Tag Archive: climate


Repower America

The Senate has decided that we won’t get a comprehensive climate and clean energy bill before the August recess — which most observers interpret as a death-knell for the legislation this year.

This failure would be hard to understand at any time, to say the least. But coming as it does in the middle of a record-hot summer and a series of environmental disasters, Washington’s abandonment of this effort is all the more confounding and frustrating.

However, this setback only makes our work more necessary. As long as we care about our country, our planet, and the future we’re leaving for our children and grandchildren, we must continue to fight.

Remember: The climate crisis isn’t going away. And neither can we. It is getting worse, so we have to redouble our efforts.

We’re already planning the next phase of our work, and I’m counting on your continued involvement. I’d like to invite you to join me next Tuesday, August 10, for a conversation to discuss how we should move forward from here. I’ll be answering some questions from Repower America members like you — so please submit a question for discussion.

“Next Steps for the Climate Movement”
Virtual Town Hall
Tuesday, August 10 at 8:30 p.m. EDT
RSVP to join and submit your question

The Senate’s decision is a major disappointment for the climate movement, but there is a silver lining. In the last year, supporters like you have organized on an unprecedented scale. And we’ve built overwhelming popular support for action on comprehensive climate and clean energy solutions.

But by using the right-wing media echo chamber, record campaign contributions and an army of well-paid lobbyists, the oil and coal industries have stopped at nothing to protect the status quo and their profits. They want to keep using the atmosphere as an open sewer for the dumping of their greenhouse gas pollution.

The Senate’s inaction reflects that reality. We have always known that solving the climate crisis is a generational challenge — and the urgency of the climate crisis demands that despite these substantial obstacles, we must fight for every inch of progress. The science has never been more clear and the evidence is mounting day by day.

For those of us who understand the stakes, it’s a moral obligation.

And so we must fight even harder. Together, we must continue to beat back repeated assaults on the authority in the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon pollution. We must continue to pressure our elected leaders — local, state and national — to stand with the American people instead of the fossil fuel industry. We must each take individual action to transition to clean energy in our daily lives. And we must win the ongoing battle of science against spin.

We can and must continue the fight. Please join me on Tuesday, August 10 at 8:30 p.m. EDT to discuss our next steps.

http://acp.repoweramerica.org/jointhecall

Thanks for all you do — we’re all in this together.

Al Gore
Repower America

Who Killed the Climate Bill?

The climate bill is kind of like a suffering, wounded dog. You want to believe it’s for the best when it’s finally put out of its misery, except you wish it just didn’t have to go down that like that.

In an unsurprising move, Senate majority leader Harry Reid made it official this afternoon. He announced he would introduce an “admittedly narrow, limited” energy bill that contains no greenhouse gas provisions and maybe even no renewable electricity mandate. The votes, he said, just weren’t there.

“It’s easy to count to 60,” said Reid, according to Politico. “I could do it by the time I was in eighth grade. My point is this, we know where we are. We know we don’t have the votes.”

Despite tireless climate champion Sen. John Kerry’s  vague assurances that he will keep negotiating for a cap on carbon emissions at some future point in time, Democrats just gave up on the last, best chance to pass a global warming measure anytime soon.  How often does an oil spill Armageddon come along to illustrate why this matters? And the Democrat majority ain’t getting any bigger in November, that’s for sure.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world gets it. For god’s sake, even China — America’s eternally convenient climate punching bag  — is reportedly on the verge of establishing a mandatory carbon trading program by 2015.

Looking for someone to blame for this sad state of affairs? Here are a few options:

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The Death of a Climate Giant

The global warming movement is in mourning this week.

Dr. Stephen Schneider, who died suddenly yesterday of a heart attack, devoted his life to the climate cause. If Al Gore is the poster child of the climate campaign, Stephen Schneider was the science, messaging and brains behind the show. This humble genius was a power-broker who changed the world and was doing it well before most others arrived on the scene.

Schneider has long been an inspiration in his ability to inspire other scientists, politicians and average citizens to care about global warming, which was, and still is, no small task. I first met him more than 10 years ago when he spoke at the annual conference of a faith-based global warming groups. What impressed me most was how he commanded the awe and respect of religious leaders of all denominations. He had the unique ability to speak with both scientific authority and with respect and honor for those who took stock in the power of faith. He knew, early on, the climate movement needed their voices and clout. Part of his genius was his ability to bring together people of all stripes.

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Climate change deniers make it their business to attack global warming realists in every cobwebbed corner of the Internet. Anyone who has ever written in support of scientific evidence knows this first-hand.

But when do aggressive emails and comments cross this line? This has been an issue in so many areas of our modern life. Sure, the occasional controversial academic could get used to attacks, but in the climate change arena, the discourse is getting seriously out of hand.

When a steady stream of vitriolic hate is directed at a whole pack of prominent scientists whenever they dare venture beyond obscure journals, I think this line is surely crossed. Some of it is almost certainly from individual crazies. Others suggest these attacks are orchestrated, and blogger Tim Lambert notes that one high-profile spokesperson for the climate denial machine regularly publishes the email addresses of “target” scientists. Regardless of the source, I fear it is only a matter of time before abusive words translate to abusive actions.

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