Many of you wrote letters and placed phone calls to your members of Congress in support of the American Clean Energy and Security Act to protect wildlife from global warming, create clean-energy jobs and improve the nation’s energy security. As a result, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill on the eve of the 4th of July weekend. It was a close fight, and every letter and call counted.

While letters were pouring in from real voters like you who want a new energy future, a surprising number of calls and faxes were being sent to undecided lawmakers from phone numbers outside of their districts urging a vote against the bill. Virginia Congressman Tom Perriello received a letter that supposedly was sent from a local chapter of the NAACP, asking him to oppose the measure. On further investigation, Perriello discovered that this letter along with five others purportedly sent from different organizations were all forgeries. It was a fraud that corrupted the very heart of America’s democracy—the connection between members of Congress and their constituents.

In reality, the NAACP recently joined in partnership with the National Wildlife Federation to support passage of the legislation. During their Centennial Convention in July, NAACP delegates recognized the economic opportunities that will flow from global warming solutions, stating in a resolution that “solving the climate crisis can create 5 million ‘green’ jobs that will be in places where they are needed most.”

The fake NAACP letter and other phony messages sent to lawmakers were products of outright deception created by companies such as Bonner & Associates, a lobbying group known to create “strategic grassroots”—an artificial version of grassroots lobbying known in Washington, D.C., as “Astroturf.”

In recent years, large corporate interests have successfully deceived Congress and the public by paying for such Astroturf campaigns. Here is how it’s done: Corporations hire firms like Bonner & Associates, which in turn make up fake organizational names or borrow real organizations’ letterheads, hire professional callers who improperly identify themselves with made-up groups and urge unsuspecting residents to call their members of Congress to oppose important reform legislation that they misrepresent as bad. Bonner & Associates refused to reveal its corporate clients that funded their deception, but the firm has represented a number of big energy companies in the past. Congress is now investigating their activities.

This is merely the latest fraud by the major energy companies to mislead the public. On a recent visit to Prince William Sound in Alaska, I saw scientifically-collected samples that demonstrate much of the oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill remains where it went when it was washed off the surface of the rocks. It continues to damage fish and wildlife habitat and contaminate our food chain. The oiled sound is no longer the pristine place it once was and most of the canneries in the town of Cordova are gone.

When the pipeline and port in Prince William Sound were built, the oil industry promised President Nixon they would have a response team, oil booms and other equipment ready to address any spill that might occur. They didn’t.

In the days after the accident, as the oil spread more than 800 miles through the sound and along the Alaska Coast, Exxon promised to clean it up and make the 30,000 people living in the region’s fishing villages “whole.” They did neither. Instead, Exxon cheated innocent people of their livelihoods. For the next 20 years, the company fought bankrupt fishermen, cannery owners and other innocent victims all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the end, Exxon paid only pennies on the dollars lost. Many of the original victims died waiting; others lost everything dear to them.

There is an often-repeated quote, first attributed to President Abraham Lincoln, that says, “You may fool all of the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.” Well, the executives of big oil along with the dirty coal industry believe they can fool all Americans all the time.

Oil companies will do everything they can to stop the clean energy and climate legislation passed in the House from advancing in the Senate. Once again, we expect a close vote. Call your two U.S. Senators, tell them that you are a real constituent and urge them to pass the bill to protect our world, create millions of new jobs and restore a strong economy built on a domestic energy future. Let’s work together to prove President Lincoln right.

Long recorded in numerous science journals that are accessible only to a few, the fast-emerging impacts of climate change in the United States are now clear. Physical evidence is now overwhelming and made more accessible for all to see thanks to a new report entitled Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States. The report describes an enemy that will wreak havoc on our coastal communities, damage thousands of miles of interstate highways and key commercial ports and energy sources; an enemy that will harm our food production and limit our water supplies. It is an enemy that will cause increased deaths.

As with any enemy that threatens our national security, we must mobilize our best forces to combat this threat. The enemy is global warming, and it has infiltrated every region of our country. How dramatic the impacts will be depends on how swiftly and decisively we act.

The report, authored by a team of 31 U.S. climate experts from 13 federal agencies, provides the best available synthesis of climate impacts in the United States. It is available at www.globalchange.gov/usimpacts.

The report makes clear that something momentous has already been taking place in the polar regions, in circumpolar forests and on glaciated mountaintops throughout the planet. Yet most Americans have little inkling of the enormous risks we are taking by ignoring dangerous climate changes.

When a pot on the stove is boiling over, who would propose turning the heat up further? Yet the earth is clearly “boiling over” with atmospheric carbon dioxide levels at 387 parts per million—36 percent higher than preindustrial levels. The accepted thinking among policy makers, based more on political expediency than on scientific considerations, is that we can continue to allow atmospheric CO2 concentrations to creep up to 450 ppm or even to 550 ppm before we slowly begin to reduce atmospheric concentrations 30 to 40 years from now.

Wishful thinking is dangerous. Yet because of difficult and entrenched fossil fuel politics, this is exactly where policymakers are heading with pending plans that allow the CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere to continue to climb.

Until more Americans demand bolder actions, we will be stuck with slow reductions while the planet is clearly picking up its pace of change.

This is currently true of even the best legislative policies advanced in Washington, D.C., as well as the discussions underway for the upcoming Copenhagen international treaty negotiations to update and replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

The choice we now face is to accept legislation that by every measurement will get us started but will not in itself end global warming fast enough, or to oppose its passage as some environmentalists have suggested and continue to do nothing to address this urgent threat. At the time of this writing, the National Wildlife Federation has chosen to support the American Clean Energy and Security Act as a first-step bill over continued delay. We need legislation that will help America build a clean energy economy with stronger clean energy goals that will create millions of jobs, and we need to protect EPA’s authority to cut pollution from dirty old coal plants faster. But at the end of the day, we need to pass energy and climate legislation so we can work towards a new international agreement to cut carbon pollution.

In ancient times, when cities were the protectorate, watchmen were posted in strategic towers along the outer walls, where they could see great distances and give early warning of an invading army. In this modern world, scientists in the fields of climate, health, and ecology are our watchmen. They have an important purpose: looking out as far as they can see and reporting any danger that may be on our horizon. Our watchmen have been alert and they have spoken clearly about global warming—repeatedly, for decades.

Our duty is to listen to scientists and to take action to avoid the greatest planetary challenge that has ever confronted humankind. A failure to heed warnings today will lead to major tragedies tomorrow. History is bound to repeat itself if we do not change course. You can be the change we need. Go to http://www.nwf.org/globalwarming and sign up to help NWF persuade our lawmakers to act. Together, we must find the courage and determination to confront the malignancy of climate change.

This text is excerpted from Larry Schweiger’s new book Last Chance: Saving Life on Earth, to be released in September by Fulcrum Publishing. All proceeds will go to NWF conservation work.