Mr. President: 5 Ways to Start Fixing the Climate in 2015

Polar bearsPresident Obama certainly got this right in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday: "No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change."

But it's time for action to match words. Just hours before the president's speech, the Center for Biological Diversity released a statement covering the five most important things he needs to do in 2015 to combat global warming. They are: backing an international plan to end all fossil fuel use by 2050; rejecting Keystone XL, Arctic drilling and other destructive energy projects; strengthening power plant pollution rules; cutting methane pollution from oil and gas production; and banning new fossil fuel leasing on public lands and in our oceans.

"The global climate crisis won't be solved by rhetoric and grand speeches but by hard work and the courage to do what's right," said KierĂ¡n Suckling, the Center's executive director. "As the Obama presidency enters its final chapter, he faces a pivotal choice: finally take the ambitious action needed to stem climate disruption or continue a series of baby steps that will ultimately fail to avert disaster."

Read more in our press release.
2014's Record Heat = We Need a Fossil Fuel Phaseout Now
Dry riverbedAs pressure builds on the Obama administration to back an international push to end almost all fossil fuel use by 2050, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration made a major announcement: 2014 was the hottest year on record.

Rising global temperatures are already contributing to increasing risk of drought and other extreme weather, according to NOAA scientists. A recent United Nations report warns that global warming will create food shortages, flooding of island nations and major cities, and mass wildlife extinctions. The risks will grow as temperatures rise.

At the U.N. climate talks in Peru, negotiators proposed "full decarbonization by 2050." We want Secretary of State John Kerry to support this proposal going into the climate summit in Paris next December. We're also urging the Obama administration to strengthen domestic climate policies, such as an EPA proposal to curb releases of the potent greenhouse gas methane from oil and gas wells.

Help us now -- tell Secretary Kerry to support the "zero by 2050" plan.
Coalition Urges EPA to Curb Airplane Carbon Pollution -- Take Action
AirplaneThe Environmental Protection Agency is finally taking its first steps to reduce airplane carbon pollution because of a lawsuit by the Center and allies. But as the climate crisis deepens, a coalition of groups is urging the Obama administration to move faster to regulate the airline industry's skyrocketing emissions.

In a new letter to the EPA and the Federal Aviation Administration, the Center and other conservation organizations are asking for strong standards to reduce aircraft emissions soon. Big cuts wouldn't be tough: The best U.S. airlines already generate 27 percent less greenhouse pollution than the worst ones, experts say.

In May the EPA will begin determining whether aircraft carbon pollution endangers health or welfare. It clearly does; airplanes are one of the fastest-growing sources of planet-warming gases. But the agency should simultaneously start analyzing how to make airplanes less polluting. Unless it takes that second step quickly, sensible regulations could be delayed for years.

Urge the EPA to act now so that aircraft pollution will be reduced no later than 2016.
Study: Oceans Face Mass Extinction If We Don't Act
Pillar coralA New York Times article on a major new scientific study paints a bleak picture of our oceans' future -- but the good news is, scientists say, we still have a window of opportunity to save marine life.

The new research, published in the journal Science, says humans are having an enormously destructive impact on the health of the world's marine ecosystems -- driving massive habitat loss through warming, acidification and pollution; overharvesting numerous important ocean species; and increasing ship traffic and seabed mining so that more and more species are in jeopardy.

But if we sharply limit human exploitation of the oceans and put a stop to business-as-usual abuse of its resources, we can still bring ocean animals back from the brink. "We do have a chance to do what we can," said study co-author Stephen R. Palumbi. "We have a couple decades more than we thought we had, so let's please not waste it."

Read the article in The New York Times.