----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Bill McKibben - 350.org <[email protected]>
To: robert searle <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, 22 May 2012, 17:13
Subject: Fossil fuels vs. Renewable energy.
Why are we giving hundreds of billions to the industries wrecking the climate?
Join the global call demanding that world leaders end all fossil fuel subsidies
at the Rio Earth Summit.
www.350.org/rio
Dear friends,
In just a few weeks, world leaders are converging on Rio for a landmark "Earth
Summit" to talk about sustainability issues -- but it’s time for them to stop
talking and start doing. And we know where they can begin.
This year our governments will hand nearly hundreds of billions of dollars in
government subsidies to the coal, gas, and oil industries. Instead, they should
cut them off. Now.
Cutting fossil fuel subsidies could actually take a giant step towards solving
the climate crisis: phasing out these subsidies would prevent gigatonnes of
carbon emissions and help make clean energy cheaper than fossil fuels.
And here’s the thing: this demand is completely reasonable -- so reasonable
that the leaders of the big countries have already agreed to it. The G20
promised in 2009 that fossil fuel subsidies would be phased out in the "medium
term." But the political power of the corporate polluters scares them, and so
no nation has yet followed through.
If we want real action to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, we need to give
world leaders a people-powered push as the Rio Summit approches -- and that
push starts today with this global call to action: www.350.org/rio
Why focus on subsidies? Well, remember those pictures we took all over the
world a few weeks ago, the ones where hundreds of thousands of people rallied
in places wrecked by the drought, flood, fire, and melt that come with climate
change? The billions in fossil fuel subsidies handed out to the fossil fuel
industry are driving those climate disasters, and it's time for us, and our
political leaders, to conenct the dots. Those billions should be spent
investing in the world we want -- in renewable energy, in efficiency, in public
health and education -- not sent to the corporate polluters who are
super-heating our planet and threatening our future.
How are we going to ensure world leaders make good on their committment to end
fossil fuel subsidies? With a huge global groundswell of citizen pressure. Our
friends at Avaaz, the planetary network for social good, are helping to lead
this fight -- already there are over half a million people signed on. In the
US, hundreds of thousands of activists are pushing for landmark legislation to
remove $113 billion in American fossil fuel subsidies over the next 10 years.
But now we need a truly international effort in the leadup to the Rio Earth
Summit -- which means enlisting you, and your friends.
Click here to sign on and spread the word: www.350.org/rio
After you sign on, please share the campaign with anyone you know who cares
about the future. Or, for that matter, anyone who cares about not wasting their
tax money by sending it to the richest industry on earth.
We’ll deliver the signatures on June 18th when world leaders arrive for the
Earth Summit -- in fact, we've got big plans brewing for some exciting ways to
make sure our message in Rio is unignorable. But first we need you on the list,
so please sign on today.
Onwards,
Bill McKibben for the 350.org team
________________________________
More Info and Articles
* Fossil fuel subsidies: a tour of the data | Environment |
guardian.co.uk go.350.org/M2jtrR
* Jim Hansen - Game Over for the Climate - NYTimes.com go.350.org/M2kHDB
* A Congressional Push to End All Fossil Fuel Subsidies | The Nation
go.350.org/M2kOyR
* Phasing out fossil fuel subsidies 'could provide half of global
carbon target' | Environment | guardian.co.uk go.350.org/M2kWyg
* G20 agrees on phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies (2009) | Reuters
go.350.org/JxDtzj
________________________________
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