Thursday, June 25, 2009

Friends of the Earth Urges NO on Climate Bill


by Stacy Morford for Solve Climate.com

The House climate bill took another hit this week as Rep. Henry Waxman made further concessions, this time to farm-state Democrats, to ensure the bill's safe passage on Friday. Even weakened, though, the bill continued to draw support from most of the big environmental organizations.

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Except for Friends of the Earth. The organization is going it alone with an ad campaign and request to its members to demand better legislation from Congress. FOE President Brent Blackwelder is publicly urging Congress to either substantially strengthen the bill or vote no.

"This exercise in politics as usual is a wholly unacceptable response to one of the greatest challenges of our time, and it endangers the welfare of current and future generations. ... If the ‘political reality' at present cannot accommodate stronger legislation, their first task must be to expand what is politically possible-not to pass a counterproductive bill."

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Water Stress, Ocean Levels to Unleash 'Climate Exodus'

From Agence France Presse

BONN, Germany - Tens of millions of people will be displaced by
climate change in coming years, posing social, political and security
problems of an unprecedented dimension, a new study said on Wednesday.

"Unless
aggressive measures are taken to halt global warming, the consequences
for human migration and displacement could reach a scope and scale that
vastly exceed anything that has occurred before," its authors warned.

"Climate change is already contributing to migration and displacement.

"All
major estimates project that the trend will rise to tens of millions of
migrants in coming years. Within the next few decades, the consequences
of climate change for human security efforts could be devastating."