Caroline Lucas Quotes

I think I would say that there is absolutely no way to reconcile an austerity agenda with climate action. Our political class needs to understand that the fight against austerity and the fight for climate action are the same fight.

Tackling the extreme gap between the rich and the poor and tackling climate change is part of the same struggle.

It is not natural or inevitable that half the world goes hungry; that the freedom of markets trumps protection of the planet; or that citizens' rights come second to those of corporations.

We will never end poverty if we don't tackle climate change.

The most meaningful engine of change, powerful enough to confront corporate power, may be not so much environmental quality, as the economic development and growth associated with the effort to improve it.

Those who buy in to global warming wish to drastically curb human economic and industrial activities, regardless of the consequences for people, especially the poor.

I'm running for president because I've had enough of the oil barons, the status-quo apologists, the special-interest lobbyists running amok.

When you have corporate influence on our government outweighing the influence of citizens, that's terrifying. This is something we have to make a big, big noise about.

Meanwhile, people have to join us and fight back against the federal government that has dropped the ball, that is in bed with these energy companies, that wants them to make more money than they've made before.

Global warming, the ongoing destruction of the planet, Third World debt, the uselessness of the railways, the takeover by the corporations, the scary George Bush person: all these things are important and should be animating me into outrage. Yet somehow they do not.

We can fight Big Industry.

Special interests are a roadblock wielding undue influence over policy makers. They seek to maintain short-term profits with little regard to either the long-term impact on the planet that will be inherited by our children and grand-children or the long-term economic well-being of our country.

We have not done those things that are necessary to lower emissions because those things conflict with deregulated capitalism. We are stuck, because those things that would give us the best chance of averting catastrophe … are extremely threatening to an elite minority that has a strangle-hold over our economy, our political process, and most of our major media outlets.

Some will criticize the Green New Deal for being too bold or being unmanageable. I tell you what, I haven't seen anything better that addresses this singular crisis we face, a crisis that could, at its worst, lead to extinction. The Green New Deal does that. It ties it to the economy and acknowledges that all of the things are interconnected.

Getting past the influence of the fossil fuel industry will take courage, especially on the part of the Republican majority whom they so relentlessly bully and cajole. But we must do it.

I can't tell the people of India that we'll burden you with high costs because the West has polluted the world, now India will pay for it. Not acceptable to us.

I will fight special interests in Washington who exploit Native, rural, and low income communities for the purpose of fracking and drilling that pollutes our environment. No short or long term gain is worth polluting our water. Water is life.

You can't go do the Green New Deal. It's a set of aspirations that don't really bring us to sensible action.

You can't go do the Green New Deal, but Republicans can't just criticize the ideas of Democrats without proposing an alternative.

But I think when you have something like the Green New Deal, which tends to be about big, bold ideas, instead of specifics, and then adds in other controversial topics like universal health care, and a guaranteed job for all Americans, it makes it less likely that it will pass, not more.

I am going to confront the old-fashioned negative thinking which says that all government needs to do to generate growth is cut worker and environmental protections, cut taxes on the rich and stroke 'fat cats' until they purr with pleasure. I'm completely repudiating the idea that government has to get out of the way.

I have been described as the grandfather of climate change. In fact, I am just a grandfather and I do not want my grandchildren to say that grandpa understood what was happening but didn't make it clear.

I'm doing my part, building plants at a record rate, having historic conservation levels. The only people not doing their part is the federal government that is siding with the energy companies against the interests of the people of California.

I'm at one with Ed Miliband in saying that it's important that people have the right to express their democratic voices and also their deep concerns about climate change because we have a planet in peril.

Somehow, failures in the public sector are always judged as systematic. The private sector thus exists to ride to the rescue - and their failures are only judged anomalies. A pretty nice arrangement for investors. The only people who suffer are the citizens.