Dying For a Change, Pollution causes some 40 percent of deaths worldwide, says new research
August 17th, 2007Here’s one small reason to join the save-the-environment cause: new research indicates that some 40 percent of deaths worldwide are a direct effect of air, water, and soil pollution. Dirty air contributes to cancer and birth defects; unclean water accounts for 80 percent of all infectious diseases; and contaminated soil passes toxics to unwitting humans through direct contact or via food.
According to researchers’ review of data from more than 120 published papers, pollution combined with population growth contributes to malnourishment and disease susceptibility in 3.7 billion people, or about 57 percent of the world population. In 1950, when a mere 2.5 billion humans roamed the earth, only 20 percent of the population was malnourished. Says lead researcher David Pimentel, “We have serious environmental resource problems of water, land, and energy, and these are now coming to bear on food production, malnutrition, and the incidence of diseases.
Action Alert!! California Senate Republicans trying to Block Enforcement of Global Warming Considerations
July 30th, 2007CA Republican Senators are trying to block enforcement of global warming considerations in a recent development. As you know, the budget is held up. One of the reasons has to do with the California Environmental Quality Act, CEQA. Attorney General Jerry Brown has filed a lawsuit against San Berandino County, saying that the new general plan does not address global warming. This has the oil companies and big developers worried – and they have gotten the Republicans in the Senate to refuse to pass the state budget without a rider to eliminate all enforcement of global warming considerations as part of CEQA reviews until 2012.
Republican Abel Maldonado, one of our local state Senators, is the most likely to back away from this demand – because he represents a district that voted 53% for Barbara Boxer in 2004. Your help is urgently needed to put pressure on Abel through the media and calls to his office.
Map of Maldonado’s district: http://www.calvoter
Website: http://republican.
Polar Bear SOS - You Can Help!
June 26th, 2007While the Bush Administration refuses to clamp down on America’s biggest global warming polluters . . .
. . . there are alarming new reports of POLAR BEARS STARVING in the Arctic and being driven to extremes of survival behavior because of the rapidly changing climate.
I’ll share more about it below. But first, I need you to take IMMEDIATE ACTION because new global warming bills are being debated in Congress — and they could be a critical factor in saving the polar bear from extinction.
In advance of key votes on a global warming bill, we must build the ranks of concerned Americans who are committed to saving polar bears by making their voices heard on Capitol Hill.
Go to the Tell-A-Friend page of our Polar Bear SOS website and send out as many SOS messages as you can to your friends and
family: http://www.polarbearsos.org/tellfriends
That way, when a tough global warming bill is nearing a vote, we can alert millions of online activists to support it — and win its passage into law.
Right now, the need for such legislation is distressingly apparent. The Arctic spring in Greenland is coming two weeks earlier than it did in 1996 — a rate of climate change that far outstrips warming trends seen elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere.
As the sea ice melts earlier and earlier each year, there have been more and more reports of starving polar bears being forced to resort to heart-breaking acts of desperation.
Only last summer, an adult bear — his hip bones visible through his hide — killed a polar bear cub for food in the first-ever eyewitness account of polar bear infanticide.
The scientists who observed this never-before-seen behavior linked the killing of the cub — and other recent reports of polar bear cannibalism in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea — to “nutritional stress related to a longer ice-free period.”
They also predicted that as the ice melt continues to accelerate, tragic incidents like these will become more frequent. This is the terrible and inexcusable toll that global warming is taking on the polar bear.
And our very best hope to prevent an even bigger tragedy is to start cutting our global warming pollution now.
So while you have this message in front of you — please rally your friends in support of imperiled polar bears by sending SOS messages to as many people as you can at http://www.polarbearsos.org/tellfriends
Thanks to you, we prevailed in court and forced the Bush Administration to propose giving the polar bear federal protection. Then, we deluged the administration with hundreds of thousands of Citizen Comments in support of that protection.
Now, with your help, we’ll be poised and ready to unleash the power of one million online activists in support of global warming legislation that could be a lifeline for the polar bear. I hope you’ll do your part today. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council
P.S. Want to do more to rush to the aid of the polar bear? Go to our http://www.polarbearsos.org website now.
E-Action Alert! Tell the Bush Administration to let CA Control Global Warming Pollution!!
May 21st, 2007It’s time to tell the Bush Administration to get out of our way and let California start controlling global warming pollution from passenger vehicles.
California passed a law five years ago that would do exactly that. But the Bush EPA has refused to let that law take effect!
With global warming growing worse by the day, we’ve got to prevail on the Bush Administration to green-light this crucial legislation, which is supported by more than 80 percent of Californians.
Please go to http://www.nrdcactionfund.org/globalwarming_ca0507
and tell the Bush Administration to grant California the approval it needs to start reducing global warming from tailpipes.
The EPA has routinely given California approval for measures to cut motor vehicle pollution. In more than 40 years, the EPA has never said “no.” But the Bush Administration has been stalling for 18 months on California’s plan to cut global warming pollution.
They’re out of excuses. Just last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in NRDC’s favor that carbon dioxide and other global warming gases are “pollutants” and that the EPA already has the authority to regulate them!
We can’t afford to wait one more day for the Bush Administration to act.
Eleven other states are poised to follow California’s lead and impose limits on global warming pollution from passenger vehicles, the second largest source of this pollution in the country.
By failing to act, the Bush Administration continues to be a big part of the problem instead of the solution.
