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Tag Archives: climate change

Mother’s Day

Posted by: Melissa Harrison -

As I looked at the computer screen which displayed the faces of my mother and grandmother, I wished them both a Happy Mother’s Day. As we talked I thought of all the sacrifices they had made to ensure I was raised in an environment that fostered my growth and success. What some deem, another Hallmark Holiday, I love Mother’s Day because it’s one more opportunity for me to say thank you to them for all they have done to make my world a better place.

It’s hard to believe that juxtaposed to this Mother’s Day was another new date which will go down in the history books. Just preceding our mom’s special day, the planet went over 400ppm concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. According to the New York Times:

“The best available evidence suggests the amount of the gas in the air has not been this high for at least three million years, before humans evolved, and scientists believe the rise portends large changes in the climate and the level of the sea.”

So, as mothers all over the world were celebrating, the planet was surpassing another climate change milestone, which is ultimately making the environment less safe for moms and their children everywhere.

Yet, after a weekend of articles on what is yet to come due to this new level, some still don’t understand the sense of urgency many of us feel. Ultimately, polls show that more and more Americans believe climate change is real and that we should do something to combat it, however they don’t want government to foot the bill. And when I bring it up among my friends, (what I like to call my personal focus groups) climate change still pales in comparison to their concerns about the economy, job creation and debt reduction.

Wrong Frame?

Recently, I attended a presentation by Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Following her foreign and domestic policy laden speech, she opened up for questions from the audience. As I stood to ask her thoughts on climate change, the President’s second term and the role current Secretary of State John Kerry should play in these discussions, I wondered what her response would entail.

Albright photo 2013

 Click Picture to View Full Response

“I think that all one has to do is look at various things and extremes going on. I think there is positive proof that there is something going on. The other, I think is the affect that climate change has on a number of aspects that have to do with stability. I have just been involved in many discussions now about problems to do with water. If people think we have been arguing over fossil fuels, wait until we really start arguing over water. About food security and problems there. A lot of it has to do with climate change. If people only think it’s about polar bears or something, that’s not what it’s about. What it is about is human security in all its various aspects.” -Madeleine Albright, May 3, 2013

“Human security.” While some still debate whether we should refer to this issue as global warming or climate change, former Secretary Albright skipped right to the heart of the matter. This is a human security issue and we should begin acting like it is.

We need to start asking the tough questions about what we can do as individuals, while demanding our elected officials take a stand and lead. It has been 89 days since President Obama said we’d “respond to the threat of climate change” during his State of the Union address. We’ve heard the talk, now it’s time to walk the walk. If you agree, send President Obama an email and tell him you are ready to hear his plan.

Like our mothers, who strive to protect us, now is the time for us to find ways to protect them and our other mom, Mother Earth.

Luntz is Right: Limbaugh Hurting GOP, America

Posted by: Heather Taylor-Miesle -

Republican pollster and strategist Frank Luntz was caught on a hidden camera recently, talking smack about one of the most influential and least constructive people in America: Rush Limbaugh. Luntz asked that recording devices be turned off before he began to talk honestly about the destructive political polarization being caused by conservative media and divisive talk radio hosts. Luntz was right, if understated, in saying that Limbaugh’s m.o. is “problematic” for America and not helpful to the cause of helping Republicans get elected.

I want to use this space to agree with Luntz and propose at least one solution.

First, the problem. Luntz is certainly correct that bombastic talk show hosts are more interested in boosting advertising revenue than they are in solving our country’s problems. Limbaugh’s denial of climate change is but one of many examples where outrageous ignorance is standing in the way of progress. Luntz is right when he says that politicians understand the harm being inflicted by these media personalities, yet they remain unwilling to cross them, fearing the consequences of their ire.

Second, the solution. Politicians must begin responding to the wide swaths of their constituents – including Republicans – who want action of a range of issues, rather than kowtowing to Limbaugh and company. Across the suite of controversial and divisive issues, a clear majority emerges for action. On immigration, two thirds of Republicans support the recent bipartisan proposal for reform. Likewise, a clear majority supports action on environmental issues like clean energy and climate change. Seventy percent of Republicans believe, despite what Limbaugh says, that the world is warming and about 90% of Americans want to generate more wind and solar energy. This includes huge majorities of Republicans. For example 84% of Republicans said they think it is important to generate more solar energy. 

