| 1)
Greenland and Antartica are melting. Vice sent two correspondents to
Antarctica to document the unprecedented retreat of the ice caps making it clear
that the situation is dire. There is already enough ice breaking off of
Antarctica to raise the oceans by a meter, and if nothing changes we face
another three to five meters of sea level rise in the future. |
|
| 2)
People are vulnerable. They sent a correspondent to Bangladesh to
chronicle the struggle of residents to fight back against the rising waters
already wiping out their homes and crop lands. |
|
| 3)
There is an entire industry dedicated to climate change denial. There
is no debate among scientists around the world or amongst the most vulnerable
populations that we are changing the climate, melting the ice caps, and raising
the oceans. But in America there’s a whole industry encouraging our politicians
and policy makers to deny science and sow doubt to keep people from
acting. |
|
| 4)
The motivation for inaction is cynical self-interest by those invested in fossil
fuels. |
|
| The
urgency is real. Miami, Norfolk, Brooklyn, and New Orleans are a just a few of
the American cities that would be devastated by sea-level rise. And as Vice laid
out, even while the ice is melting in gargantuan amounts, the industry of doubt
and denial has a stronger grip than ever on our political system. |
| If
that agitates you as much as it does me, then you can help us
out. |
| This
weekend, news broke that Florida’s science-denier-in-chief, Governor Rick Scott,
issued a gag order on Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection to keep
them from even mentioning the terms “climate change” or “global warming” in
official communications, reports, or emails. The state that is ground-zero for
climate disaster in the United States told its top environmental agency not to
even mention the problem in writing. This is a shocking disservice the people of
Florida clearly done for the sake of appeasing fossil fuel special interests at
the expense of the facts. |
| We
need your help to get two of the leading Republican candidates for president
(who both happen to be from the Sunshine State) to call on Rick Scott to lift
the gag-order on Florida’s environmental regulators. |
|
|
