Climate 411

72 Hours, Thousands of Calls

We need your help to unleash our clean energy future, create millions of new jobs, and reduce the carbon pollution that causes global warming.

Join EDF and Clean Energy Works as we call Senators and demand climate action.

Today is the first day of the 72 Hours for Clean American Power calling campaign. From today through Thursday, EDF is joining forces with 10 fellow environmental organizations to flood the Senate with calls demanding climate action.

You can do your part with just three easy steps:

1) Click to call your Senators and urge them to support a strong climate and energy bill this year. It’s free and takes only a few minutes. One call is worth 100 emails, so please call now. If you’re not sure what to say, see suggested talking points below.

2) Forward this link to everyone you know who’s concerned about global warming and our clean energy future.

3) Send an email to your Senators to reinforce our call for action. The more your Senators hear from you, the better.

This is a critical moment in our campaign — meaningful legislation is within our reach, but we have to push to make it happen. Please do everything you can over the next 72 hours to urge your Senators to act now.

Not sure what to say? No problem. We’ve got some call-in pointers and a sample call to get you started:

Make sure to tell your Senator:

  • Who You Are: Senators represent their constituents. Broad-based support from a particular interest group can really get their attention. So let them know if you’re a veteran, small business owner, mechanic, academic, scientist, mother, father, student – whatever group or groups you are part of.
  • Where You’re From: Senators need to know that you live in their state, and where in their state you live. They need to hear that people from every corner of their state are climate and clean energy advocates.
  • Why You Care: Whether your inspiration is national security, jobs, love of our planet or all of the above, it is essential to let Senators know why you care.
  • It’s urgent! Your Senator needs to hear urgency from you. If the Senate does not act this year, especially in the next few months, the clock will run out on this Congress and it could be a long time before they take it up again. We can’t afford to let pollution build up and our economy stagnate while the Senate delays.

Here is a sample call that includes all four key elements:

Hi- My Name is Brenda Smith and I’m a small business owner from Town/City, State. America desperately needs help to jumpstart our economy and create jobs – and a clean energy and climate bill can help us do it. We’ve waited long enough – the clean energy economy is passing us by. We are losing ground to China and India and losing jobs here in America. I want Sen. X to act now to pass a strong clean energy and climate bill. Not next year – NOW.

Posted in Climate Change Legislation, News / Read 3 Responses

Help Give World Leaders 10,000 Reasons to Act on Climate

FB discWhat would you like to tell the world’s leaders about global warming?

With the focus now on the Copenhagen climate conference, this is your chance to speak out. Go to our Facebook page and add your voice to our 10,000 Reasons to Support Strong Climate Action campaign. We will share these reasons with key members of Congress and with the White House.

Here are just a handful of the more than 650 reasons offered so far:

Deborah Beracha of Fort Lauderdale, Fla, wrote:

Let’s all join together. Global warming has to be taken seriously. Leaders need to stand up and limit global warming emissions and they need to do it now.

Ken Weitzman of Bloomington, IN, wrote:

As a father, I want to be able to answer two questions my children will one day ask:
1) Did you know?
Then, after I answer “yes”…

2) So what did you do?

Jeff Riney of Asheville, N.C., wrote:

If anything we need to do this for our kids! I dread the day that my daughter says, “thanks for the mess you left us Dad!”

Gabe Schirm of northern Colorado wrote:

The technology, the science and the will are here now. We have the solutions. We just need our leaders to do the right thing. Not later, but now.

Posted in Climate Change Legislation, International / Read 14 Responses

Three Ways to Support Clean Energy Today

For the last few weeks, Senators and Congressmen have been back in their home states, listening to voters’ concerns and priorities. August is winding down, and they will soon head back to Washington to make laws.

