Climate 411

What is needed now is a strong, sustained, and well-coordinated effort between governments at all levels, businesses, civic institutions, and individuals to adopt policies, programs, and practices that accelerate the adoption of clean, efficient energy choices. The costs of delay are high. For every year of delay in beginning significant emissions reductions, global concentrations of heat-trapping gases rise higher and the goal of avoiding dangerous climate change becomes more difficult and more costly to achieve.

From Confronting Climate Change in the U.S. Northeast [PDF 8MB], prepared by the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment Synthesis Team. July 2007.

For more on the toll of global warming in the Northeast, visit our New York City page.

Today’s post is from Sam Parry, Environmental Defense’s manager of online membership.

As we prepare for July 4th festivities, I wanted to share an inspiring conversation we’ve had with our online supporters over the past several weeks. We asked the question, how do people who love this country approach the crisis of global warming? We must have struck a nerve because we got thousands of passionate responses.

We used these responses to craft a Declaration of New Patriotism. To date, almost 56,000 people have added their “John Hancock.” Last week, we delivered the message to Congress with an ad in Roll Call, one of the most widely read newspapers on Capitol Hill.

So before you head out to celebrate tomorrow, take a look at our Declaration of New Patriotism and add your signature. Happy Fourth of July!