2020 Action

Planet Earth is Heating Up Faster all the Time

AUGUST: It does not just seem to be getting hotter; it actually is. Each of the last 11 months was the hottest month globally for that calendar month. This year is on track to break our US and global heat records.   

Until now, most wildfires in Western North America are much reduced at night because the temperature decreases while the humidity increases, thus giving the firefighters a chance to rest. But now, the number of high-intensity fires where that cool-off does not occur, has gone from 6 in 2003 to 67 last year. The human heat death toll is staggering. At this year's Hajj in Mecca, 1,300 people collapsed on the sidewalks and died from the heat.

We need to act now to prevent the looming "hell on earth." Former Pres. Trump has called for "Drill, baby, drill." This will increase our burning of fossil fuels, escalate greenhouse gases, and speed-up the global ‘heat-up’. With the enthusiastic support of VP Kamala Harris, Pres. Biden signed a bill with an estimated $450 billion over 10 years to allow the US to shift from fossil fuels to wind and solar energy. Make your choice as to what seems best to you, then get involved in educating and engaging others to vote.

ACTION: Contact The Environmental Voter Project and join their effort to tell people about the global heat threat, and the critical need to vote in November to stabilize our still livable Earth.

CONTACT: The Environmental Voter Project

• Web:  https://www.environmentalvoter.org/
• Email: [email protected]
• Address: Environmental Voter Project, PO Box 962002, Boston, MA 02196

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

The Threat Posed by Nuclear Weapons is Expanding. What can we do to Counteract it?

June - The world is slipping deeper into the nuclear weapons death spiral. Must we wait for nuclear catastrophe before we decide that nuclear weapons are the ultimate threat to human life? The spread of these weapons, and their modernization, is only making things worse. 

Two House bills H. Res. 77 and H. R. 3472 address these mortal dangers. The first, H.R. 77, opposes the vast costs of modernization planned for the whole U.S. nuclear arsenal. The second, H.R. 3472, calls for the reduction of some programs that were pushed by Pres. Trump but found to be unnecessary by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). We have enough nuclear weapons subs, and enough plutonium pits (triggering devices for H-bombs) for the next 60 years.

ACTION: Urge your representative to co-sponsor H. Res. 77 and H. R. 3472. Now, 54 years after the U.S. committed to work to eliminate nuclear weapons, are we not finally obligated to take these steps?  It's time to climb back out of the nuclear death spiral of human extinction and make life safer for our kids and grandkids.

CONTACT: Your Representative in Congress

• Web: Find their names and links to their websites at house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Representative (first & last name)
  S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Ban Bee-killing Chemicals

May - The EPA is currently undertaking a major policy review concerning regulation of harmful chemicals, including two chemicals that threaten bee populations.  Bees are essential pollinators that play a vital role in most of our food supply and the health of the environment, yet many species of bees are headed for extinction. There is a vast body of research showing that neonicotinoids can cause irreparable harm to bee populations even at low levels of exposure, including brain damage, paralysis, and death.  Chlorpyrifos, a second chemical linked to pollinator harm, is acutely toxic to bees, and to humans as well.  Exposure to chlorpyrifos is linked to increased risk of a range of serious health problems in humans, including autism spectrum disorder, attention disorders, and reduced IQ and working memory in children. Both chlorpyrifos and nicotinoids have been banned or restricted in the European Union, Canada and in several US states.  Unfortunately, a recent EPA ban on chlorpyrifos was overturned in the courts but can be reinstated with more EPA attention to detail.

ACTION:

Bees cannot wait. Their survival, and the future of our food supply, depend on us acting now to get neonicotinoids and chlorpyrifos out of the environment.  There are effective alternatives for pest management that are less toxic for bees, farmworkers, children, and rural communities. Contact EPA Administrator Michael Regan and urge the EPA to ban the use of neonicotinoid pesticides and take the necessary action to reinstate the EPA ban on chlorpyrifos.

CONTACT:

• Email: [email protected]
• Mail:   Michael Regan, Administrator, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20460

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Tell the President & DOE “No on Liquid Natural Gas Terminal in Louisiana”

February - True: Natural gas is the cleanest burning fossil fuel. However, if you add the climate damage done by the leakage of methane, especially at the gas wellheads, natural gas is even worse than coal. 

A 12/29/2023 NYT graph shows the global temperature is not only rising, but at an ever-faster rate. Nearly a quarter of humanity is now living in drought conditions, making even subsistence farming untenable. Rather than waiting for slow starvation, many people turn to migration, creating political instability in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Europe, the US, and many other places. 

