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Help Us Fight Climate Change and Build a Green Economy


  • The President Barack Obama


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We Need You to Fight Climate Change and Build a Green Economy

Dear Mr. President [Decision Maker],

We need you to help protect our coastal communities from the threat of sea level rise due to global warming.

We elected you on the promise of taking strong measures to protect our environment and support a green economy and we are urging you now to keep the promises you made when you were sworn into office. Rather than fighting for the climate change solutions that we desperately need and that will create clean energy jobs, you have recently taken backward steps by delaying the EPA recommended regulation of ozone pollution and by allowing the EPA to miss the promised deadline for new climate-change rules.

Instead of these backwards steps, we need you to move this country forward by investing in new green technologies, creating green jobs, and greening our cities. You have the power to lead our nation in creating a clean energy future that starts with energy and fuel efficiency, advances renewable energy, puts a price on the pollution created from fossil fuels, and ends subsidies of oil, gas, and coal. We need to create sustainable models for climate-friendly communities and cities, and to take the necessary step to respond to the realities of global warming. There is no time to wait.

Climate change is significantly threatening our coastal cities, causing sea levels to rise and increasing storm activities across our great nation, where we have already seen devastating damage from severe hurricanes, flooding, and erosion. We need to only look back to the devastating impact of Hurricane Irene this summer to see that this is a problem that will not go away. After six years, New Orleans is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina. The economic toll of these severe weather events and impacts of sea level rise -- where more than 150 million Americans live -- will be in the hundreds of billions of dollars or more.

Recent studies have shown that global warming is causing polar ice to melt at a faster rate than originally predicted, which will cause sea levels to also rise at a faster pace. We must act now to avert tragedies on our shores. We need you to stand up for all Americans and take preventative steps to reduce the threats posed by climate change. We must work for a cleaner, greener future.

I join others in asking you to take three actions:

1. Support EPA in issuing rules to regulate and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is critical we put these rules in place, as they will help slow global warming, protect public health, and reduce the impact of sea level rise, while helping further advance a green economy.

2. Invest in additional green infrastructure programs that will grow our economy and save money on high energy costs while reducing the CO2 emissions that cause global warming. In that spirit, I support your call for a $26 billion school modernization initiative that can make our schools healthier and greener, putting more money into classrooms.

3. Ask the EPA to fully study the cost and impact of sea level rise to the U.S. if we do not act, and request the United Nations create a global commission on sea level rise and create collaboration amongst nations and municipalities. It is anticipated that the cost will be immeasurable for all Americans, not just those who are on the front lines of sea level rise, storm surges, and coastal flooding. It is estimated we can expect to face trillions of dollars of damage to our coastal cities and ports if climate change is not stopped, impacting commerce and much more.

Sea level rise stands to consume much of the our nation's shorelines and parts of low-lying communities in the years ahead -- in our lifetimes in this century -- if we do not act to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.

Please help us create a greener, cleaner future for all Americans. In turn, we will save our beloved coastal cities and protect our nation -- and the world's -- economy.

Thank you.

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