From rising sea levels affecting our coasts to whole species including polar bears being threatened with extinction, global warming is threatening our planet and way of life.  We know that the primary cause of global warming is our reliance on burning fossil fuels to power our vehicles, our schools and our homes. According to scientists there is a closing window of opportunity to take action in order to avoid the worst effects and we have to start immediately.  If this were not challenging enough, we are also in one of the worst economic recessions since the Great Depression and pulling America out of it is most people%u2019s top concerns.

Ego, we must reduce global warming pollution 80% by 2050.  We have the technological know-how to do this.  In fact we can dramatically reduce our global warming emissions immediately.  On a state level and on campus, we have been demonstrating this by improving fuel efficiency of vehicles, making our buildings more sustainable and building clean energy producing wind turbines and solar panels.  With a new Administration and Congress that have been talking about taking action on global warming, we have a chance to expand our work from campuses and the state to America.  And this is what we need to do to pull us out of the economic crisis since the solutions to global warming also will help create sustainable, long-term jobs. 

MoPIRG's Global Warming Solutions Campaign aims to convince Congressman Russ Carnahan to advocate for legislation that will:

We the undersigned ask that you continue to push our country in the direction of energy independence.  We need to reduce Global Warming pollution 80% by 2050. Global Warming is a threat to Missouri and the problems range from increasingly violent storms and crop failure to our continuous reliance on foreign oil. We need to act swiftly in protecting ourselves from these potentially horrible consequences. Please vote and encourage others to vote in favor of:

 

• Requirements for utilities to produce 100% clean energy
• Making all new buildings zero-energy by 2030
• Requiring production of the most fuel-efficient cars in the world
• Increasing public transit by 10% annually
• Investing $142 billion in clean, renewable energy, energy efficiency and public transportation ($62.3 billion in renewable energy, $21 billion in energy efficiency, and $58.8 billion in transit)

 

These policies will help stop global warming, create more jobs, help the economic recovery and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

 

 Thank You. Yours truly,