We know that global warming threatens our way of life.
The
impacts of global warming are now being observed nearly everywhere and
experts predict changes in weather patterns, agriculture and sea
levels will only get worse.
Solving the problem won't be easy;
we need to transform how we use and produce energy, changes that will
affect our lives every day. We are going to need new technology and
politicians willing to move us to a new clean energy future. But
while the scientists and politicians argue about the long-term
solutions and haggle over politics, the one thing we do know is that
we’re ready to start taking action now.
We have a lot of the
tools to take the first big steps today. Improvements to solar and
wind make those technologies cheaper and better than ever before. We
can transform a regular hybrid vehicle into a plug in electric hybrid
that gets more than 100 mpg. We can build buildings that are so energy
efficient they net energy rather than use any energy.
And we’re not just ready, we’ve already started.
On campus, students have been leading the way. Students at UCSC buy
100% of their energy from clean energy sources, ASU has solar panels
dotting its roofs and chancellors at more than 600 campuses have
committed to major reductions in global warming pollution.
Students
have worked to pass transformative legislation, like the Million Solar
Roofs initiative in California, quadrupling the number of solar homes
in the last 3 years, and in Massachusetts students helped pass a bill
that will reduce carbon emissions from power plants and other polluters
80% by 2050.
To stop the worst effects of global warming, we
need to reduce global warming pollution at least 25 % below 1990
levels by 2020. This spring, we’ll educate people across the state
about the technology that we do have to solve the problem, we'll
continue to lead the way by getting these technologies put into place
on campus and in our communities and we will call on our elected
officials to do what they can to cut global warming emissions.
