"A major battle is under way: In order to survive economically, the biggest enterprise in human history - the worldwide oil and coal industry - is at war with the ability of the planet to sustain civilization. The trillion dollar-a-year coal and oil industry is pitted against the oceans, forests, ice caps and mountains of the Earth as we know them today."
Ross Gelbspan
- The Heat is On - The High Stakes Battle Over the Earth's Threatened Climate.
The cover story of the Summer Sierra Activist dealt with the "twin problems" of clean air: air quality (particulate & ozone pollution) and global warming (essentially carbon dioxide pollution). This December in Kyoto, negotiators will hopefully!) move beyond voluntary greenhouse gas emissions and mandate legally-binding limits. To this end, I had asked readers to contact their Representatives, urging them to cosponsor H. CON. Res. 106, a resolution encouraging the Clinton Administration to take leadership in these climate negotiations.
This past week, I have begun lobbying our NJ delegation in earnest. As always, this means supplying information: documents, testimony, reports, op-eds, articles, etc. So where do we stand? At the beginning of the week, there were 21 cosponsors, NONE from NJ, now (Saturday), there are 35, including Rep. Pallone.
This promises to be a yet another long, drawn-out battle. Industry is launching a $12 million TV, radio, newspaper and Congressional lobbying campaign to crush any attempt to curb reliance on fossil fuels, the culprit behind global warming. It seems as if industry has lost the "clean air" (new standards for particulates & ozone) battle, so they are determined to do whatever it takes to stop any effort calling for reductions of greenhouse gases.
*****Here's What You Can Do to Help*****
*1 - Learn About the Issue of Global Warming
*2 - Respond to Big Oil's Media Blitz
*3 - Return the Club's Postcard to Clinton
*4 - Read H. CON. Res. 106 - It's Not That Long!
*5 - Urge Your Representative to Cosponsor H. CON. Res. 106
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*1 - Learn About the Issue of Global Warming
There are many good WEB sites.
Start with the National Resource Defense Council
http://www.nrdc.org/field/gwact.html or
the Sierra Club
http://www.sierraclub.org/global-warming/
Another good background source: read the Sierra Club's Congressional testimony (ten pages).
Send requests for an e-mailed copy, to me, dschvejda@igc.apc.org.
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*2 - Respond to Big Oil's Media Blitz
Please help the Sierra Club's Global Warming and Energy Team respond to this industry effort. Let them know what kinds of ads are appearing on TV or radio, and in the newspaper in your region.
Send an e-mail to Ann.Mesnikoff@sierraclub.org or Steve.Pedery@sierraclub.org and tell them about what you've seen or heard. Or, mail an ad from your newspaper to: 408 C Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002.
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*3 - Return the Club's Postcard to Clinton
In between pages 40 and 41 of the September/October issue of Sierra Magazine is a postcard meant to remind President Clinton that "a greenhouse... is no place to nurture our children." It urges him to act to protect our children's and grandchildren's future by taking the biggest single step he can to curb global warming - raise fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks.
The postcards are part of an effort to turn up the heat on President Clinton as the deadline for negotiating an international treaty to curb global warming approaches. They are piling up in the Sierra Club's DC office, but we need more!
Mail in your postcard, if you haven't already! If you'd like more copies of the card, e-mail steve.pedery@sierraclub.org.
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*4 - Read H. CON. Res. 106 - It's Not That Long!
H. CON. RES. 106
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Congress regarding the negotiation of an international climate change agreement.
