Forum Post: A Call To - Walk the Walk rather then just talk the talk. Want to join in a call to action?
Posted 11 years ago on Jan. 24, 2013, 11:06 a.m. EST by DKAtoday
(33802)
from Coon Rapids, MN
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Co-sign our open letter urging President Obama to take bold action to confront climate change.
President Obama has promised to confront climate change. To do that, he must end the detrimental "all of the above" energy policy of his first term. Read the open letter to President Obama below, and add your name as a co-signer urging him to take bold action to confront climate change.
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Open letter to President Obama:
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 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 Click to add your name here
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Done. i have a lot of problems with Obamas moderate, compromising, caving in to anti 99% forces but his words are usually supportable. his actions less so. I believe by Feb 17th is the1st big test of his commitment to climate change because that is when a decision is due on the keystone pipeline. heres a link (you probably know, but for those who do not)
http://act.350.org/signup/presidentsday
Yep - another gr8 action to share/Circulate.
http://act.350.org/signup/presidentsday
In compliment :
President Obama's second term began this week, and there's nothing more important than making sure he starts with the bold climate leadership he promised.
It's up to activists like you to make that happen.
On Sunday, February 17, Forward on Climate will be the biggest climate rally in history. It has to be if we're going to show the president how strong the climate movement has become. But a rally like this -- while huge, important, and downright exciting -- isn't cheap.
We need to raise $15,000 in the next 48 hours to help make sure every bus full of activists, every permit and piece of technology, every Port-A-Potty, and more are paid for. Will you help make Forward on Climate a success with a tax-deductible donation of $10 or more today?
The climate fight is an uphill one. Our enemies -- Big Oil, Big Coal, and their Washington allies -- are determined, and tough. But time and time again, we've shown that grassroots voices like yours can speak louder than corporate polluters.
The Forward on Climate Rally is a critical step in this fight. That's why we're teaming up with 350, the Hip Hop Caucus, and dozens of other organizations to show Washington how strong this movement has become. Together, we can move President Obama to take immediate action on climate, beginning with the rejection of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Only the president has the power to lead an effort with the urgency we need to get rid of fossil fuels and fire up clean energy -- and only activists like you can speak loudly enough to help him use that power.
Can you chip in $10 or more to help make Forward on Climate the biggest climate rally in history? By making your tax-deductible donation today, you'll be helping pay for buses, staging, spreading the word, and more.
Thanks for all you do,
Kate Colarulli Sierra Club, Forward on Climate Rally Director
PS -- If you haven't signed up to attend the rally yet, RSVP today! It will be Sunday, February 17, at noon on the National Mall -- right where hundreds of thousands of Americans stood for the Inauguration on Monday. You won't want to miss out when history is made twice within one month: RSVP today, then find out what you can do to help spread the word.
Opportunity to voice truth to government - in unity.
Opportunity to present a strong public voice?
TWEETED can U Tweet 2 ?