Catastrophic climate change is the most urgent challenge we face. The concentration of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere caused by the burning of fossil fuels have increased dramatically in this century, trapping heat in the atmosphere. In the last fifteen years we have experienced the ten hottest years on record. Antarctica is losing roughly 36 cubic miles of ice every year, and the arctic glaciers of Greenland are melting at a rate twice as fast as five years ago, contributing to rising sea levels. The number of Category 4 and Category 5 hurricanes nearly doubled in the last 30 years.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, "The world's leading climate scientists project that during our children's lifetimes, global warming will raise the average temperature of the planet by 3 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit - a shift that will rival the change in temperature since the last ice age"

The Bush administration and Congress continue to reject meaningful action to reduce global warming pollution. America produces one-fourth of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions, yet we have not joined the Kyoto Protocol. Kyoto expires in 2012 and the United States must join the nations of the world in a post-Kyoto
agreement. As leading climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer said recently in the New Yorker, "If we don't get a serious program in place for the long term in this post-Kyoto phase, we will simply not make it. We will be crossing limits that will basically produce impacts that are unacceptable.”

We need to return to being good citizens in the world. And we need to start to rebuild the country the current administration has wreaked so much havoc on. We must cap emissions of carbon dioxide from power plants, industrial facilities, and transportation fuels, use more efficient appliances to reduce our electricity needs, phase out old coal-burning power plants and replace them with cleaner plants, and increase our use of renewable energy sources such as wind and sun. We must reduce pollution from cars and light trucks of all sizes, particularly SUVs.

We must create incentives to support research and production of alternative energy sources. There are many ways to do this, such as tax incentives and grants, programs, projects, contracts. We need to re-channel the tremendous productive capacity of the country from a war economy and return that money to rebuilding the U.S. and preparing for the future.

With real leaders in government, we will support innovation that will not only help ward off the threat of annihilation from global climate change, but also set off a new economic growth sector. The computer age grew out of the research for the space program. We need that kind of effort now focused on redirecting this country toward a survivable, peaceful, prosperous future.