Whereas the world's leading climate scientists, through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), have concluded `that the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate';
Whereas the IPCC and other scientific bodies have warned that continued uncontrolled emissions of greenhouse gases could cause damage to our public health, economy, and environment due to
(1) shifts in agricultural productivity that could threaten local and regional food supplies;
(2) an intensified hydrological cycle resulting in regional increases in extreme precipitation, flooding, and droughts;
(3) severe declines in the biological diversity of our forests, fisheries, wildlife, and water resources due to shifts in climate; and
(4) rise in sea level which could devastate coastal areas through destruction of sensitive beaches, flooding of barrier islands, coastal wetlands and farmland, increased damage from storm tides, and salt-water intrusion into rivers and other freshwater bodies;
Whereas the IPCC estimates that carbon dioxide released now will remain in the atmosphere for a century or more;
Whereas the National Academy of Sciences has found that the efficiency of practically every end use of energy can be improved and that the United States could reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by up to 40 percent of 1990 levels at low cost or net savings;
Whereas research and development has led to many technologies and policy options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors, including vehicles, power plants, buildings, and industry, which leading economists have found can improve United States productivity and entail a net economic benefit;
Whereas increased reliance on advanced technologies will produce additional benefits for the United States, such as expansion of our role as a leading exporter of renewable energy technologies and reduction in our dependency on foreign oil and balance of trade deficit;
Whereas in 1992 the Bush Administration committed to returning United States greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000 using nonbinding, voluntary mechanisms, yet the Energy Information Administration estimates actual United States emissions will be 15 percent above 1990 levels in the year 2000; and
Whereas climate change is an issue of global significance and can be addressed adequately only through multilateral action:
Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress of the United States that the United States should take all necessary steps, both domestically and internationally, to protect the Earth's climate from dangerous climate change. The United States should take a leadership role in negotiating an international climate change agreement that --
(1) contains legally binding targets and timetables beginning in 2005 for reducing greenhouse gas emissions substantially below 1990 levels;
(2) provides for participation by developing nations; and
(3) is fair, enforceable, and provides options for nations to achieve necessary greenhouse gas reductions in a cost-effective manner.
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*5 - Urge Your Representative to Cosponsor H. CON. Res. 106
Contact your Representative and urge him or her to sign on to the Gilchrest resolution on global warming, H. CON. Res. 106.
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Call Congress Toll Free! 1-888-723-5246
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House of Representatives
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Robert Franks (R)
Local: 908-686-5576
DC: 202-225-5361
Fax: 202-225-9460
E-Mail: FRANKSNJ@HR.HOUSE.GOV
Rodney Frelinghuysen (R)
Local: 201-984-0711
DC: 202-225-5034
Fax: 202-225-3186
E-Mail: RODNEY.FRELINGHUYSEN@MAIL.HOUSE.GOV
Frank LoBiondo (R)
Local: 609-927-4442
DC: 202-225-6572
Fax: 202-225-3318
E-Mail: LOBIONDO@HR.HOUSE.GOV
Michael Pappas (R)
Local: 908-284-1138 / 908-462-8499
DC: 202-225-5801
Fax: 202-225-6025
E-Mail: PAPPAS@MAIL.HOUSE.GOV
Marge Roukema (R)
Local: 201-447-3900
DC: 202-225-4465
Fax 202-225-9048
E-Mail: REP.ROUKEMA@MAIL.HOUSE.GOV
James Saxton (R)
Local: 908-914-2020 / 609-261-5800
DC: 202-225-4765
Fax: 202-225-0778
Chris Smith (R)
Local: 908-350-2300 / 609-890-2800
DC: 202-225-3765
Fax: 202-225-7768
Robert Andrews (D)
Local: 609-627-9000
DC: 202-225-6501
Fax: 202-225-6583
E-Mail: RANDREWS@HR.HOUSE.GOV
Robert Menendez (D)
Local: 201-222-2828 / 908-324-6212
DC: 202-225-7919
Fax 202-226-0792
Frank Pallone (D) (The only NJ cosponsor!)
Local: 908-571-1140
DC: 202-225-4671
Fax: 202-225-9665
William Pascrell, Jr. (D)
Local: 201-523-5152
DC: 202-225-5751
Fax: 202-225-5782
Donald Payne (D)
Local: 201-645-3213 / 908-629-0222
DC: 202-225-3436
Fax: 202-225-4160
Steve Rothman (D)
Local: 201-646-0808
DC: 202-225-5061
Fax: 202-225-5061
E-Mail: STEVEN.ROTHMAN@MAIL.HOUSE.GOV
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WHERE TO WRITE
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The Honorable ___________
United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
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Dennis Schvejda
Conservation Chair - NJ Chapter Sierra Club
dschvejda@igc.apc.org