Help clean up our enviorment-write your Senator!!! (original) (raw)

The scientific consensus is clear. The burning of fossil fuel (oil, coal, and natural gas) and deforestation, are warming our planet by adding more heat-trapping gases to Earth's atmosphere. This warming is driving changes in our climate that will have significant negative impacts on our children's and grandchildren's health, safety, and quality of life as well as our own. And, as the latest science clearly shows, the longer we wait to deal with climate change, the more difficult it becomes and the more serious the consequences. Thus, we have a choice: act now to begin to reduce heat-trapping gas emissions and have to deal with some, mostly manageable, changes in our climate, or continue to pollute our atmosphere with heat-trapping gases and leave our children to face the most serious consequences of climate change.

The build up of heat-trapping gases in our atmosphere is changing our climate. These gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) act like a blanket, trapping heat and warming Earth. The more of these gases we release, the thicker that blanket becomes. Two scenarios for emissions later this century have been explored here: a lower-emissions path, which envisions a transition to clean energy technologies; and a higher emissions path, which assumes continued, intensive reliance on fossil fuels. It is clear that the severity of climate change impacts on California will depend on the amount of future emissions. Thankfully, if we act today to implement the steps laid out in The Solutions, we can start ourselves on a path towards an even lower emissions future.

California is an important test case for exploring the impacts of climate changes under conditions where we implement climate solutions now or put off significant action until later. The state's various climate zones and diverse ecosystems are central to its economic strength and quality of life. Perhaps most vital are the state's water resources, essential to California's agricultural economy, expanding population, and unique habitats. These resources are already scarce and likely to be even more strained as the climate warms.

Furthermore, as the most populous state in the nation and the fifth largest economy in the world, California is itself a significant emitter of heat-trapping gases, and has a responsibility to begin reducing this global warming pollution as rapidly as possible. Finally, California has historically led the nation in reducing air pollution and protecting the environment, and therefore emission reductions in California could help lead our nation to transition to more sustainable energy, vehicle, and land-use polices, ultimately affecting a significant percentage of world heat-trapping gas emissions.

Please click this link and write your Senator urging him to pass SB 757--a statewide petroleum reduction bill that will set petroleum usage reduction targets and authorize state agencies to wean public and private fleets from oil dependence.

http://www.climatechoices.org/act/index.html

This may provide clean air for our children in 50 years.