Nation's Influentials Send State of the Climate Message to Bush

The Presidential Climate Action Project has posted a statement, open for signature, explaining to the President the urgent need for climate action, and what needs to be done. It's a masterful and inspiring letter that lays out a positive agenda for bipartisan action.

Here's an excerpt that explains why global climate change is more than an environmental issue:

It affects national security by threatening instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world. It is an urgent economic issue in which the price of action is much less than the cost of inaction. It is a public health issue in which the spread of diseases in a warmer world can have devastating implications for our well-being and the costs of health care. It is a humanitarian issue, with the prospect of hundreds of millions of people being displaced by drought, hunger, and coastal flooding. It is a population and quality of life issue, challenging us to find ways for the world's people to achieve and sustain a decent standard of living. It is a moral issue, testing our character and our sense of responsibility to those least able to cope with climate change, as well as to future generations.

And here's another that explains the positive opportunity that climate action presents:

The transformation to a clean economy can open paths of possibility to all Americans, including those the old economy left behind. As the world's leading innovator, we should become the world's leading source of the technologies and products that will help all people in all nations – including our own – achieve dignity, security and high quality of life, while dramatically reducing effects on climate.

There's a lot more, but the bookies are laying down mighty long odds against much of it finding its way into the State of the Union address on Monday night, despite the roster of influential original signatories.

But it lays down a marker for the next person who will occupy the Oval Office.

It is our hope and expectation that when the next President of the United States reports on the state of the union, we will hear that our nation is firmly on the path to climate stability, to a new economy that has learned to prosper within the limits of the Earth's natural systems, to energy independence and security, and to renewed respect for the United States around the world.

Amen.

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