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Tell Congress that the American Clean Energy and Security Act is not strong enough PDF Print E-mail
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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.

Please click here to send your congressperson an email today urging them to support deeper, faster cuts in greenhouse gas pollution and keep the Clean Air Act backstop in place: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2167/t/5243/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27477.

Thanks for your crucial support,

Kieran Suckling
Executive Director
Center for Biological Diversity
P.O. BOX 710
TUCSON, AZ 85702
1-866-357-3349

* * * * *

"Cap-and-trade" as the singular reason given by James Hansen for declaring it would be better if this legislation failed:
NASA Warming Scientist James Hansen Hopes Congressional Climate Bill Fails!

What a person can do:
Take the Pledge for Climate Protection: ten steps

Image 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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