From TITUS.ALEXANDER@MCR1.poptel.org.uk Thu Nov 28 16:08:11 1996
Received: from mcr1.poptel.org.uk by mail.slc.edu (AIX 3.2/UCB 5.64/4.03)
          id AA06283; Thu, 28 Nov 1996 16:08:01 -0500
Date: Thu, 28 Nov 1996 21:07:47 GMT
From: TITUS.ALEXANDER@MCR1.poptel.org.uk
Subject: Bill Clinton and the Climate campaign
To: jcoifman@ems.org
Cc: andyman@mail.slc.edu
Message-Id: <1196224927MCR1@MCR1.poptel.org.uk>
Status: R

Many thanks for the news about Clinton's statement in Australia - 
it was not much reported here: I finally found it in the Times on 23 Nov, p 20.
I enclose a letter about Climate Change which we have been spreading to encourage 
people to write to the White house on this issue. It would be good if you could 
forward it, particularly in the US - 
Many thanks
}B}Cy\* --------->SECOND URGENT ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE<----------*/



PLEASE SUPPORT WORLD-WIDE CAMPAIGN TO WRITE TO U.S. PRESIDENT

ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE



You can help to combat global warming by urging President Clinton to

make this his number one issue. 



Several people have said there is no point in writing to Bill Clinton about

climate change because politicians don't pay any attention to petitions.

This is wrong.



It is true that writing letters is not enough, but if you don't write, it will

appear that climate change is not a big issue for people. President Clinton

will only know it is an issue if people write or email, so please act now.



There are many examples where mass campaigns have had an impact.

Christian Aid in Britain recently organised a letter writing campaign to

persuade the Chancellor of the Exquer, Ken Clarke to get the IMF to sell

gold to pay off debts of the world's poorest countries. Clarke took piles of

postcards to the IMF annual meeting to show that he was under political

pressure to do something, and the IMF Board agreed to sell gold and reduce

debts. 



Another example of effective pressure was the world-wide peace

movement during the 1980s, which influenced both Gorbachev and Reagan

to negotiate seriously about arms limitation. Gorbachev recently

confirmed that this movement influenced him. Again, the World Court

Project took five tonnes of individual letters to the Hague support its

case for making nuclear weapons illegal and this influenced the judges to

rule that in principle nuclear weapons are illegal.



The potential dangers of global warming are probably even greater than

the threat of nuclear war was during the 1980s. Cutting carbon dioxide

emissions will be even more difficult than cutting nuclear weapons.

Please do what you can to act now to incfluence the US President, who is

responsible for largest single share of CO2 emissions. 



On Nov 22nd in Australia Clinton called for legally binding targets and

timetables to cut C02 when, but he still faces the most powerful lobby in

the world - the car, coal and gas lobbies at home. Your emails and letters

will give him public support to stand up to these industrial bullies.



Send the following message as soon as possible by email at -

President@whitehouse.gov with a copy to

Vice.President@whitehouse.gov



Send letters by post to -

The President of the United States, The Whitehouse, Washington D.C., USA



Please photocopy and email this letter to as many people as possible to

make this the biggest ever blitz on the Whitehouse. Keep up the pressure

to persuade the President to announce a campaign in his acceptance speech

on 20 January 1997. Keep sending letters and emails to make sure that US

negotiators support a legally binding treating to cut carbon emissions at

the climate conference in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997. 



And don't forget to pass this message on to as many people as possible,

particularly in the USA.



For more details of the climate change proposals, see

www.gn.apc.org/gci/protweb.html

 

This is the letter -



* th November 1996



Dear President Clinton,



Your position as leader of the world's only superpower gives you awesome

responsibility for the fate of all humanity. Many pressing decisions lie at

your door. 



But a century from now you will be judged by your actions on just one

issue: global warming. Vice-President Al Gore has written eloquently

about this issue in his book Earth in Balance. In it he spoke about the

"powerful and determined opposition to the dangerous truth about what we

are doing to the earth." That power has been visible in US negotiations

over climate change and the failure of most Western governments,

including the US, to cut CO2 emissions.



As fellow human beings, we appeal to you, the most powerful elected

leader on earth: act now before it is too late. Decisive political action now

could cut C02 emissions to a safe level by 2045. Politically it will be

desperately difficult. Many vocal vested interests will be against you. But

generations to come will praise your courage if you act now.



The battle to curb global warming is the greatest challenge faced by

humanity. No US President has faced such grave responsibilities. The

political challenge is more difficult than the two world wars and the

nuclear confrontation that followed, because the effects of climate

change appear so slow and uncertain. You will need all your campaign

skills to avert the growing threat of global warming. 



We call on you to commit your Presidency to three simple points -



1)  proclaim the truth about climate change to your fellow Americans and

other G7 leaders, so that they act vigorously to cut CO2 emissions 



2)  support the proposals for contraction and convergence of global CO2

emissions to a sustainable level of 0.25 tonnes of carbon per person

worldwide by 2045



3)  implement measures to cut fossil fuel consumption.



The longer you delay, the higher the price will be, in storm damage,

insurance claims and loss of life. The grain basket of the US could turn

into dust bowls in less than a generation. Those who resist change now

will shout loudest when they suffer the consequences later. New,

environmentally friendly industries will rise silently to replace the noisy

carbon barons. It may take time before people benefit from this kinder,

calmer world. But when it does, they will thank you for it.



You will be remembered as the supreme campaigner who put the survival

of humanity above short-term expediency and saved the world from almost

certain catastrophe.



It is your turn to write history. Or to end it.



Yours sincerely,

@@@