Printable Version Tell a friend Download PDF Version

To download PDF version of this web page, right click the link and select "open in a new window" or "save target as."

Climate Capsule: Week of June 2

(National Wildlife Federation)

Climate Security Act Rally, Senate Floor Debate

As the Senate debates historic bipartisan climate legislation, U.S. Senators were joined Monday by a broad coalition of business, labor, faith, and conservation leaders calling for urgent Senate action to address the challenge of global warming.

The media was on hand when hundreds of supporters gathered near the Capitol in Washington DC to rally in support of national global warming legislation.

While the legislation will impact everything from our national greenhouse gas emissions to international treaty negotiations, the most critical impacts will be the ones in your community.

The Climate Security Act aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions by setting up a cap-and-trade system, putting a price on global warming pollution. Revenues from the program would be used to promote the development of new low-emission and efficient technologies, helping working families with energy costs, and preserving America’s natural resources.

The legislation would also allocate resources to states and tribes to assist with local global warming efforts. The National Wildlife Federation’s website has fact sheets for all 50 states and Puerto Rico detailing local impacts of climate change.

National Wildlife Federation’s Recharging America’s Economy fact sheet takes complex economic analyses of the Climate Security Act and breaks them down into easy-to-understand impacts.

America should drive the clean energy revolution; we cannot afford to take a back seat. The Climate Security Act would reinvigorate our efforts to make sure that the world’s solutions to global warming carry the “made in America” label.

The National Wildlife Federation will work to strengthen and pass the Climate Security Act during this week’s floor debate. If you’d like more details on impacts in your state, please contact Miles Grant at 703-864-9599 or grantm@nwf.org.

Hundreds of Conservation, Recreation, and Science Groups Release Support Letters

On Monday, more than 170 conservation groups released a letter to the Senate in support of the specific Natural Resources Adaptation titles of the Climate Security Act. Signers ranged from major national conservation groups, including the Union of Concerned Scientists and American Rivers, to regional and local organizations such as the Healing our Waters Great Lakes Coalition and Grand Canyon Wildlands Council.

This latest letter follows up on a broad call for dedicated funding from global warming legislation to protect wildlife and natural resources from global warming. Earlier this year, 700 grassroots hunting and fishing organizations called on members of Congress to “cosponsor climate change legislation that includes dedicated funding for fish and wildlife conservation and restoration through a 'cap and trade' system and achieves a 2 percent per year reduction in pollution from carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.”

This letter was followed up by 30 national hunting and fishing groups, specifically endorsing the natural resources titles in the Climate Security Act.

Additionally, 600 biologists and climate scientists signed a letter saying that, “Congress must craft legislation that greatly reduces greenhouse gas pollution and generates substantial dedicated funding to protect and restore wildlife and ecosystems harmed by global warming.”

The National Wildlife Federation circulated a new report to senators yesterday highlighting the "urgent need for climate change legislation." And grassroots activists from across the country have come to town to press their lawmakers for their support.

"We see this as perhaps the most important conservation bill we have ever worked on, both because of the emissions reductions, as well as protections for natural resources threatened by inevitable global warming," said John Kostyack of the National Wildlife Federation.

Quote:   “We can't afford to wait any longer...We have the momentum.”

-- Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), on the urgent need for national global warming legislation, speaking at a press conference in support of the Climate Security Act (S. 3036).

Businesses Supporting the Climate Security Act

In a letter to our senators, major American companies and organizations urged Congress to vote in favor of the Climate Security Act (S. 3036). Prompt climate change action is essential to protect America’s economy, security, and quality of life, the letter states.

Alcoa, General Electric, PG&E, and the Exelon Corporation are among the 19 signees of the letter, which includes an unprecedented national investment in zero- and low-carbon technologies, and important policies to advance energy and efficiency and alternative energy sources. Furthermore, the Climate Security Act protects American industry to ease the transition to a cleaner future.

Economists, Scientists Call for Swift Senate Action

More than 1,700 of the nation's most prominent scientists and economists recently released a joint statement calling on policymakers to require immediate, deep reductions in heat-trapping emissions that cause global warming. Issued just days before the Senate begins debate on the Climate Security Act, the statement marks the first time leading U.S. scientists and economists have joined together to make such an appeal.

The statement stresses that implementing policies to achieve swift and substantial cuts is both economically sound and necessary to limit the worst consequences of climate change.

"There is a strong consensus that we must do something about reducing the emissions that cause global warming," said James McCarthy, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and one of the statement's authors. "The debate right now is about how much we need to cut. The fact that so many scientists and economists have spoken out and signed this letter should give policymakers the confidence that we can avert serious adverse climate impacts."

Besides McCarthy, the statement authors include Mario Molina, a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry; Dr. Amanda Staudt, National Wildlife Federation climate scientist; Peter Frumhoff, director of science and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) lead author; Stephen Schneider, a Stanford University climatologist and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS); and Geoff Heal, an economist at Columbia University's Business School. The signatories, compiled by UCS, include six Nobel Prize winners in science or economics, 31 NAS members, and more than 100 IPCC authors and editors, who all shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

According to the statement, "the strength of the science on climate change" compelled the signers to warn policymakers of climate change's growing risks, including "sea level rise, heat waves, droughts, wildfires, snowmelt, floods and disease, as well as increased plant and animal species extinctions."

The statement notes that acting quickly to cut global warming pollution would be the most cost-effective way to limit climate change. If the United States delays taking action, future cuts would have to more drastic and would be much more expensive. Those costs would come in addition to the increased cost of adapting to more climate change. Conversely, the statement says smart reduction strategies would allow the economy to grow, generate new domestic jobs, protect public health, and strengthen energy security.

NASA Climate Findings Were Distorted, Probe Finds

An inspector general’s office said Monday that political appointees in NASA’s public affairs office worked to control or distort public accounts of researchers’ findings about climate change.

The probe was requested after various news outlets reported in 2006 that Bush Administration officials monitored and impeded communications that ran between NASA scientists and reporters.

New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg (D) is among the 14 senators who requested the investigation. Sen. Lautenberg said in a statement that this new report shows citizens had been denied access to crucial scientific information that may have affected public policy.

“Global warming is the most serious environmental threat we face -- but this report is more evidence that the Bush Administration's appointees have put political ideology ahead of science,” he said.