Despite this, the Dept. of Energy (DOE) will soon decide if it would be "in the public interest" to allow the construction of CP2, a $10 billion Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) export terminal in Louisiana's coastal marshes. There are 16 other US locations also being considered as LNG export terminals. The President just announced that he has delayed the decision re the LNG terminals. We need to tell the President & Secretary of the DOE that exporting LNG is ’NOT in the public interest.'

ACTION: Tell Pres. Biden and the Secretary of DOE that CP2, the proposed LNG terminal for Louisiana, and all other proposed LNG terminals, are not in the public interest. Exporting more LNG would lower the price of natural gas abroad and cause higher fuel use and higher temperatures worldwide. This will lead to more destructive climate-related disasters, higher global food prices, and higher migration causing political instability and increased conflict.

CONTACT: President Biden

• Web: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/  (leave a message)
• Tel: 1-202-456-1111 (leave a message)
• Mail: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

CONTACT: Jenifer Granholm, US Secretary of Energy  - Email: [email protected]

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Report on World Climate Change & What You Can Do to Help Stabilize Our Climate

December 2023 - In the 2015 Paris Accords the countries of the world committed to cut Greenhouse Gases (GHG) sufficiently to keep the global rise in temperature below 1.5 Celsius or 2.7 Fahrenheit. New research projects that we'll blow right past these levels by 2028.

In the meantime, the U.S., Russia, and Saudi Arabia are each planning to increase their drilling for fossil fuels. Not surprising, in the face of still rising consumer demand for oil and natural gas to power our cars and heat our homes and businesses.

This needs to change. The most effective action each of us can take—bigger than all other actions combined for most households—is to get heat pumps to heat and cool our homes, and to sign up for 100% fossil-free electricity to power them. This is absolutely the most effective thing we each need to do NOW.  It’s time to ask several installers for free bids on how your home would be best heated and cooled by heat pumps. It’s a little more complex than just buying another furnace. When your furnace fails, usually in winter, you want a quick fix, so it helps to have heat pump plans in place. You don't want to panic and buy another fossil fuel burning furnace which will need replacement before 2050 because by then the U. S. plans to be fossil-free. Also, sign up for 100% fossil-free energy now.

ACTION:

Call several local heat pump installers to get design plans and cost bids for a heat pump for your home. There will be a lot of factors to consider. Also, call your electricity provider and ask how you can get 100% fossil-free energy. Please tell your family, friends, and neighbors about this.

CONTACT: Your local heat pump providers & installers, and your electricity provider.

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Stop Congress from Rolling Back Health & Environmental Protections

October - Big corporate polluters and their friends are pushing an extreme agenda as the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate consider the 2024 federal spending plan. Some Representatives are proposing extreme spending cuts to programs that keep pollution in check. The House Republican majority has drafted budget bills that cut non-defense discretionary spending and that include hundreds of “poison pill” riders. Bedrock laws and agencies like the Clean Water Act and Environmental Protection Agency must be protected. Yet, some members of Congress have shown they care more about their corporate polluter friends than our water or air.

In the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, Congress delivered a historic $20 billion investment in farm related climate-focused conservation funding, enabling farmers to adopt practices that build soil health, sequester carbon, and reduce global warming emissions. But now some in Congress want to eliminate or repurpose these funds. We need to protect the $20 billion investment in climate-focused conservation funding passed last year by making this funding part of the 2023 farm bill.

ACTION: Tell your Representative and Senators: 1. say “NO” to spending cuts to non-defense discretionary programs that keep pollution in check; 2. reject all ‘poison pill riders’ in the 2024 budget; and 3. make last year’s $20 billion climate funding part of the upcoming Farm Bill. 

CONTACT: Your Representatives & Senators in Congress

• Web: Find their names and links to their websites at senate.gov, www.house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Senator or Representative (first & last name) S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510
  or U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Say ‘NO’ to Taxpayers Holding the Bag for Nuclear Disasters

September - The Price-Anderson Act was enacted in 1957. It kickstarted the nuclear power industry and has limited the liability that nuclear power companies would pay in a disaster to about $13 billion. The Fukushima and Chernobyl disasters are costing in the hundreds of billions of US dollars. Nineteen of the 93 nuclear reactors in the US are just like the ones that exploded at Fukushima.

Current Senate Bill S.1111 extends Price-Anderson for 20 more years, until 2045! It has been incorporated into the Senate version of the proposed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Nuclear weapons contractors would be exempt from liability even if they are found negligent! Nuclear power producers’ liability would be limited even though accidents could cost hundreds of billions. US taxpayers will be on the hook for most of the costs. We need to make the nuclear power and weapons industries pay for their own insurance and catastrophes!

Other bad parts of S.1111 would allow foreign entities to own US nuclear power reactors and encourage the spread of nuclear materials and technology to other countries accelerating nuclear proliferation. Every reactor makes enough plutonium yearly for multiple nuclear weapons.

