President Must Match Words to Action on Carbon Pollution Limits
In President Obama’s first press conference after his re-election, the President connected the dots between the increase in temperature, melting Arctic ice, and extraordinary number of large storms. The president stated:
I am a firm believer that climate change is real, that it is impacted by human behavior and carbon emissions. And as a consequence, I think we’ve got an obligation to future generations to do something about it.
Now is the time to urge the President to match his words with action by moving forward carbon pollution limits.
President Must Move Forward on Historic Pollution LimitsRight now, President Obama has the power to finalize historic limits on industrial carbon pollution that would stop new power plants from emitting unlimited amounts of carbon pollution into our air.
Putting in place these air pollution from new power plants is a critical step towards the cutting pollution that causes climate change. Right now, power plants, especially coal-burning power plant, are the nation’s single largest source of global warming pollution representing over40 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions.
And coal is a dirty business from the mine to the plant, and beyond. Coal mining destroys vast amounts of land — including entire mountains — pollutes our rivers and streams, and has significant environmental effects on local communities and wildlife
Superstorm Sandy a Vision of What’s to ComeHurricane Sandy devastated communities and ecosystems on the East Coast–including shoreline habitat for piping plovers.
Superstorms like Sandy could become stronger and stronger as global temperatures continue to increase–and scientists are warning that we must reduce the carbon pollution causing climate change now.
Hurricane Sandy was so big and so powerful that it damaged more than 40 National Wildlife Refuges–flooding crucial habitats of many coastal bird species, including Atlantic Coast piping plovers, a threatened species which depends upon the shorelines affected by Sandy for breeding habitat.
The devastating effects of climate change that scientists have been warning us about for years–bigger, more powerful storms with more rainfall and higher storm surge–are becoming impossible to miss.
Take actionNow is the time to tell the President to finalize the carbon limits on new power plants, propose and set limits for existing power plants, and keep working towards reducing carbon from other major sources of pollution.
This summer as heat waves, drought, wildfires, and extreme weather swept the nation, over three million people like you spoke up in support of the Environmental Protection Agency and President Obama’s efforts to limit carbon pollution from new coal-fired power plants.
Today, as our nations sees the impacts to communities, ecosystems, and wildlife from climate change turbo-charged extreme weather, we cannot delay finishing what was started this summer–and put in place limits on carbon pollution that stop new mega-polluting coal plants now.