From the Union of Concerned Scientists (http://www.ucsusa.org):
In these times of rapidly accelerating climate change, it helps to cling to signs of hope. For instance, the House of Representatives recently passed the bipartisan Coastal and Great Lakes Communities Enhancement Act (H.R. 729), a set of 10 policies intended to provide vital resources to increase coastal and ecosystem resilience in the face of a warming world.
We are already experiencing climate impacts and we know more will come, it’s just common sense to prepare now. But there is nothing in this legislation package that would slow down the rising temperatures, larger wildfires, and stronger hurricanes that we’re seeing today.
Write today at https://secure.ucsusa.org/onlineactions/W08DD_7wu0OzJp4eTSifvw2 and urge your senators to support policies that prepare for AND work to prevent climate change.
Thankfully, Senator Tom Carper will soon be introducing the Clean Economy Act of 2019, which sets the essential goal of reducing the nation’s global warming emissions to net-zero by the middle of this century. This goal is largely consistent with what scientists say is necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
More importantly, this legislation gets us started right away on achieving this goal, by requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to develop and implement an emission-cutting plan within one year.
In the past decade alone, we’ve seen the concentration of carbon dioxide—the primary drive of climate change—in our atmosphere reach 411 parts per million: that’s approximately 48 percent higher than pre-industrial times. We’ve seen heat records broken year after year. We’ve seen coastal towns flooded on sunny days from sea level rise. One of our best chances to change course—the Paris Climate Agreement—is suffering from a lack of US leadership. 2020 has got to be the start of doing better.
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