GREENBELT TOWN HALL MEETING
NOVEMBER 7, 2007, 7:00 PM
Have to Act Now to Solve Global Warming
“Humans beings are now carrying out a large scale geophysical experiment of a kind that could not have happened in the past nor be reproduced in the future. Within a few centuries we are returning to the atmosphere and oceans the concentrated organic carbon stored in sedimentary rocks over hundreds of millions of years.”
(This quote come from a 1957 paper where scientists Roger Revelle and Hans Suess warned that the growing quantity of CO2 contributed by our burning of fossil fuel might cause global warming over time.)
Today, 50 years later Chris Barnet, Ph.D., an atmospheric scientist,
will deliver a talk and slideshow presentation showing just how we know this is true, and what we can do about it. Afterwards several climate change scientists will will be part of a panel to answer your questions.
SPEAKERS: Christopher D. Barnet, Ph.D. – Atmospheric scientist will talk and present a slideshow presentation entitled “Understand Global Warming: Where does it come from? What can you do?”
Brad Heavner – State director of Environment Maryland, who will tell us how we can let our Governor and MD General Assembly know that we want strong legislation.
Paul Pinsky, Maryland State Senator, who plans to introduce a Global Warming Solutions Bill into the General Assembly early next year will speak about the specifics of this legislation.
Mayor J. Davis of the City of Greenbelt will speak on how Greenbelt is part of the solution to global warming.  She is in her seventh term on the Greenbelt City Council. . She is the council liaison to the Friends of the Greenbelt Museum and to the Anacostia Trails Heritage Area Board of Directors. Presently Davis is the council's representative to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) Board of Directors. In 2005, she was elected Chair of the COG Board and served for one year. Davis is a member of COG's Chesapeake Bay Policy Committee which she has served on since its inception. Currently she is the committee's vice chair. She is COG's liaison to the Advisory Board of the Institute of Regional Excellence and has been appointed to COG's Ad Hoc Elected Officials' Green Building Committee and the Climate Change Steering Committee. Panel of Climate Change Scientists and Elected Officials will answer your questions and give you an opportunity to present your points of view. |
Dr. Barnet is an atmospheric scientist who has spent his career advancing the remote sensing of atmospheres from space. In his early career he studied the outer planet’s atmospheres (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) using ultraviolet, visible, and infrared instruments aboard NASA’s Voyager spacecraft and the Hubble Space Telescope. Since 1995 he has worked on terrestrial remote sensing using advanced infrared and microwave instruments including NASA’s Advanced Infrared Sounder (AIRS), NOAA’s Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), and the recently launched European Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI). He strives to exploit these space missions to provide accurate temperature trends, a better understanding of moisture feedback mechanisms, and measurements of atmospheric concentrations of ozone, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane in the free troposphere. Through the collaborative effort of many scientists these measurements will significantly contribute to the understanding of the terrestrial carbon cycle and climate change over the coming decades.
We all want clean air, clean water and open spaces. But it takes independent research and tough-minded advocacy to win concrete results for our environment, especially when powerful interests stand in the way of environmental progress. That's the idea behind Environment Maryland. We focus exclusively on protecting Maryland's air, water and open spaces. We speak out and take action at the local, state and national levels to improve the quality of our environment and our lives. Brad was the state director of Maryland PIRG, the former home of Environment Maryland, from 2003-2006. From 1996-2003, he conducted and directed research at the Frontier Group, the think tank of the national network of state PIRGs. He developed specialties in growth management, energy policy, and campaign finance reform while at the Frontier Group. Prior to his work with the PIRGs, Brad was a broadcast journalist. He holds a B.A. from the University of Michigan, where he studied Chinese and physics.
He was elected to the Maryland Senate in 1994 after serving two terms in the House of Delegates. He serves on the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee where he is an outspoken voice on behalf of strong environmental protections and health care reform. Senator Pinsky also serves as chairman of the Education Subcommittee and co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive, & Legislative Review. He represents the 22nd district in Prince George’s County where he lives with his wife, Joan, and two daughters, Sarah and Laura.Dear Citizen,
Please copy and print out this letter to Governor O'Malley and ask your mayor in Maryland to sign on support for the Maryland Global Warming Solutions Inititive.
Dear Governor O'Malley,
We, the undersigned elected officials of Prince George's County, are writing to urge you to support the Maryland Global Warming Solutions Initiative. This policy would commit Maryland to science-based levels of reductions in global warming pollution.
Scientists recognize a global warming "tipping point." If the average global temperature increases more than 2°C (3.6°F), we are likely to lose major ice masses in Greenland and West Antarctica. That would lead to impacts that are unpredictable and potentially catastrophic, such as sea level rise of 23 feet and a disruption of oceans currents that have existed for millennia.
In order to avoid the worst impacts of global warming, scientists predict we must reduce pollution by 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.
