American Association for the Advancement of Sciences & 17 other science orgs write climate change letter to US Senate

18 US professional science organizations joined together to write a letter to the US Senate about the consensus scientific opinion on climate change:  http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2009/media/1021climate_letter.pdf

To my mind the letter was at least a year late, but at least now it's out there!  I sent it to our two US Senators for Ohio via their email, along with my comments below.  Please feel free to do the same, although calling the DC office is even better!  The staff they work with see it, and it has a greater impact!

Senator,

The most important issue in human history is climate change, as it is literally our existence as a species. The fact that you have no "message topic" for climate change makes me wonder if you are taking climate change seriously.

Evidently, the 18 groups of scientists who sent all Senators the below letter also have concerns about how the Senate is dealing with climate change.  Nothing is more important for humanity than giving the US the strongest negotiating position possible in Copenhagen this December, to ensure that the US is able to get China and India to commit to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions in a science-based manner. 

Yet the Senate continues to dawdle on other issues that do NOT involve the fate of humanity, thereby directly weakening our ability to negotiate a climate change treaty in December that is science-based.

The climate change bills that pass the Senate, and the bills that pass the House-Senate reconciliation process that go to the President for his signature also need to be far more science-based than the House ACES bill. They need to be signed by the President prior to December.

The key quotes from the letter from the scientists are:

"Observations throughout the world make it clear that climate change is occurring, and rigorous scientific research demonstrates that the greenhouse gases emitted by human activities are the primary driver."

"...there is strong evidence that ongoing climate change will have broad impacts on society, including the global economy and on the environment."

"The severity of climate change impacts is expected to increase substantially in the coming decades."

"If we are to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change, emissions of greenhouse gases must be dramatically reduced. In addition, adaptation will be necessary to address those impacts that are already unavoidable."

If you fail to pass climate change legislation prior to December, Senator, you fail humanity, and you fail to win my support after December.