In the wake of 2012 election losses, the Republican Party has begun soul-searching. Moving beyond a narrow base and rebuilding a durable majority will require being on the same side with a majority of Americans. Those people want clean energy jobs. They believe in climate change. They want action. And unlike Luntz, I’m willing to put that on the record.

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When It Comes to Fighting Climate Change, We Need All the Tools in Our Tool Belt to Win

Posted by: Heather Taylor-Miesle -

The passing of another Earth Day seems to have some pundits waxing nostalgic. One such pundit, Nicholas Lemann of the New Yorker, wrote a glowing piece about the hundreds of thousands of Americans who turned out for the first Earth Day in 1970. He even went as far to say that the absence of grassroots action in today’s environmental movement allowed Congress to sidestep climate legislation in 2009 and 2010.

28-09-2011

The groundswell of support for the first Earth Day was indeed a potent force. It was the catalyst for change and launched an extraordinary time in environmental history. It inspired me and many of my colleagues at NRDC who were the drivers behind passage of landmark environmental protections like the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. But, unlike Nicholas Lemann, I don’t believe our best days are behind us because I know how much we are accomplishing right now.

Political Landscapes Change, Requiring New Navigational Tools

Today the 1970-style teach-ins sound like a distant memory, much like FDR’s fireside chats did back then. When Earth Day first launched, it caught polluters off guard. Today is a different story. Now big oil and the gas industry are in full opposition mode. They spent $168 million on lobbying in the year before the climate bill was introduced, and it poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the 2012 campaign to elect climate denying candidates. Tea Party leaders in the House, meanwhile, voted more than 300 times to gut environmental safeguards in the last two years. The good news is the NRDC Action Fund and our allies activated our powerful network of supporters and prevented most of the terrible measures from becoming law. In today’s political environment, sometimes a good defense is our best offense.

While some may believe the tactics of the 1970’s is what we need to be victorious today, I argue that today’s political realities demand not just one, but all the tools at our disposal. Environmental victories will come from grassroots action, media outreach, scientific research and advocating our positions on Capitol Hill. We have to use our power, influence and message to affect change. There is no magic tool in our tool belt that can change the heart of fossil fuel opposition or defuse extreme Tea Party ideology. In today’s dysfunctional Congress, not even broad public support works. With polls showing that 90 percent of Americans support tougher gun control laws one would think Congress would easily pass a bill. Heck, so many voters called Congress to voice their support of stronger measures that they shut down the switchboard. Yet here we are today, still no closer to Congress passing anything. What was once considered the low hanging fruit-extending background checks to online sales and private gun shows-couldn’t even make it out of the Senate.

In his New Yorker article, Lemann bemoans the fact that there has been no major environmental legislation since the 2010 effort to pass a climate bill. But a Congressional strategy won’t work when Congress is this stuck. Even in the best of times, it takes multiple attempts to pass transformative legislation—just ask anyone who works on health care, immigration reform, or gun control.

How to Get Things Done, Without Congress

I get it. Change is hard. But, playing a blame game is easy. Rather than pointing fingers at one another or Congress, let’s keep working. While some have been busy plotting our early demise, America has been implementing standards which will continue to reduce our carbon pollution. U.S. carbon dioxide emissions have declined 12 percent since 2005. We are on track for far deeper reductions, because we’ve been using all the tools at our disposal to work with the White House to use its existing authority to reduce pollution.

Just last August the Obama administration issued fuel economy standards that will cut carbon pollution from new cars in half by 2025. They will also reduce U.S. oil imports by one third and save drivers $1.7 trillion at the gas pump. The administration also proposed the first-ever carbon limits on new power plants. These are not minor efforts. They target America’s two largest sources of carbon: cars and power plants.

But, we’re not done yet. Now it’s time for President Obama to take the next bold steps. We won’t rest until he uses the Clean Air Act to limit carbon pollution from existing power plants and rejects the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline that would lock us into decades of carbon pollution from the dirtiest fuel on the planet.

