Concerned about global warming and the problems it will bring? You can contribute to its solution. But you have to act fast on this.
Later this month, the U.S. Senate is expected to hold its first ever debate and vote on mandatory climate change controls. U.S. senators will be asked to vote on the Climate Stewardship Act, a comprehensive national policy for cutting U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases that cause global warming using a cap and trade system similar to the one being used to regulate sulfur dioxide which causes acid rain. The debate and vote on the Climate Stewardship Act will put senators on the record as being for or against mandatory limits on carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S.. Sadly, global warming is now spelling serious trouble for people and wildlife, the world over. As the heat-trapping gases continue to rise in the atmosphere from too much fossil fuel burning (coal, oil, gasoline, jet fuel, natural gas) by humans, Earth's temperature continues to rise. The earth is warming much more rapidly now than scientists had first predicted it would under the early global warming models. For example, the scientists have found that in the Great Lakes region, temperatures in the past four years (1998 - 2001) have increased from 2 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit (1 to 2 degrees Centigrade ) above the long-term average, and up to 7 degrees F (4 degrees C) above the long term winter average. http://www.ucsusa.org/global_environment/global_warming/page.cfm?pageID=1 156> In independent investigations of National Weather Service (NWS) air temperature data for the Upper Midwest of records from 1898 through February 2003, Patrick Neuman, NWS Hydrologist, found: increases in temperatures that were similar to the increases identified in the Union of Concerned Scientists' report; increases in January and February dewpoints from the 1970s through February 2003; and trends for earlier in the season snowmelt runoff from the early 1900s to the 2003 snowmelt runoff period. http://www.mnforsustain.org/mn_dewpoints_neuman_p_special_report.htm http://www.mnforsustain.org/climate_snowmelt_dewpoints_minnesota_neuman.h tm Recently released National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) reports show the September 2003 global average land and ocean surface temperature was the warmest September over the period of National Weather Service record keeping (1880 - 2002). September 2003 temperatures averaged across the Northern Hemisphere were also the warmest on record. Finally, NOAA reports show globally averaged monthly temperatures have now been warmer than the 1971-2000 average for the month for 89 consecutive months! http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2003/sep/global.html#Temp Carbon dioxide emissions--caused by the burning of dirty fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas--build up in the atmosphere, blanket the Earth, and trap in heat, causing global warming. The first impacts of global warming are already evident and projected future impacts pose a serious threat to the safety of human communities and natural ecosystems worldwide. While energy production is the largest source of heat-trapping emissions, the current energy bill does nothing to address these emissions, nor does it help meet our existing obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to stabilize these gases at safe levels. The Climate Stewardship Act would set mandatory greenhouse gas pollution reductions and is one of the best chances we have to curb global warming. Enacting this bill will also make our economy more energy efficient and break the logjam of U.S. inaction to fight global warming. Delaying action on climate change will only cost more in the long run--the later we act the deeper and more drastic the emissions cuts will need to be. YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO THE SOLUTIONS, but you have to act now for your contribution to be timely. Calls are urgently needed: call your senators via the capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121. Help influence an upcoming historic debate and vote -- expected later this month -- by urging your senators to support a bill that will help curb global warming. Tell your family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and people you know who live in other states to do the same. Tell them it is important we don't delay major U.S. action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our country any longer, as our collective emissions remain in the atmosphere for decades, even centuries. Until fuel systems and energy sources are developed and widely available that are safe and reliable alternatives to burning fossil fuels for energy, conservation of energy -- through means of using energy efficient technologies as well as by people reducing participation in activities that burn fossil fuels -- is essential. To encourage this, the government should provide financial incentives to bring about those essential reductions. The Climate Stewardship Act would provide the necessary regulatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions (by economic sector) to get the ball rolling. Mike Neuman http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ClimateArchive/message/229 "Human survival through millenniums of natural hazards is not evidence of ability to survive unprecedented man-made ecological disasters in the future." -- Lyton Keith Caldwell, 1971 ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
