With this year’s presidential election now in full swing, many Interfaith Power & Light supporters are signing a “Climate Emergency Petition” to ask both major candidates to “publicly acknowledge the climate emergency and commit to hosting a summit within their first 100 days in office to formulate remedies.”
The petition, initiated by Climate Summit 2013, will be delivered to the Presidential Debates Commission. You can add your signature here. The deadline is September 14, 2012.
The petition reads, in part:
For many years the National Academy of Sciences has warned that the continued human-caused emission of greenhouse gases would produce more frequent and intense droughts, heat waves, precipitation, floods and other extreme weather events, rising sea levels and ocean acidification. These events would, in turn, generate far-reaching and long-term adverse impacts on our health, economy, communities, and quality-of-life. Although no single event can be attributed to climate change, this year’s weather extremes and the rise in extreme weather our nation has experienced over the last decade are fully consistent with NAS projections and with the science of human-induced climate change. Rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases are among the factors affecting our weather patterns.
     This summer’s heat waves, for example, broke thousands of temperature records. July was the hottest month and May-July the second warmest on record for the lower 48. Colorado experienced one of its largest wildfires in history, and other states, such as Texas and Oklahoma, have witnessed similar massive burns. Essential infrastructure has been damaged, businesses have been impacted, and people have suffered due to the loss of homes and jobs. The Gulf coast and other Southeast and East coast states now also face the threat of increasing severe hurricanes. …
… As candidates for the highest office in the land, President Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney have a responsibility to candidly tell the American public that human-induced climate change is happening and that it is a very serious problem that must be rapidly and meaningfully addressed. They also have a responsibility to lead our nation’s efforts to respond to the crisis.
     We call on both Presidential candidates to act in the best interests of this and all future generations of American’s now by publicly acknowledging the climate emergency and committing, if elected, to hosting a summit within their first 100 days in office to craft a national action plan to rapidly scale up and deploy needed solutions.
