Speak Out: Global Warming Pollution Endangers Us All

by: Eileen

Fri May 15, 2009 at 08:02:48 AM EST

The crisis we face with global warming is real, here and happening faster than most had predicted.

- Virginia communities rank highest in the world in terms of total assets vulnerable to sea level rise.  Virginia Beach is ranked in the top 10 cities in terms of high exposure and vulnerability to climate extremes.
- According to an Ernst & Young survey, the top insurance risk in 2008 is climate change.  Fifty-five percent (55%) of insurance companies in the mid-Atlantic area have stopped writing new policies in Virginia's 19 coastal communities.  
-  Sea level rise, higher salinity and water temperature increases caused by global warming are already having a devastating effect on fish and wildlife in Virginia.  Keep in mind that in 2005, Virginia's fishing industry alone took in more than $1.23 billion.
-  Global warming is already affecting people's health. Virginia is seeing an increasing number of severe heat waves. Warmer temperatures lead to greater smog levels which damages lung tissue, increases respiratory and heart disease and death, and causes asthma in children. It causes spread of illnesses, allergens, mosquito-borne disease like West Nile virus, and food- and water-borne diseases like salmonella.
-  Sea level rise combined with greater storm surges hitting Virginia's coast areas create nightmare scenarios for evacuation efforts, taxing greatly our already sub-standard public infrastructure.

Here's Pierce Brosnan on the same subject:

We're writing to you as parents and Sierra Club supporters to ask you to join us in helping President Obama's administration as they take an important first step to combat global warming and reduce our dependence on dirty coal and oil.

We are going to be testifying at the Environmental Protection Agency's public hearing on global warming pollution in Arlington, Virginia on Monday, May 18th.  With your help we can turn this hearing into a powerful demonstration that our country's future will not be determined by the coal industry and their allies.

Dylan, our oldest son, was born just twelve years ago in 1997, and in his lifetime, U.S. global warming pollution has grown by nearly eight percent.  Now, after years of delay President Obama's EPA is proposing to acknowledge what the scientific community has long known - that global warming pollution threatens us all.  Quickly finalizing this finding will give the EPA both the authority and the obligation to regulate the global warming pollution that endangers children like Dylan and future generations.

WHEN: Monday, May 18th from 9:00 AM until everyone has testified.  Hear from some of the Nation's top experts during an event at 12:00 PM.

WHERE: EPA Conference Center - 2777 S. Crystal Drive , Arlington, VA (map and directions).  The noon event with the Sierra Club will take place across the street in the Potomac Room at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City.

A free shuttle will operate from the Crystal City Metro Stop to the EPA Conference Center and the 9S bus route is very convenient.  Interested in carpooling to the hearing?  Check out our carpool forum.

RSVP: http://action.sierraclub.org/a...

For decades, the evidence has been building that global warming pollution endangers us all.  From the melting Greenland ice cap to the wildfires scorching Australia and the American West, from the bleaching coral reefs of the Caribbean and the Pacific to the sweltering heat waves that oppress our cities, warning signs are everywhere.  We must act now to prevent to the worst consequences of global warming.

There is a solution to global warming, but to achieve it we must focus on the Big Picture: creating a clean energy economy that creates economic prosperity, reduces our dependence on oil and coal, and tackles global warming.  It all starts on May 18th - will you join us there?

Thanks for all that you do,

Keely and Pierce Brosnan

P.S. You can send and receive up to the minute news from the event by following the hearing on Twitter: #nocoal