2020 Action

December 2023: Report on World Climate Change & What You Can Do to Help Stabilize Our Climate

BACKGROUND: 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.

October 2023: Stop Congress from Rolling Back Health & Environmental Protections

BACKGROUND: 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.

September 2023: Say ‘NO’ to Taxpayers Holding the Bag for Nuclear Disasters

BACKGROUND: 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.

August 2023: Natural Gas Is Worse for the Climate Than We Thought

BACKGROUND: 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.

July 2023: Support US Arms Control Outreach to China and Iran

BACKGROUND: 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.

June 2023: EPA Rebuilds Regulations to Clean Up Pollutants from Power Plants

BACKGROUND: 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.

May 2023: How Well Has Delaying Nuclear Diplomacy Served Us?

BACKGROUND: In 1949, in its first action, the United Nations voted in favor of the elimination of nuclear weapons. Being the only nuclear state, the US refused. Then the Soviets managed to get nuclear weapons, and soon after, also the UK, France, and China, to a total of over 60,000 warheads. The threat of the proliferation of these weapons around the world produced the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1970, essentially a grand bargain: those 5 nuclear states committed to negotiate to eliminate their nuclear weapons, while non-nuclear states committed to forgo nuclear weapons. 

The intervening 53 years have yet to see the first negotiation meeting. Now Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea also have them, Iran and Saudi Arabia are making moves in that direction, and the threat of terrorists and criminal gangs getting them is even more terrifying. Clearly, delaying negotiations to eliminate nuclear weapons has not made such negotiations easier. On the contrary, it has made them harder at every step along the way. We need to negotiate nuclear weapons elimination while we still can. The alternative looks bleak indeed. Fortunately, there is a House bill, H. Res. 77, that urges preparatory steps for such negotiations to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

ACTION: Urge your Representative in Washington to co-sponsor this very critical bill, H. Res.77, to address this terrifying threat. If your Representative is opposed to the bill, ask what his or her plan is to protect and save you, your family, and the world. A superpower nuclear exchange would kill the "lucky" ones immediately, and the rest by starvation due to nuclear winter.

CONTACT: Your Representatives

• Web: Find his/her name and link to their website at house.gov; send an email or leave a message via ‘Contact’ on their 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 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.

December 2022: "When can you pay us back? Because payment is overdue."

BACKGROUND: This is the urgent call of a 10-year old girl from Ghana, speaking at the climate change conference COP27 in Egypt. She may live to experience catastrophic climate disasters if we continue to burn fossil fuels to heat our houses, get electricity, run our cars, and fly to vacation spots, while our officials refuse to admit our responsibility for the damages we have caused—and continue to cause—worldwide. But at COP27, a breakthrough deal was reached at the last minute, at dawn on Sunday, Nov. 20, but with very ambiguous language, which was still being written after the vote was taken.

Over 130 out of 193 countries at the conference had demanded payment for "loss and damage" caused by the rich industrialized countries, who put out the vast majority of greenhouse gases (GHG). Of the most populous countries (> 40 million), the US is the richest, and emits the most GHG per person.  At COP27, we refused until the last minute to accept any responsibility for the damages we cause. So much for leadership on climate change, and on human rights.

ACTION: Urge President Biden to publicly accept America's responsibility for the damages we continue to cause. Such an admission may be the critical linchpin for the rest of the world to take action to cut its emissions. In addition, urge the President to set up a commission of prominent ethical leaders, economists, and a balanced group of Republican and Democratic officials, to make recommendations on an ethical and effective path to paying our obligations. As a guide, they could consider this estimate of the damages caused by Americans: (332 million Americans) x (18.5 tons CO2e per person annually) x ($185 damages per ton of CO2e emitted) = $ 1.1 Trillion damages per year.

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

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.

November 2022: Backing Away from Nuclear Armageddon

BACKGROUND: Step by step, the world is heading ever deeper into the nuclear abyss. Nuclear missiles are getting faster, leaving less time for deciding how to respond to what may or not be a nuclear attack. North Korea has built up a formidable nuclear force, while there is talk in Saudi Arabia, Iran, South Korea, and even Japan, about acquiring nuclear weapons. The trend is terrifying. The world needs to act.

As a first step, the US should remove our President's authority to act completely on his or her sole authority to launch nuclear weapons. Recall that General Milley, the former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, felt it necessary to call China to reassure it that the US would not allow then Pres. Trump to go nuclear in his post-2020-election fury, which could have caused China to launch a nuclear response. Now, analysts fear that if Pres. Putin of Russia thinks he would lose his war against Ukraine, which seems very possible, that he, on his sole authority, might launch nuclear weapons. He keeps threatening to do exactly that and has said he's not bluffing.

ACTION: Urge Pres. Biden to revoke the US Presidential power to launch nuclear weapons on the President's authority alone, and to urge Congress to incorporate that revocation into law. 

Also, urge Pres. Biden to call a World Nuclear Weapons Elimination Congress to work toward worldwide nuclear weapons elimination. This would carry out the commitment the US made in Article VI of the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

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

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.

July 2022: Think Ahead to Do Your Part in Getting to Global Zero

BACKGROUND: Clearly, federal, state, and local governments, along with industry have a huge job to do to increase their use of fossil-free electricity and to get themselves off all fossil fuels by 2050. 

But 2050 is coming to us regular folks also, and how do we get ourselves to stop buying gasoline and heating fuel? Switch to electric cars and electric heat pumps to heat our houses. Both cost more initially to buy, but both now have governmental financial subsidies, and both are much cheaper to use over their lifetimes.

The key is to plan ahead now. Furnaces often fail in the winter, almost never in the summer!  So the idea is to get several plans and financial bids ahead of time, so when your furnace fails, you're ready to install your planned heat pump. If you don't do your change-over at that time, you'll want or need to do it at some future time before 2050, when your furnace may still have "years of good life" left in it.

It's similar with your car. As it ages, be aware of electric car options, so when your car needs to be replaced, you'll be ready to buy an electric one. Start now on your way to Global Zero. 

ACTION: Make plans now about your home heating system. It's critical to be able to move quickly if your furnace dies in deepest January with little time to make a fossil-free decision. The idea is to explore and decide now, ahead of time, before you'd be rushed into another fossil-fueled furnace, which would inevitably need to be replaced by a heat pump before 2050. 

Steps:

1.   Do a home free energy audit. Contact your municipality for information.
2.   Then do an energy and insulation upgrade. Government subsidies are available.
3.   Get 2-3 installation designs along with financial bids and testimonials from prior customers. 
4.   Be ready to make the switch to a heat pump and an electric car when needed.

Please forward this email 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 action.