Climate Crisis and the Midterm Elections

This information comes to me from Raya Ariella, Climate USA Campaign Co-ordinator of the Climate Crisis Coalition, and should be of particular interest to American readers of my blog:

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Dear Friends,

My name is Raya Ariella, and I am writing to you from the Climate Crisis Coalition (CCC) office in South Lee, Massachusetts. I have just started working for CCC as the coordinator of its ClimateUSA Initiative. The intention of this campaign is to help bring climate change issues to the forefront of this year’s election agenda. Given the increasing urgency of these issues and the ongoing stonewalling from the White House administration, this year’s midterm elections races for the Senate and House of Representatives will be particularly significant.

I write to you, as someone who helped us last year with the People’s Ratification of the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty. With your help we collected over 40,000 signatures. We took the petition to the UN Conference in Montreal where we worked with other groups to publicize our disaffection with US policy. Together, we helped to successfully pressure the US delegation to remain engaged with the UN Framework.

We consider the signatures collected so far as just a start. This year we will be using the petition drive as a vehicle to get volunteers engaged in the midterm elections. As people collect signatures on the internet and in person, they will have an entrée to discuss with signers the importance of climate issues in their respective congressional districts. Signature gatherers will use our ClimateUSA platform (see attached) as way of introducing candidates and voters to climate issues relevant to these elections and ultimately to the well being of the planet.

We greatly appreciate your continued support and look forward to working with you. Please keep an eye out for more details on this very important issue from CCC in the coming weeks and for ways that you can help. Feel free to contact us with questions, comments and requests.

Truly,

Raya Ariella
ClimateUSA Campaign Coordinator

Raya Ariella
Climate USA Campaign Coordinator
Climate Crisis Coalition
P.O.Box # 125
1383 Pleasant Street
South Lee, MA. 01260
p. 413.243.5665
www.climatecrisiscoaltion.org
www.kyotoandbeyond.org

The Climate Crisis Coalition takes the Kyoto and Beyond petition campaign to the 2006 Congressional Midterm Elections.

CCC calls on candidates to sign the People’s Ratification of the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty and to support the ClimateUSA platform.

ClimateUSA

A Call to Action to Midterm Congressional Candidates

When faced with a grave threat to a livable future for ourselves,

our children and future generations, it is our duty as Americans to join with the other nations of the world to head off the potentially catastrophic impact of our increasingly unstable climate.

Therefore, we call on the government of the United States to acknowledge the need for the United States to fulfill its role as a world leader by meeting the Kyoto goals of reducing emissions by 8 percent below 1990 levels by 2012 -- and to acknowledge the need for a total reduction of at least 70 percent thereafter as specified by the world's community of climate scientists.

Because the Kyoto Protocol and proposed carbon trading legislative remedies are important first steps but not enough to effectively address the accelerating pace of global climate change, we call on Congress for substantial shifts in federal subsidies and taxes relating to energy production and consumption.

Recognizing the need to end Americans’ oil dependency and join the rest of the world in working to avert a series of climate shocks that threaten to erode the foundations of our complex, precious and increasingly vulnerable civilization,

The Climate Crisis Coalition hereby calls on Congressional Candidates in the 2006 midterm election to support the following measures:

1) Enact the McCain-Lieberman "Climate Stewardship Act" (without a nuclear provision) as a first step to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

2) Withdraw federal subsidies (currently estimated at around $25

billion a year) from coal, oil and natural gas development -- as well as from carbon-intensive agriculture -- and establish equivalent subsidies to jump-start a renewable energy economy based on wind, solar, tidal power, biomass, small-scale hydropower and other non-nuclear, sustainable energy technologies.

3) Promote the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and lead the way for a post-2012 framework that would result in a worldwide transition away from fossil

fuels to clean energy technologies.

CLIMATE CRISIS COALITION

P.O. Box 125, South Lee, MA 01260, (413) 243-5665 – info@kyotoandbeyond.org

www.climatecrisiscoalition.org – www.kyotoandbeyond.org

Tags for this entry: USA, Climate Crisis.

posted by Annamarie at 5:07 PM