CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY CAMPAIGNS
Obama: We Need Climate Action, Not The Keystone Pipeline!
President Obama has promised action to confront climate change. To do that, he must end the detrimental "all of the above" energy policy of his first term and reject the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Please add your name as a co-signer on our open letter urging him to take bold action to confront climate change now.
Dear President Obama:
It was with great relief and gratitude that we welcomed, at long last, a clarion call in your inaugural address to "respond to the threat of climate change" -- the greatest threat, challenge, and opportunity of our time.
We thank you for these words, because your words are powerful, and necessary for change. But words are not enough. We need action.
Mr. President, you are the first leader in our history who will be judged by what you do -- or do not do -- to protect your people from the already-begun ravages and disruptions brought about by fossil fuels.
So far, Mr. President, you are failing in the face of our earth heating up, and the damage is accelerating.
Just a few months ago, we witnessed New York and New Jersey swallowed up by our still-rising oceans. Our worsening nationwide drought, after the hottest year on record, is clear evidence that our planet is not healing, but is hurtling toward greater climate disruption.
The simple truth is that you will continue failing in the fight against climate change, as long as you continue an energy policy which treats equally the fuels that are hurting us and those that will save us. To meet your call on climate change, your "all of the above" energy policy must end.
Your support for fracking and drilling, coal mines and pipelines, continues to obliterate the progress you could be making with your administration's gas mileage rule, or your investments in renewable energy. Even if you finally issue a carbon pollution rule that addresses existing sources of pollution, it will mean nothing if you are simultaneously lighting the fuses on carbon bombs by approving the Keystone XL pipeline, Arctic drilling, or fossil fuel export projects.
You must use the power of your office and our federal lands to stop promoting fossil fuel development, and reject these projects outright.
While we recognize that a majority in the House of Representatives are clearly not on the side of science or sanity, you can and must find a way - within Congress or the power of your office - to end fossil fuel subsidies and giveaways, and put a price on all greenhouse gas pollution, so that fossil fuel executives can no longer get rich from the destabilization of our climate, and so fossil-free energy can thrive. If Congress remains in the way, you must fight to change Congress.
You must invest significantly in sustainable sources of energy as part of a plan to rapidly transition our nation from fossil fuels. And these efforts should be coupled with resources to help our cities, states and industries prepare for the damage that climate change is already bringing. (The $50 billion Sandy relief package and the drought's impacts on food prices are just two painful reminders that the cost of inaction is enormous, and untenable.)
Confronting climate change also happens to be our best opportunity to create the broad-based economic revitalization that your policies have largely failed to achieve. This is not simply an empty trope of idealistic environmentalists, it is the truth.
Mr. President, we are urging you to do as our other Illinois president did when confronted with the great moral issue of his time: to take bold, decisive action to end one great societal ill, changing the economy in the process, and usher in a new era of American freedom, security and prosperity.
This is the moment. We will support you. But you must lead and take action, starting first and foremost with your rejection of the presidential permit required by the Keystone XL pipeline, which is your decision and yours alone.
Sincerely,
Becky Bond, Political Director, CREDO
Michael Kieschnick, President and CEO, CREDO
Elijah Zarlin, Senior Campaign Manager, CREDO
Bill McKibben, Co-Founder, 350.org
Michael Kieschnick, President and CEO, CREDO
Elijah Zarlin, Senior Campaign Manager, CREDO
Bill McKibben, Co-Founder, 350.org
[Your Name Here -- Sign using the form on the top-right of the page]
It's Time to Limit Carbon Pollution from Power Plants
- author: Interfaith Power & Light
- target: EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy
- signatures: 4,464
- Global warming is one of the biggest threats facing humanity today. Life as we know it is jeopardized by our continued dependence on fossil fuels for energy. We have a moral responsibility to address this crisis.
Power plants are the biggest source of global warming pollution in the U.S., but there are currently no limits on the amount of carbon pollution power plants can spew into our air.
However, the EPA has proposed first-ever standards for carbon pollution from new power plants. With these safeguards, new plants would be at least 60% cleaner than today's average coal plant.
But to make it happen, we urgently need your help.
Right now, the EPA is accepting public comments on these standards. Members of the faith community bring an important moral voice to the issue. Opponents like Big Coal will keep trying to weaken or block this rule in Congress, but a strong showing of support from all of us will help protect it.
It's our moral responsibility to act as good stewards and preserve life for future generations.Please join Interfaith Power & Light in telling the EPA to move forward with the proposed safeguards for new power plants.Demand a Ban on Fracking in Canada
- http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/488/267/588/
People across Canada are being forced to stand up to “Big Oil and Gas” whose fracking operations are threatening their drinking water. Alberta farmers who live near fracking drill sites can light their tap water on fire because it's so contaminated with methane. The Fort Nelson First Nation in northeastern B.C. is experiencing earthquakes linked to the injection of fracking wastewater. People in Ontario are raising concerns over fracking around the Great Lakes. And across Atlantic Canada people are taking to the streets to protect their communities from the controversial industry.
Fracking - also known as hydraulic fracturing - is a process used to extract natural gas or oil trapped in shale rock and coal beds. And it's one of the biggest threats to clean water today. Oil and gas companies blast apart underground rock formations using pressurized water, sand and a mix of toxic chemicals that they are not legally required to disclose, despite the fact that some have been known to cause cancer and damage internal organs.
Millions of litres of water are extracted every day from community watersheds across Canada to fuel this booming industry. There is currently no federal oversight to keep the industry in check, or to protect the health of people and our drinking water. It’s time the Canadian government puts a ban on fracking.
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