President Obama is clearly committed to confronting climate change, but prompting him to move forward will require all our tools. We aren’t just relying on an inside or outside strategy. In today’s game you need both. Our plan includes a cost-effective plan from NRDC for how the EPA can structure its carbon standards for existing power plants. At the same time, the environmental community is coordinating grassroots efforts in support of the standards—just like when the environmental coalition collectively helped generate a record-breaking 3 million comments in support of carbon standards for new power plants. And NRDC is providing expert scientific, economic, and public safety analysis of the Keystone XL pipeline, while helping to organize protest rallies that brought tens of thousands of people to the White House.

Be Proud, but Never Settle

These efforts in concert with one another are creating the climate solutions we seek. The results are astonishing. This Earth Day is just one administration after the Cheney Energy Task Force practically sanctified oil and gas development. Just one year after a presidential primary in which nearly every Republican presidential candidate denied the existence of climate change. Yet, America has cut our carbon emissions, dramatically expanded our investments in renewable energy, and cleaned up our cars. But, we’re not done yet.  In fact, we are only getting started.  I’m confident we will have even more reasons to celebrate at Earth Day 2014 and beyond.

Michiganders for Clean Energy

Posted by: Heather Taylor-Miesle -

Senator Carl Levin has announced he will not seek reelection in 2014 and already the succession speculation has begun. Michigan has a deep field of leaders to draw from to run for Levin’s seat. Yet whoever steps forward will have to chart their course carefully. Michigan is solidly purple, having voted for Democrats in six of the last ten presidential races, but electing a Republican governor and a Republican legislature.

How can potential Michigan candidates appeal to the broadest range of voters? By calling for clean energy and climate action.

This approach worked across the nation in the 2012 election cycle.  Energy was a central issue in races from the top to the bottom of the ticket. Given the choice between candidates who promoted clean energy and those who held polluter-friendly positions on fossil fuels, voters overwhelmingly chose clean energy champions. And that includes Independent voters. Every major swing state went for President Obama, and states from Montana to Maine to Virginia swept clean energy candidates into office up and down the ticket.

This same approach can work in Michigan in 2014. Voters will have experienced two more years of extreme weather events pummeling their communities. But they will also have seen more wind farms and solar panels become ordinary parts of everyday life, and they will know more people with jobs designing and building fuel efficient cars.

Support for clean energy and climate action will only grow. Here’s why smart Michigan candidates should tap into that support.

Voters of All Stripes Support Clean Energy

Some GOP lawmakers still believe fossil fuels are our only viable energy source, but most voters have left those outdated views behind. They want American to develop clean energy. Last fall, polluting industries and their allies spent millions in Michigan races. Yet despite all the dirty money, undecided voters said they would side with a candidate who “supports EPA standards to reduce dangerous carbon pollution” over one who does not by a wide margin (56 percent versus 20 percent). Undecided voters also said they preferred congressional candidates who, like Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow, support “standards to reduce toxic mercury pollution from power plants” over those who oppose them (62 percent versus 18 percent.) Curbing subsidies for oil companies, increasing fuel economy standards, and boosting clean energy drew similar support.

Some may say clean energy suffered a setback in Michigan last fall when voters failed to pass a ballot measure that would have amended the state constitution to include policies to promote renewable energy. However, election night polling showed that voters were rejecting an attempt to alter the constitution. They strongly supported action from their elected officials to create renewable energy policies in Lansing, not in the constitution.

Now Governor Snyder is holding hearings all over the state to discuss the future of energy policy in Michigan. We are engaged and working with our partners to ensure support for clean energy job creation and energy efficiency are part of the plan moving forward.

Clean Energy Is Another Way to Talk about Jobs, Jobs, and More Jobs

Michigan is ranked eighth in the country for the number of clean energy and clean transportation jobs in the state, according to a report released earlier this month by Environmental Entrepreneurs. The state is on track to add even more: companies and communities have announced 19 new projects that will generate nearly 4,000 additional jobs in Michigan. All together, the state’s renewable energy sector has attracted $1.79 billion in investments through 2012.

Meanwhile, Michigan added 34,100 auto manufacturing jobs last September for a gain of 32.7 percent since the trough in June 2009. A recent report published by NRDC and their partners found that a considerable amount of this growth is driven by new clean car standards that will be double fuel economy for cars by 2025—and save drivers $80 billion a year at the pump in the process.

Many Michiganders have benefited from clean energy jobs; many more could in the future. The state requires 10 percent of all electricity come from wind and solar power. Nearby Iowa, in contrast, is already getting 23 percent of its electricity from renewables. If Michigan created stronger clean energy standards and incentives, the state would get more home-grown jobs. And voters would reward candidates who helped deliver those jobs.

