What Clinton really needs to hear about the Climate Crisis

[Andy Caffrey <halcarl@rahul.net>]

  Dear friend,
  
  The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) sent out yesterday a call for
  immediate faxes to the President about US proposals for the Climate
  conference this December in Kyoto, Japan. The following is my modification
  of the EDF form letter. The first four paragraphs are pretty much verbatim
  from the EDF letter. But as you can see, so much more needs to be said. The
  conspiracy of silence must end, and now is the time for you to speak up. I
  urge you to write the President immediately, and get those in your networks
  to do the same. Feel free to distribute my letter.
  
  The time for Climate Action is NOW!
  
  Andy Caffrey, director
  Climate Action NOW!
  P.O. Box 2182
  Berkeley, CA 94702-0182
  
  PS Sorry for any duplicate postings you might have received. This is the
  only posting we will be sending to you unless you contact us. If you would
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  of the Earth First! Journal, send an e-mail to me at
  
  halcarl@rahul.net   (if you send if before Oct. 15)
  ensopro@asis.com  (if you send it after Oct. 15)
  
  And of course, donations to "Climate Action NOW!" are urgently needed. So
  too is your involvement. Let us know if you want some help.
  
  If not now, when? If not us, who then?
  
  ********************************** FORWARDED:
  EDF's request:
  
  To: 	Andy Caffrey
  From:	William Roberts, Environmental Defense Fund
  Re:	President Clinton's Position on Global Warming
  Date:	October 10, 1997
  
  President Clinton and his advisers are meeting this morning to decide the
  fate of the planet, and they need to hear from you!
  
  That's sounds like an exaggeration, but read on.
  
  This morning the President is scheduled to review options from his staff on
  the position the U.S. should take in upcoming international negotiations on
  a treaty to tackle the vexing problem of global warming.  With the U.S.
  responsible for the lion's share of international emissions, the position
  our nation takes will be decisive.
  
  	President Clinton will likely make his decision in the next 24 hours!
  
  	Despite repeated promises made by Clinton and Vice President Gore
  to take meaningful steps to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, EDF has
  been told that the President's advisers have assembled proposals that
  substantially delay any U.S. action on climate to, at the earliest, 2010,
  with some proposals postponing action to 2020 and beyond.
  
  	In addition, even the most aggressive proposals only commit the
  U.S. to "stabilize" emissions at 1990 levels, meaning that the U.S. would
  not promise to actually reduce emissions - a step that must be taken to
  stabilize earth's climate.
  
  	Most importantly, all the proposals provide a bailout provision for
  polluters.  The proposals would  commit the U.S. to limit emissions, BUT
  ONLY if the costs to industry are not too high.  Of course, that means that
  there would be no real limit on emissions at all, since companies could
  continue to emit greenhouse gases above even 1990 levels if costs got too
  high.
  
  	The current proposals would guarantee a limit on costs to
  businesses, but provide no guarantee of environmental improvement for the
  planet.
  
  	Below is a draft letter we would like you to send to the President
  and his advisers urging him to take a strong stand to defend the planet and
  to keep his long-standing promise to control greenhouse gases.  Just edit
  the letter to include your own thoughts and e-mail it back to us.  We'll
  take care of faxing to the President and his aides.
  
  	Decisions on this critical issue will likely be made in the next 24
  hours, so please act right away!  And, thanks for all your help.
  
  *******************************
  Climate Action NOW! letter to Clinton:
  
  
  President William J. Clinton
  The White House
  Washington, DC 20500
  
  Dear Mr. President:
  
  	I am writing to urge to you to keep your pledge to reduce U.S.
  greenhouse gas emissions and to reject staff suggestions that you renege on
  that pledge.
  
  	I understand that your staff have prepared several draft proposals
  for the U.S. position in upcoming global warming negotiations later this
  year in Kyoto, Japan.  None of these options commit the U.S. to reduce
  emissions below 1990 levels, all of them postpone action to 2010 or beyond,
  and all of them include a "cap-busting" provision that could make even
  modest reductions illusory as companies continue to increase emissions
  beyond 1990 levels by simply paying a fee to the U.S. Treasury.
  
  	 As recently as this Monday, you reiterated your support for
  mandatory commitments to bind the U.S. to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
  Yet, all of these proposals would abandon that commitment by allowing the
  U.S. to continue to emit greenhouse gases well above 1990 levels if costs
  get too high. Companies will simply sit back and pay fees to the Treasury,
  while the U.S. contribution to global warming continues to soar.
  
  	Mr. President, I strongly urge you to reject the staff options
  presented to you and to insist that the U.S. make binding commitments to
  reduce emissions WELL below 1990 levels, to do so WELL BEFORE 2010 and to
  make sure that you drop any "cap-busting" escape clause that will destroy
  the incentives for U.S. companies to make innovations to reduce emissions.
  