Go to http://www.nrdcactionfund.org/globalwarming_ca0507 and tell the EPA to get out of our way and let California confront the most urgent environmental problem of our time.
Thank you for supporting California’s pioneering legislation in the fight against global warming.
Frances Beinecke
President
NRDC Action Fund
The Race against Global Warming Announces Celebrity Speaker Line Up
May 17th, 2007Santa Cruz, CA - (May, 2007) The Race against Global Warming announces an exceptional line up of celebrity speakers at the Global Warming Awareness event scheduled for September, 2007. Among those presenting are Fred Keeley, former state assembly member and CA environmental policy maker, Summer Rayne Oakes, fashion model and founder of consulting company, SRO, Simran Sethi, Treehugger.com contributor and host of The Green on the Sundance Channel and Jonny Dubowsky, lead singer for Jonny Lives and founder of Rock n Renew.
The Race against Global Warming combines the trend toward celebrity activism with the growing awareness of the climate change crisis. Joining similar initiatives such as Step it Up, Global Cool and the upcoming Live Earth concerts, the Race against Global Warming provides an opportunity to raise awareness of the issues by presenting them in a positive light. Such events are part of a worldwide movement backed by high profile activists, politicians and business leaders aiming to reverse the effects of global warming over the next decade by offering the incentive, tools and information to help people of all age groups and backgrounds to connect to the cause.
About the Race Against Global Warming
The Race against Global Warming is both an actual race and an online resource center for taking action against global warming. The race is a combination a 5K foot race/non-competitive walk, and Global Warming Awareness Event, featuring live music, celebrity key note speakers, activities and information designed to demonstrate ways to address global warming all year round. The online resource center, raceagainstglobalwarming.com, offers information, a calendar of events, news and resources designed to encourage people to take steps toward reducing their emissions.
Proceeds from this event will be donated to non-profit Stop Global Warming Virtual March. Resources and information are available at the online resource center to assist environmental groups nation wide in bringing the Race against Global Warming to their communities.
Call for Nominations: Focus Awards to Recognize Top Citizens, Companies in Global Warming Fight
April 24th, 2007Portland, OR — Declaring that “We stand a critical moment in human history”, a national educational initiative on global warming today launched the “Focus Awards”. The awards, conceived and managed by a team of students at
“This student-driven project itself demonstrates the kind of leadership this country needs”, said Dr. Eban Goodstein, economics Professor at Lewis & Clark College, and director of Focus the Nation, the group hosting the awards. “Today’s young people have a truly heroic task ahead: they will need to cut global warming pollutants 10-20% per decade. And right now, all across the country, people and companies are stepping up to lay the foundation to make that future possible.”
The Focus Awards will recognize student, religious, and civic leaders, as well as politicians, businesses, and media organizations. Nominations began on Earth Day 2007, at focusthenation.org/awards, and finalists will be announced on July 4th. Following an online vote, winners will be announced in September.
Focus the Nation, the hosting organization, is coordinating a national teach-in on “Global Warming Solutions for .” The events will culminate January 31, 2008, in the form of national symposia held simultaneously at over a thousand colleges, universities, K-12 schools, places of worship, civic organizations and businesses across the country. To learn more, please visit www.focusthenation.org.
Additional sponsors of the Focus Awards include the Association for Sustainability in Higher Education, the Earth Day Network, Clif Bar, Stonyfield Farm, and Native Energy.
Summer Rayne Oakes to Keynote at the Race against Global Warming
March 20th, 2007For immediate release
Summer Rayne Oakes to Speak at Race against Global Warming
The Race against Global Warming is one of many events that are happening across the world to heighten awareness on climate change. “The Race against Global Warming is an event that can be replicated in any community of any size,” says Summer Rayne Oakes. “It not only raises awareness of climate change, but allows members of the community to engage at all levels through positive action and wellness.”
A report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released earlier this year shows that it is more than 90 percent likely that the increase of average global temperatures is principally due to the build-up of manmade greenhouse gases. The reluctance of the
About the Race against Global Warming
RaGW is a community-based 5K walk/run raising awareness and monies for the fight against global warming. The race will feature live music, celebrity keynote speakers and information demonstrating what we can do to address global warming. Proceeds from the event will be donated to non-profit Stop Global Warming Virtual March. Resources and information are available through RaGW to assist environmental groups nationwide in bringing the Race against Global Warming to their communities.
About Summer Rayne Oakes
Summer Rayne Oakes is a model, activist and sustainable business consultant. Oakes joined the Virtual March against Global Warming in 2006 and assists numerous clients, including universities, media, non-profits and foundations in environmental communications and market research revolving around sustainability and climate change. She frequently reports on the youth climate change movement for Energy Action’s itsgettinghotinhere.org, but is most known for her work as a fashion model advocating environmental action and sustainable fashion. She is the face for Levi’s “5-01 Volunteer Campaign” and the “Be Carbon Neutral Campaign” and has been named one of the “Green All-Stars” in the April 2007 issue of Outside Magazine. Her work has also appeared in Vanity Fair, GQ, Lucire, Grist, E Magazine, CNN, NPR and others. For more information, visit gen-s.net.
For more information:
Website: www.raceagainstglobalwarming.com
Contact: Elizabeth Borelli, Race Against Global Warming
Phone: 831-462-1043
Email: Elizabeth@nubiusorganics.com
The Race Against Global Warming NewsRoom
February 27th, 2007here you will find news and resources related the Race Against Global Warming.
