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| Some green groups wants Obama to do much more on climate change: Photo credit: Pete Souza / The White House via Flickr. |
By Anders Lorenzen
Barack Obama is the US President credited with having done the most to address climate change. He has also set up the first ever legal instrument for regulating power plants. Yet some green leaders are not impressed. They want more.
In a publicly published letter, leaders from well- know green organizations, such as Rainforest Action Network and Friends of the Earth US, have signed the letter which calls for ambitious climate action. Addressed to President Obama, the letter says that this is a crucial moment for his climate legacy, before stating: ‘’More than four years ago, you received an open letter from some of the nation’s top planetary protection leaders, urging you and the president of China to publicly declare a global climate emergency by committing our respective nations to 80% carbon cuts by 2020.’’
The letter concludes, that since that goal has not been met, the only option is for the President to take drastic action now. And it states: “Because that urgent call was not heeded, we have lost precious time in the race to save civilization and must now set our sights even higher. It is with a deepening sense of dread over the fate of humanity, that we call on you today to use the powers of your presidency to champion a U.S. goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.”
Yes, you read it correctly, this letter wants the world’s second largest emitter to not only go zero carbon, but to do so during the next decade, by 2025.
Currently, the only industrialized country which has so far pledged to go zero carbon is tiny Denmark, with its population of 5.5 million. However, Denmark has pledged to do so by 2050, 25 years later than the letter argues that the US should.
The letter also had a few words to say about Obama’s current climate policies: “the current weak U.S. target of 26-28% carbon cuts by 2025 cannot be described as honest, courageous or responsible in the face of a crisis that threatens the continued existence of humanity. To pretend otherwise is to recklessly gamble with the fate of future generations.”
The initiator of the letter, Tom Weis, president of Climate Crisis Solutions, stated, “Photo
ops in Alaska will not salvage President Obama’s climate legacy. Climate leaders fight for all
that we love, not for all-of-the-above.”
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