  	More specifically, I would like you to consider the following
  information, which I discussed personally with Vice President Gore early in
  1992. He said to me that he was very familiar with, and agreed with this
  material and the author, David Suzuki, of the Harvard University-published
  book from which I was first apprised of this material. The book's title is,
  "It's A Matter of Survival," coauthored by Anita Gordon and Suzuki. In the
  book, they cite reports by the U.S. EPA, the U.N. IPCC, and the Woods Hole
  Research Center, which indicated the need for 50-80% reductions of
  Greenhouse Gasses from 1990 levels by the year 2000 or 2005!
  	The book also showed that reports from the energy departments of
  the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain at the same time projected 40-45%
  INCREASES in the emission of these gasses over this same period. Today,
  seven years after the reports were authored, we are indeed emitting more
  Greenhouse Gasses than ever before! This is a crime of VIOLENCE against our
  communities and murder of those citizens killed by Greenhouse
  Gas-induced/exacerbated weather disasters! It is your most fundamental and
  overarching duty to protect American citizens and their property! And so
  far, I can't see anything you have done to fulfill that obligation.
  
  	Cambridge University published a book a few years back,
  "Confronting Climate Change: Risks, Implications and Responses," edited by
  Irving M. Mintzer, which discusses the question of increasing weather
  extremes leading to larger disasters. I quote from page 144:
  	"Some analysts are concerned that persistent, multi-year droughts
  may increase the likelihood of large brush and timber fires. The 1991 fire
  near Oakland, California (which caused more than $3 billion in damages) is
  indicative of the kind of events that could occur with increasing frequency
  as a result of accelerated greenhouse warming."
  	Well, Mr. President, I went through that fire. I lost everything I
  own during that horror from Hell. Our house was turned into four inches of
  powder by temperatures which reached 2000 degrees!. My life (and my brain)
  have been forever changed by that horrific event, because I now suffer from
  post-traumatic stress disorder, which is a permanent change in brain
  chemistry, the same condition which has produced more Vietnam veteran
  deaths by suicide, than the total number of US soldiers killed during the
  entire Vietnam conflict itself.
  
  	This traumatic ailment, which causes me to have weekly
  hallucinations, and which has destroyed my ability to rejoin the work
  force, was caused by the firestorm, and, as I now believe, the firestorm
  was caused by Global Warming and those traitorous government leaders and
  corporate executives who made sure we would do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to reduce
  the sales of petroleum and the profits of the oil and automotive industry
  (according to Tim Wirth and other officials in your administration, we have
  yet to pass a single law to assure emissions reductions) . Many studies now
  indicate that Greenhouse-Gas-induced climate change began around 1976. If
  that is in fact the case, then I think it is quite reasonable to believe
  that the Oakland Firestorm holocaust itself was caused by Global Warming.
  	So, for me, I look upon Global Warming as a National Security issue
  of the highest and most urgent concern. And the traitors are still in
  power. Are you one of them? Is Vice President Gore? As Commander-in-Chief
  it is your duty to call for an immediate war effort, an effort to defend
  the property and lives of all Americans, to pursue the goal of achieving
  the reduction targets of the three reports mentioned in Gordon and Suzuki's
  book.
  	To do anything less would be an act of treason against the American
  People, and especially to the inevitable climate casualties which are NOW
  piling up around us. As you look at Acapulco, please contemplate on the
  parallel threat to OUR nation's people, farms and wildlands. Anything from
  you less than a call for sustained, emergency action would be evidence that
  you are cavorting with the enemy, those who become wealthy from the
  continued burning of fossil fuels-in four words, I mean the OIL INDUSTRY
  and the AUTO INDUSTRY (of course, they have too many allies to list).
  
  	As far as I'm concerned, inaction would be equivalent to our
  patriot founders allowing British spies unimpeded access to our towns,
  forests and farmlands to commit acts of arson. The effect is the same. As
  you travel this winter to the locations of the upcoming flood, hurricane,
  and blizzard disasters of the coming months, and look into the eyes of the
  ravaged victims of these subversive Oil Industry weather conspiracies, I
  hope you will reflect upon the fact that these people's lives will have
  tragically changed forever, no matter how much "disaster relief" you can
  drag out of Congress.
  	For there is no such thing as disaster "relief." These disasters
  are acts of insidious torture, which will scar their victims forever. These
  people are the climate change POWs and MIAs of your era. Don't be a
  Benedict Arnold, Mr. President. Do your duty. As the late, great Edward
  Abbey wrote, "Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul."
  
  Terrified of American Acapulcos,
  
  
  Andy Caffrey, director
  Climate Action NOW!
  PO Box 2182
  Berkeley, CA  94702-0182
  
  cc:
  
  Robert Rubin, Secretary of the Treasury
  William Daley, Secretary of Commerce
  Gene Sperling, National Economic Council
  Katherine McGinty, Council on Environmental Quality
  Todd Stern, White House Staff Secretary
  
  Andy Caffrey, director, Climate Action NOW!
  P.O. Box 2182, Berkeley, CA 94702-0182
  halcarl@rahul.net      http://www.imaja.com/change/can/can.html
  "If things get any worse than this, we'll have to do something"
  "They say the world is run by those who show up"