ACTION:  Tell your Senators and Representatives NOT TO extend the Price-Anderson Act and to REMOVE S.1111 from the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA S.2226). This will help to prevent the international spread of nuclear power and weapons and keep foreign powers from owning nuclear reactors in the US. It will also keep US citizens from paying most of the costs of future nuclear accidents.

CONTACT: Your Representatives & Senators in Congress

• Web: Find their names and links to their websites at senate.gov, www.house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on his/her website
• Tel: 202 224-3121 (Capitol switchboard-ask for his/her office & leave a message)
• Mail: Senator or Representative (first & last name) S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510
  or U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Thanks to the Nuclear Research Information Service (NIRS) for their assistance with this card.

Natural Gas Is Worse for the Climate Than We Thought

August - Natural gas has long been promoted as a "bridge fuel", to use while renewables are not yet widely in place. The reason is that it burns more cleanly than oil and coal. But a new study published on July 19, 2023, in Environmental Research Letters, states that this "bridge" status is not warranted. The problem is that there are now significantly larger estimates of the climate damages caused by the leakage of natural gas, at the wellheads, all along the distribution pipes, and in our homes. 

We all need to switch from fossil fuels, including natural gas, to fossil-free electricity as quickly as possible to heat our homes and buildings. At the local level, the "low-hanging-fruit" is to change city regulations to prohibit gas lines from being installed in new construction. Instead, electric heat pumps fed by clean electricity should be installed.

ACTION:

Urge your mayor or town manager to move to change your city regulations to prohibit laying gas lines into new residential and commercial construction. Mention that the purchase and installation of electric heat pumps cost no more than gas furnaces and are cheaper to operate. Making these changes is an important part of our plan to stabilize the climate. 

CONTACT:

Your mayor or city/town manager by phone or letter or leave a message on his/her website.

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue.
It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

Support US Arms Control Outreach to China and Iran

July 2023 - The news from Washington about arms control isn't always bad. Recently, Secretary of State Blinken and President Biden have renewed efforts to bring China into arms control discussions. Proposals include advance notification of missile tests, improved crisis communication channels, and committing not to hand over launch authority to an A.I. system but to have a human make the ultimate decision about launching nuclear weapons. Although these proposals are modest, they are absolutely in the right direction and might lead to more substantive agreements in the future. 

The U.S. is also pursuing behind-the-scenes talks with Iran to create a “political cease-fire”. In such an agreement Iran would agree to limit uranium enrichment to 60% purity, halt lethal attacks on American contractors by proxies in the region, and expand cooperation with international nuclear inspectors. In exchange, Iran would receive assurances that the US would not tighten economic sanctions, seize foreign oil-tankers, or seek new punitive resolutions at the UN. These agreements are also modest but might create time and space for future discussions of a renewed nuclear deal. 

ACTION:

The Biden administration may be concerned about the political risks of pursuing these efforts during a presidential campaign. They need to hear from the American people that there is support for such actions. Contact the President and Secretary Blinken to indicate that you support their outreach to China and Iran concerning arms control.

CONTACT:

Secretary of State Blinken:
Web:  https://register.state.gov/contactus/contactusform
Tel: 202 512-1800 (from 8 am to 4:30 pm EST)

President Biden: Web: 
https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/  (leave a message)
Tel: 1-202-456-1111 (leave a message)
Mail:  The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC 20500

Please write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.

EPA Rebuilds Regulations to Clean Up Pollutants from Power Plants

June 2023 - The Environmental Protection Agency has opened a public comment period on its draft proposal to reduce emissions of CO2 and other pollutants from US power plants. The proposal concerns existing coal-fired power plants and new plants powered by natural gas. Over the years, the EPA has issued regulations for fossil-fueled power plants, both existing and new, for both CO2, and effluents toxic to human health. Some of these regulations were canceled by the Trump administration but are now in the process of being reestablished, updated, and improved.

The current proposal combines both regulations and more flexible guidelines for states, cities, and local communities to decide on their best way of meeting the regulations. This flexibility allows for local input from minority and poorer communities, which is where power plants tend to be situated. This means the regulations on how to achieve the standards would be set locally and may include Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) directly from smokestacks, not after the CO2 is in the atmosphere. If a power plant is close to shut down, it may avoid action altogether.

The EPA has estimated the benefits of rebuilding CO2 regulations to include: 

• $85 billion in climate and health benefits over the next two decades
• 1,300 avoided deaths per year
• 66,000 avoided lost workdays per year.

ACTION:

By July 24^th, contact the EPA in support of this proposal by submitting your comment at:

https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/EPA-HQ-OAR-2023-0072-0001

Please send this email on to family and friends and/or write a letter-to-the-editor on this important issue. It is a good way to educate others and build support for needed policies.