New Movie Features
Global Warming

 “An Inconvenient Truth,” starring former Vice President Al Gore, opens in movie theaters around the country on Wednesday, May 24. The movie has been hailed as an excellent primer on the major aspects of the global warming crisis and promises to galvanize viewers into action. Please take an evening to catch this important new film.

As you know, the Center is working day and night to curb greenhouse gas pollution because global warming poses an enormous and ever-growing threat to the earth’s biodiversity. Species from the polar bear to Caribbean corals to an Alaskan seabird are threatened with extinction. We thank you for your efforts to date and responses to our action alerts to protect these and other species.

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Report on the impact of your letters last week:

Last week we asked you to write your congressional representatives to support higher fuel economy standards for automobiles and the “Sense of Congress on Global Warming” Resolution that called for mandatory greenhouse gas limits. So far you have sent over 5,100 letters, sending a resounding message to our legislators.

We are sorry to report that obstructionist Representative Don Young, R-Alaska, blocked this important resolution on May 18 after gushing appalling misinformation during the debate. The global warming resolution was ruled out of order and stripped from the bill. But the good news is that several other congressmen, including John Olver, D-Mass., and Wayne Gilchrist, R-Md., set the record straight on the overwhelming scientific consensus concerning the causes and impacts of climate change. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., who introduced the resolution, invoked the plight of the polar bear, and David Obey, D-Wis., suggested that Mr. Young sounded like one of the "charter members of the Flat Earth Society." The Anchorage Daily News carried more details of the debate.

Also on a positive note, thanks in part to your letters, pressure is building on Congress to increase fuel economy standards for passenger automobiles. Senators Feinstein, Snowe and Durbin have announced they will introduce legislation to increase standards from 25 miles per gallon to 35 miles per gallon by 2017 – an important step in the right direction. Scientists warn that greenhouse gas pollution must ultimately fall to 80 percent or less of current levels in order to avoid the worst impacts of global warming. Common sense actions like raising fuel economy standards will move us towards this goal while also benefiting the economy.