Foundation News

If last year's record number of wildfires, droughts, and extreme heat days, not to mention the devastation of superstorm Sandy, didn't convince you of the dangers of a destabilizing climate, then perhaps the draft version of the U.S Climate Assessment released last Friday from 240 of the country's top climate scientists will.

As conservationists and as parents, we feel an incredible sense of urgency to reverse the climate crisis that threatens the future of our kids’ generation. That’s why we are fully behind the Sierra Club’s new campaign demanding that President Obama make the fight against climate disruption a priority in his second term.

In his victory speech in November, the President invited a national climate conversation. But we need more than a conversation; we need swift, decisive action. With The Sierra Club Foundation’s support, Sierra Club will push President Obama to define his legacy with bold climate solutions and clean energy innovation.

To demonstrate the urgency, this week the Sierra Club launched “100 Days of Action on Climate,” a series of local and national actions focused on bringing climate disruption to the forefront of the national conversation and urging the President to be a leader in the climate fight. During this period -- from the President’s Inauguration through Earth Day -- allies and activists from around the country will organize events ranging from inauguration watch parties in New Mexico, to a national climate rally on Presidents Day weekend in DC, to town hall meetings across the nation.

The Sierra Club has outlined five key actions that the Obama administration must take to curb the country’s carbon emissions and address climate disruption. Like most Americans, we have very little confidence in Congress’ ability to pass anything meaningful. But that’s the great thing about this campaign. None of the specific actions we’re asking the President to take require Congressional approval. The actions include:

• Hold fossil fuel corporations accountable for their pollution. This means adopting and enforcing coal pollution protections and setting water pollution standards that will end mountaintop removal mining, enacting standards for natural gas “fracking,” and finalizing clean fuel standards for vehicles.

• Reject proposals to import dirty fuels and stop the rush of fossil fuel exports. This means stoppings Keystone XL and other tar sands infrastructure, halting expansion of liquefied natural gas export facilities, and new coal and oil export terminals, and increasing US-backed international finance of renewable energy and energy efficiency.

• Double down on clean energy. This means opening innovative financing avenues for energy efficiency and renewable energy and facilitating environmentally responsible leasing and deployment of clean energy generation and technologies on public lands and in public waters.

• Protect communities from future climate disasters. This means releasing national climate resilience plans that help create strong and sustainable communities and holding EPA and FEMA accountable for ensuring equal, appropriate and just federal emergency and disaster response, including better equipping state and local officials to develop and support communities.

• Protect America's lands, air, water and wildlife from fossil fuel development. This means stopping the rush to expand oil and gas drilling, coal mining, and dirty fuels development in the Arctic Refuge, national parks, and on our public lands, and ensuring that lands and wildlife can adapt to climate disruption by protecting large-scale landscapes.

We are, as a nation, slowly beginning to succeed against climate disruption. The amount of carbon released into the atmosphere in 2012 was down to the level of 1992 - twenty years ago. President Obama deserves credit for improving vehicle efficiency standards, creating incentives for clean energy, and passing historic clean air protections. Now we must do everything we can to ensure that President Obama and the federal agencies he leads roll up their sleeves and increase the momentum. We cannot afford to lose a minute in this fight. It’s time that we finally establish our American climate legacy and send a signal to other nations that the US will lead on climate.

When our children and grandchildren look back at the climate crisis, what will President Obama’s legacy be?

Marc N. Weiss

Board of Directors

Peter Martin

Executive Director