Today, Wednesday, December 1, is the third day of a 12-day climate change summit in Cancun, Mexico. Representatives from almost 200 countries have gathered to build on last December's climate change summit in Copenhagen.
While last year's summit was a major disappointment in that the nations of the world failed to bind themselves to reduce carbon emissions, the meeting did at least result in a nonbinding agreement to take steps in the right direction.
Part of the "Copenhagen Accord' was a pledge by the richer nations to raise $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poor countries adapt to the effects of global warming, protect their forests, and pay for greener technologies that would lower their greenhouse emissions.
Clearly, such help is needed. Extreme weather conditions that contributed to last summer's unprecedented fires in Russia and unprecedented floods in Pakistan caused great human loss and damage to agricultural productivity. Forests in poor nations are rapidly disappearing as growing numbers of poor people have no choice but to cut down trees for cooking and warmth. And these countries have scant resources to invest in greening their economies. They need our help.
So I invite you to join with me and with thousands of others in a national effort to urge President Obama to become a true global climate leader. We must insist that the U.S. keep its climate promises to the poorest peoples of the world. Even though the percentage of climate change deniers in Congress will jump in January when the new Congress is seated, President Obama must speak strongly and insist that the U.S. and the other rich nations fulfill the commitment made last year to help the world's poor.
Today is a national call-in day to the White House. Please add your voice between 10 am and 5 pm EST. The main switchboard line, 202-456-1414, is the number at which you're more likely to reach a real person. Or you can also call the White House comment line at 202-456-1111. At that number you will reach a recording, and you can leave a message.
Below is a sample script. But feel free to add your own comments when you call:
"My name is ____________________ and I'm from state or organization . I'm calling today to tell President Obama and his administration that we need him to be a global leader for the global climate movement.
President Obama must show leadership at the Cancun climate talks by:
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