December Fair Climate Newsletter

The Fair Climate Connection
December 16th, 2011 

Happy Holidays to Everyone!  

The Fair Climate Connection has a new look and feel, but you can expect the same news, updates and action alerts from the NWF and from each of you across the Fair Climate Network.

Submit a story, event or alert to rohrbachk@nwf.org.

In this Issue


Continued Efforts to Protect the Clean Air Act
by Corey Vezina 

The Clean Air Act, under the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), serves as a defender against air pollution that threatens our lakes, forests, wildlife, and the health of our nation.  Yet for all its merit, Congress voted more than 80 times this year, to undermine EPA’s Clean Air Act authority to reduce harmful air pollution.  Even with these challenges, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has worked diligently with our allies to defend this critical tool and will continue to do so in 2012.

Key accomplishments include:

  • More than 320 hunting and angling groups came together to ask Congress to support strong Clean Air Act standards such as the new limits on mercury and toxic air pollution from power plants.
  • NWF has lead the way in forming a coalition in support of new EPA rules aimed at reducing carbon pollution from vehicle tailpipes.   These new emissions standards will help reduce carbon pollution in the US transportation sector by more than one-third.

Work to be done in the New Year;

  • NWF is gearing up to take the lead again in support of EPA standards to limit carbon emissions from new and existing power plants under the Clean Air Act.
  • In anticipation of Congress rolling back existing and proposed standards to reduce harmful air pollution, NWF is preparing to rally support in defense against future attacks on the Clean Air Act.

Learn more about our efforts here.


Tribal Leaders Tell Obama: “No Keystone KXL”
by Peter LaFontaine 

During the first week of December, Tribal leaders from across North America cameJohn Yellow Bird Steele, Oglala Sioux Tribe at press conferencetogether in Washington, DC to make their case against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline to President Obama.

National Wildlife Federation, in partnership with the Indigenous Environmental Network and the Natural Resources Defense Council, organized a press conference and meetings for Tribal leaders with federal agencies and members of Congress. The capstone to the week was a personal meeting with President Obama, part of the White House Tribal Nations summit. Their message? Keystone XL and tar sands are the wrong choice. Read more about the meeting here.

Tell Congress and President Obama to stick up for people and wildlife, and stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.


New Report: Americans Link Extreme Weather to Climate Change

The Yale Project on Climate Change Communication recently released a new report on American’s Climate Change and energy beliefs, attitudes, policy support and behavior:“American’s Global Warming Beliefs and Attitudes in November 2011” . The reports findinfs included 65 percent of those surveyed said that global warming is affecting weather in the United States. Majorities said that global warming made the following events worse in 2011:

  • The record high summer tempatures in the U.S.
  • The drought in Texas and Oklahoma
  • The Mississippi River Floods in the spring
  • The record snowfalls in 2010 and 2011
  • Hurricane Irene

Read the full report here.


Sign-On Letter: Support the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act

Join NWF and the Outdoor Alliance for Kids and sign-on to our letter to Congress in support of the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act.  NWF believes that the policies proposed by the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act will advance our collective efforts to reconnect children, youth and families with the natural world, while improving our children’s health, supporting economic growth and strengthening the future of conservation in American.  The legislation would acheive these goals by:

  • Directing the President to develop and inter-agency federal strategy and action plan to connect children, youth and families with the natural world;
  • Encouraging states to develop similar state-based strategies that incorporate public health, parks and recreation, transportation and other initiatives at the local level; and
  • Supporting research documenting the health, conservation, and other benefits of active time spent outdoors in the natural world.

The legislation encourages solutions that include connecting communities with green spaces, providing opprotunities for outdoor recreation, engaging in the health community to educate parents and caregivers and much more.  We believe that the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act’s focus on health and recreation solutions will be an excellent complement to the No Child Left Inside Act’s systematic approach to getting environmental education back in our nation’s schools.  You can read more abuot the legislation and view the organizational sign-on letter here.


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About the Fair Climate Network: NWF’s Fair Climate Network is working to widen the national network of leaders representing underserved communities in order to forge connections to each other, resources, and decision makers in an effort to advance equitable and just solutions to climate change that protect wildlife for our children’s future. Learn more here.