Fortunately, we know all the necessary first steps. We can meet the 2020 target with technology available right now if we get to work immediately.
Maryland's Shoreline
With 3,100 miles of tidal shoreline, Maryland is at great risk from flooding and coastal erosion. According to a report by the Maryland Emergency Management Agency, Maryland has the third most vulnerable coastline to sea level rise—behind Louisiana and southern Florida. In the past century, one foot of sea level rise has already led to the loss of 13 islands and thousands of acres of coastal land. If left unchecked, global warming is expected to bring another two feet of sea level rise in the next 100 years and much more thereafter.
Sea level rise is particularly damaging during storm surges. Scientists predict that hurricanes will be more frequent and more intense due to global warming.
Recently, several insurance agencies informed thousands of residents on the Eastern Shore that they will not renew policies because of the increased risk. Hurricane Isabel gave us a glimpse of the impact a powerful hurricane can have on our shores. Global warming will only make this worse.
Human Health
Our warming climate allows an increase in the spread of infectious diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever. Maryland was one of the first states to suffer cases of West Nile Virus. Doctors at the Harvard Medical School have linked recent U.S. outbreaks of many of these diseases to climate change.
Heat waves can also lead to widespread loss of life. In one report, the EPA cites a study that says that increased heat waves from global climate change could increase deaths in Baltimore from heat stress by 50%.
Environmental Justice
Global warming is fundamentally an issue of human rights and environmental justice that connects the local to the global. With rising temperatures, human lives—particularly for people of color, low-income households, and Indigenous communities—are affected by compromised health, financial burdens, and social and cultural disruptions. Low-income households are least likely to be able to afford air conditioning, making them vulnerable to heat related illness and death from summer heat waves.
People of color in urban areas have the highest rates of asthma in the country. High temperatures exacerbate summer smog, leading to more code-red smog days and more asthma.
Continuing Maryland's Progress
Maryland has begun to make significant strides toward reducing its emissions of global warming pollution, joining other states in the Northeast and across the country in efforts to reduce global warming pollution from power plants and to increase our use of clean, renewable energy. But the challenges posed by global warming are large, and the need for additional action to reduce emissions is immediate. Thankfully, many technologies and policy tools exist that could enable Maryland to cut its emissions of global warming pollutants, including energy efficiency, renewable energy, green buildings, biofuels, and more.
Economic Opportunity
Many of the solutions to global warming will create positive economic benefits. We should view the greenhouse gas crisis as much as an opportunity as a burden.
Investing in technology that uses less fuel will save money while reducing pollution. Continuing to waste energy unnecessarily by failing to capitalize on energy efficiency opportunities is poor policy. We must turn over every stone to find places to reduce energy use.
Global warming solutions can also stimulate economic activity directly. Companies hire people to install solar panels and energy efficient windows. More jobs are created per megawatt of wind power than at natural gas power plants, at comparable cost. Maryland is well positioned to be a leader in clean energy with an educated workforce and good experience in high technology industries.
The Global Warming Solutions Initiative
The Global Warming Solutions Initiative sets us on course to keep emissions of the pollutants that cause global warming below the threshold that would likely cause catastrophic changes to the climate.
The Global Warming Solutions Initiative is simple. It would commit the state to the levels of reductions that scientists tells us that we need to meet to avoid the worst impacts of global warming – 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. It also would create a cap-and-trade system to ensure this is implemented in the most economical way.
We, the undersigned elected officials of Prince George's County, strongly urge you to support the Global Warming Solutions Initiative.
Add your name, title, and contact info, and return to Annie Sanders at annie.sanders@mdsierra.org, or 7338 Baltimore Ave. #101A, College Park, MD 20740
We are going to deliver these letters to the Governor on November 3rd.
Greenbelt Town Hall Meeting Presented by:
Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Greenbelt, Maryland Chapter
Co-sponsored by:
Peace and Justice Coalition of Prince Georges County
Beaverdam Creek Watershed Watch Group
Chesapeake Education Arts Research Society
Environment Maryland
Maryland League of Conservation Voters Education Fund
Sierra Club, Prince Georges County Group
Compassion Over Killing
Visit the above organizations' exhibits at the event for more Information on their work.
Directions to Greenbelt Elementary School
Greenbelt Elementary School 66 Ridge Road Greenbelt, MD 20770 Head southeast on Capital Beltway/I-495 S/I-95 S Take exit 22A for Balt/Wash Pkwy N toward Baltimore Merge onto MD-295 N Exit onto Greenbelt Rd/MD-193 W toward Greenbelt Turn right at Southway (signs for Washington/Balt./Wash. Pkwy.) Turn right at Ridge Rd
Contacts:
Steve Kane, 301-437-8814 sr.kane@verizon.net
Claire Douglas, 301-891-6833 claire@chesapeakeclimate.org
www.chesapeakeclimate.org
Contact Steve Kane