Climate Denial Is the New Black Helicopter

A generation ago, candidates sounded out of touch if they tried to convince voters the United Nations was sending black helicopters to take over America. Today, when candidates mention sun spots as a cause of climate change the extremist alarm bells start going off in the minds of voters. In fact, a majority now say that climate change is happening and we should do something to address it. While it may not be the top issue for every voter, most feel uncomfortable with candidates who blatantly reject science and chart out extreme positions…  

This is no different in Michigan. Michiganders had their fling with extremism and now they are paying a price. Republican Representative Justin Amash’s own party found his positions so far afield that they kicked him off the budget committee—leaving his district without a voice in this critical arena. Now there are rumblings Amash may run to replace Levin. His opponents simply have to ask him what he is going to do to protect the Great Lakes from climate change or where he stands on government efforts to reduce global warming pollution, and voters will see the extremism shine through.

Clean Energy: Good Policy and Good Politics

As we wait and see who jumps into this race, one thing is for sure. Michigan is poised to be a leader in the clean energy economy and Michiganders deserve a U.S. Senator who represents those values. If we learned anything from the 2012 election cycle, it’s that candidates can run and win on investing in clean energy, protecting the environment and conserving our natural resources. The best part is these aren’t just good policies, they are good politics too.

We Must Act

Posted by: Peter Lehner -

“But if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will.”  

         President Barack Obama, 2013 State of the Union

It is fitting that climate change featured prominently in the biggest political speech of the year. Our country is still absorbing the blow from 11 extreme weather events in 2012, including Super Storm Sandy, which alone cost more than $80 billion. We need presidential leadership to deal with this grave threat to our communities.

But I am just as interested in hearing what people say about climate change around their dinner tables as I am in hearing what President Obama says from the dais. It’s these everyday conversations that matter, because real action will only occur when ordinary people start demanding it.

The president knows this himself.

Earlier this week the Director of the NRDC Action Fund met with President Obama’s former Campaign Manager Jim Messina and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement John Carson. Messina told her that soon after the election he was on vacation in Italy when the president called him back to the White House and said: “We are not done yet.”

The President wants to remain in campaign mode because the best way to achieve his goals is to build public momentum. He needs a surge of support outside of Washington if he wants to prevail in Washington. And so he has asked Messina and Carson to launch Organizing for Action, a group that will draw on the Obama campaign’s ground game and data collection to mobilize people on immigration reform, gun control, climate action and job creation.

I take this as an inspiring sign. The president recognizes that the power to make change doesn’t reside only in Washington; it sits within all of us. We can raise our voices, influence our friends, get our lawmakers’ attention, and create our own groundswell.

History shows that legislation rarely leads people. Instead, people lead legislation. Cultural shifts take place, and then the government follows. Grassroots movements in the 1960s, for instance, led to the Civil Rights Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act. The quickest way to spot a corrupt piece of legislation is to read the newspaper and realize there is no public support for it; that means a lobbyist wrote the bill to benefit a client.

But when a member of Congress opens the paper and learns that people in his or her district are writing letters to the editor, attending rallies, and organizing community groups and business sectors in favor of climate action, then they know it’s time to follow the public’s lead.

Representative Dave Reichert (R-WA), for instance, knows the majority of his constituents care about climate change, so when he had the opportunity to vote on a clean energy and climate bill in 2010, he supported it. Some top donors gave him a hard time about that vote, but he told them in no uncertain terms he couldn’t get reelected in his district if opposed climate action.

If we can make more members of Congress feel the same way, we can really get down to work. We can ensure President Obama has the support he needs to reduce carbon pollution from existing power plants—our nation’s largest source of global warming pollution. We can create incentives for renewable energy, energy efficient buildings, and clean cars. And we can even pass climate legislation in a few years.

But remember, this will only happen if the words President Obama Tuesday night are matched by public action. Educate your friends. Talk about climate change in our children’s schools, our religious groups, and business associations. Call on these networks to join you at town hall events and rallies. And always keep the pressure on your lawmakers through email, Facebook, Twitter, and local office visits.

It’s time for all of us who care about building a sustainable future to start leading while demanding our leaders do the same.

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