Tell Congress that the American Clean Energy and Security Act is not strong enough
by Kieran Suckling
21 June 2009
Would you flip a coin to determine whether hundreds of thousands of species
live or die? How about whether hundreds of millions of people are displaced
and forced to live in misery?
(Editor's note: The Center for Biological Diversity is one of the few environmental groups Culture Change can endorse. So an activist alert from them has got to be well considered. The Center was part of the old Alliance for a Paving Moratorium, a ten-year project our office ran until 2001.)
Congress is poised to do just that as it moves to vote on a global warming
control bill called the American Clean Energy and Security Act. If
implemented, the bill would give us ? at best ? a 50/50 chance of avoiding
catastrophic runaway global warming. And it repeals the power of other laws
to act as a global warming backstop, effectively putting all our eggs in
one precarious basket.
The vote is scheduled for June 26th. Click here
to tell Congress that the
American Clean Energy and Security Act is not strong enough:
A real solution must cut greenhouse gas pollution faster and deeper. It
must preserve the ability of the Clean Air Act to set scientifically-based
pollution standards.
Some groups believe a flawed bill is better than no bill at all. But with
300,000 people already dying each year due to current global warming, we
can't accept a bill that will allow global warming to get much worse.
Leading scientists such as NASA's James Hansen warn that the amount of
carbon dioxide in our atmosphere must be reduced to no more than 350 parts
per million. The American Clean Energy and Security Act sets a goal of
allowing greenhouse gas concentrations to increase to more than 450 parts
per million. At that level, scientists say there is a 50/50 chance that
global warming will cause catastrophic impacts to humans and other species.
The Clean Air Act has successfully reduced air pollution for 40 years
because it establishes clear, non-discretionary, scientifically-based air
quality standards. Any new global warming solution bill should work
together with the Clean Air Act to preserve the lives and health of our
children and fellow species. The American Clean Energy and Security Act
instead repeals the Clean Air Act's ability to regulate critical polluters,
instead allowing numerous coal-fired power plants to be built without any
additional emissions-reduction requirements for more than a decade into the
future.
The world's top climate scientists call this approach "reckless." We agree.
What a person can do:
Take the Pledge for Climate Protection:
ten steps
Let the beautiful Earth provide!
These vital steps slow the rate of global warming and climate destabilization -- and are also critical for petrocollapse preparedness. Some of these steps may be difficult at first, but all are fun, save money, and offer exercise and social opportunities.
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Let the beautiful Earth provide!
These vital steps slow the rate of global warming and climate destabilization -- and are also critical for petrocollapse preparedness. Some of these steps may be difficult at first, but all are fun, save money, and offer exercise and social opportunities. 