This is your last chance to make sure they hear your voice. Here’s how:

  • Make a call.  The Environmental Defense Action Network just launched  a new tool that makes it easy to call your Senators. The Senate needs to hear from you, so call and ask your friends to do the same!
  • Check the calendar. Town hall meetings are winding down, but you might still have a chance to speak up for clean energy. Find a town hall meeting in your state (scroll to the bottom of the page).
  • Raise a ruckus online. Don’t let the small but loud opposition drown out the support for clean energy! Make your voice heard on the social networks.

And looking ahead to September, those of you in and near New York City can check out NYC’s Climate Week, a series of events planned to build momentum building up to the U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen.

Posted in Partners for Change / Comments are closed

Enemies of Climate Action Turn Up the Heat

The radical right is organizing an all-out, take-no-prisoners campaign to block President Obama’s efforts to reform America’s energy policies and stop global warming. Led by Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin, right wing ideologues are lining up with big polluters to defeat climate action this year.

Joe Romm talks about their “passionate intensity” in a blog post today. His key points:

[T]he entire conservative messaging apparatus is full-throated in its opposition to this bill — and they have well-heeled funders, aka the dirty-energy bunch. […]

But we should be equaling, if not beating, calls to key senators right now. […]

Reason enough for passage of a bill with emissions targets like Waxman-Markey (preferably stronger) is to give the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen (and beyond) a fighting chance — and not to strangle a global deal in the crib as the deniers and polluters hope to do with their immoral and ultimately self-destructive filibuster.

And to prove his point, this just in from Twitter: The opposition is being extremely vocal towards Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska:

kate_sheppard RT @Populista: Ben Nelson says letters in Nebraska are running 99-1 against #ACES. Says people at parades are shouting “No cap and trade”

You can help fight back by calling your Senators today.

And if Sen. Nelson is your Senator, here are various ways to let him know you support climate action.

Posted in Climate Change Legislation / Read 5 Responses

Tea Bagger Fringe Continuing to Mobilize Against Climate Action

The Dittohead and Tea Bagger crowd are piling on in opposition to Congressional action to address global warming.

Taking cues from daily tirades from Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin and the gang, the radical right has been organizing an intensive phone-banking operation targeting members of Congress.

According to Grist.org, callers are even being instructed to use phony home addresses and to call member offices multiple times to manufacture the impression that constituents are against climate action.

These underhanded efforts have skewed results so much that some offices are reporting a 100:1 ratio of calls against climate action.

Check out the Grist story.

What you can do:

First, call your real members of Congress to express support for global warming action. The Capitol Hill switchboard is (202) 224-3121.

Second, spread the word online. Email this story to your friends and family. Post this on Facebook and/or on Twitter. Let everyone know that the radical right is manufacturing false opposition to climate action and that we need to fight back.

Finally, engage in the debate online and off. When you see a story about climate action online, be sure to share your views by commenting on the story. If possible, send letters to the editor of your local paper. Help make sure your community knows that it’s critical we act. We can solve the climate crisis in a way that is affordable and that will create jobs and free America from our dependence on foreign oil.

Thanks for all you do.

Posted in News / Comments are closed

Rush Limbaugh Attacks – Help Us Fight Back

Rush Limbaugh and the Dittoheads are urging their supporters to flood Capitol Hill with calls attacking those who voted yes on the landmark American Clean Energy and Security Act. We need your help to fight back.

First, find out if your Rep voted yes on the bill: http://www.grist.org/article/2009-06-26-waxman-markey-bill-vote-count/

Then, call the Capitol Hill switchboard — (202) 224-3121. Ask to be patched through to your Rep.

Finally, tell the office staff that you strongly support the landmark climate bill and applaud the Rep. for voting to pass it.

This was a tough vote for a lot of members of Congress. But, thanks to the courage of 219 of them, we now have a chance to move America forward and create the clean energy economy we’ll need to compete in the 21st century. This bill will break our addiction to foreign oil, put millions of Americans to work, and, along with cuts from other countries, will help avert the catastrophic threats of run-away global warming.

Please call your Rep now to applaud his/her vote on the landmark climate bill.

Posted in Climate Change Legislation, News / Read 7 Responses