I timed it - the President received 22 seconds of applause from you during this year's State of the Union address when he mentioned climate change. But what did he suggest? That congress do nothing, that nascent technologies will solve the problem for us. Yet we know from the 18% rise in US greenhouse gasses since 1990 that voluntary solutions will not work (also see Tragedy of the Commons by Garrett Hardin, in Science 1968 or look up http://www.econlib.org/Library/Enc/TragedyoftheCommons.html). Just a further 18% increase above present, an overall 62% increase from the start of the industrial age, and CO2 will tip through the 450 ppm that Dr. James Hansen called Dangerous Human-Made Interference with Climate (370 kB PDF) before Congress in April.
I've written to my senators and reps about this before and received form letters reitterating our failed executive's non-policies. Insufficient. Global warming is the most serious environmental threat facing humanity's fitness for the planet today. Yet, with just weeks left in the legislative calendar this year, Congress has not yet scheduled a vote to cap and reduce America's global warming pollution. If we cannot even record a vote on principle, how will America accomplish this in reality?
Everyone in the world agrees: We must cap emissions at today's levels and then work to reduce them by 30% by the end of the century (Source: http://www.unfoundation.org/media_center/press/2007/pr_22707.asp). This is a tall order, and becomes tougher with each passing day. Even as Congress continues to work towards final passage of energy legislation containing a "down payment" on global warming, Congress must also move forward with legislation to cut emissions of global warming pollutants. This must not be a token effort, unless you are in agreement to consign all humanity and life as we know it to the dustbin of evolutionary history.
As a concerned citizen, and PhD candidate in environmental policy at Texas Southern University, I urge you to do everything in your power to get a bill to the floor in both the Senate and the House this year that at least meets these four criteria:
- Set a hard cap on global warming pollution at current levels and a concrete timetable for reduction to 30% less (or lower, to the extent you think we cannot trust China, India, Indonesia, Argentina or Brazil to meet their global obligations) by 2100;
- Ensure all forms of global warming pollution are covered. To me this includes of course ALL the carbon-containing greenhouse gasses, but also rapacious land use and interlocking systems of suburban-style urban development, and congressional support for the continued existence of enhanced greenhouse producing industries and practices: coal, petroleum, natural gas, automobiles, airlines, pleasurecraft, need I continue? I am not callous: I trust that those with vested interests will enforce proper decommissioning of their industries, ie. plant disassembly and reuse, retraining and redeployment of their workforces in the transition to solar power, etc. (What if we simply turned each subsidy into an equity purchase to hasten transition?);
- Set new standards for environmentally sound cellulosic ethanol from agricultural wastes and other biofuels ie. from food waste: in fact we must eliminate the very concept of waste and turn every former waste stream into a nutrient cycle (see Cradle to Cradle by William McDonnough & Michael Braungart, 2002); and
- Foster real market competition for next generation energy sources, all of which MUST be constrained to humankind's "solar budget": Texas is a great example of this, as wind power generation capacity has topped California's already by 2006 based simply on the consumer demand in the deregulated market enabled by Green Mountain Energy Company (Austin: http://www.greenmountain.com/), though yet far from contributing a significant share of TX grid system power (1 - 2%).
With only weeks left in the legislative calendar, there is no time to lose. You may not have time to pass a law this year, but you must do more to mark up legislation and prepare for floor action.
We have put off the inevitable for too long. We must get global warming policy right and we must do it now. I am with you on this, so don't hesitate to call on me if you need anything (if you like, more writing on this topic can be found by "boxchatter": The Bitter Truth at http://paulsuckow.blogspot.com/2007/09/bitter-truth.html#links.
Heartfelt thanks to you and your staffs for the many difficult and unthankful tasks you are undoubtedly attending to as my representative in the U.S. government. Sincerely, -Paul
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