To the editor,

            While President Global Warming Bush continues to stall efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the rest of the world and most of our country realizes the critical need for action on this, by far the most important issue of our time 

            Bush said Tuesday (April 3, 2007) that despite what we are doing in the United States , China ’s emissions won’t be affected.  The fact is China has far greater fuel efficiency standards than we do, though certainly they need to do more to combat the fast rising emissions there.   But for us to produce 25 percent of the world’s emissions with 4 percent of the world’s population does not give other countries much incentive unless we begin to tackle the crisis.

            And make no mistake, this is a crisis.  It is a “creeping disaster” as Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens called it, that threatens not only the extinction of the polar bear, but up to 60 percent of the species on our planet by the end of the century, according to top scientists.

            It is not only wildlife who are suffering.  Hundreds of thousands of people have died already from climate change, and hundreds of millions are predicted to die this century through increased disease, flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts and sea levels that could rise 80 feet.  It is mostly the poor, who cannot afford to move, who suffer.

            The Pentagon found climate change a much more serious threat than terrorism in a 2004 report by 30-year Pentagon veteran Andrew Marshall.  While bush warns of what would happen if we pull out of his failed oil war in Iraq , the real question is what happens if we fail to tackle the climate crisis.  That will not just bring chaos in Iraq , which we already have, but chaos globally to nearly all life on our planet.

            Join the movement to stop climate change and protect the Arctic Refuge at www.arcticrefuge.org, before it is too late.

Sincerely,

Chad Kister

Athens , Ohio

Kister is the author of Arctic Quest and Arctic Melting (Common Courage Press), as well as the producer of the 50 minute film Caribou People.  His third book, Against All Odds: The Struggle to Save The Ridges is coming out soon.  Kister is launching another month and a half long speaking tour all over the continent nearly all by fuel efficient train April 9 - May 22.