in clean energy such as solar and wind power.

Biden’s plan faces a steep road in the closely divided Senate, where Republicans led by McConnell have objected strongly to the idea of paying for much of it with tax increases on corporations.

The White House says administration officials will continue to reach out to Republicans and will remind them that the proposal’s ideas are widely popular with Americans of all political persuasions.

Friday also featured billionaires Bill Gates and Mike Bloomberg, steelworker and electrical union leaders, and executives for solar and other renewable energy.

“We can’t beat climate change without a historic amount of new investment,” said Bloomberg, who has spent heavily to promote replacing dirty-burning coal-fired power plants with increasingly cheaper renewable energy.

Biden envoy John Kerry stressed the political selling point that the president’s call for retrofitting creaky U.S. infrastructure to run more cleanly would put the U.S. on a better economic footing long-term. “No one is being asked for a sacrifice,” Kerry said. “This is an opportunity.”

Global leaders described their own investments and commitments to break away from reliance on climate-damaging petroleum and coal. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described scientists at hundreds of Israeli start-ups working to improve crucial battery storage for solar, wind and other renewable energy. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark renewed her country's pledge to end oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, switching from offshore oil and gas rigs to wind farms.

On the summit's opening day Thursday, Biden pledged the U.S. will cut fossil fuel emissions as much as 52% by 2030. South Korea, Japan, Canada and South Africa also joined in specific new emissions efforts timed to the summit.

Biden's new goal puts the United States among the most ambitious nations in curbing climate change, the Rhodium Group, an independent research organization, announced overnight.

Different nations use different base years for their emission cuts so comparisons are difficult and can look different based on baseline years. The Rhodium Group said using the U.S.-preferred 2005 baseline, America is behind the United Kingdom but right with the European Union. It’s ahead of a second tier of countries including Canada, Japan, Iceland, and Norway.