THE CLIMATE

We cannot continue to ignore the intersections of these injustices as we fight for the comprehensive and transformative solutions necessary to course correct. Half measures and compromise with the GOP and corporate interests cannot and will not save us. We cannot continue to trade unchecked suburban sprawl for meager conservation measures when we know that Las Vegas has one of the worst heat island effects in the country. Temperatures in downtown Las Vegas and the east side can be ten to twenty degrees hotter than nearby rural areas, yet our current leaders in Nevada—Democrats and Republicans alike—are supporting the Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act (SNEDCA), aka the Clark County Lands Bill. It’s an unconscionable giveaway to greedy developers which would grow the southern portion of the Las Vegas Valley by 40,000 acres (approximately the geographic size of Washington, D.C. or St. Louis). 

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As we face the serious prospect of our home in the Mojave becoming uninhabitable within our lifetimes, we have to wrestle with existential questions about the cost of continued growth versus our ability to sustain our existing population. And if we do invest in more growth, we should be investing in the urban core of Las Vegas—the heart of the First Congressional District—where we could be growing up, not out, and putting resources into our communities that have been getting left behind for decades.

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Instead of developer giveaways like the Lands Bill my opponent is shamelessly supporting, Las Vegas should be at the forefront of developing the Green New Deal, which, like the original New Deal before it, is the only solution whose scope is ambitious and comprehensive enough to meet the scale of the crisis we face. Unlike with the original New Deal, however, the Green New Deal presents the opportunity to center BIPOC and other frontline communities to achieve not just environmental justice, but economic, social, racial justice across the board—before it’s too late.

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