The effects of global warming threaten residents of New Jersey as well.  As a coastal state, New Jersey faces significant risks from the dangers of global warming.  Rising ocean levels caused by the melting of polar ice caps threaten to push our shorelines inward, literally washing away shorefront property. New Jersey has also been the victim of intensified and more frequent storms, which scientists claim is one of the expected effects of climate change.

Unfortunately, there are still people who refuse to believe the science.  The opinion pages of our newspapers are littered with disinformation and misinformation disseminated by skeptics who refuse to acknowledge the extent of global warming.  Many conservatives clearly don’t want to address the threat of global warming, because to do so would lead to increased environmental regulations and reduced corporate profits for the coal and oil industries.  And the federal government has even gone so far so to place restrictions on what their climate, weather and marine scientists can say to the media or in public.

Recently, New Jersey's Legislature passed Assembly Bill 3301, which establishes a greenhouse gas reduction program and attempts to reduce New Jersey's greenhouse gas levels to their 1990 level by the year 2020.  At the federal level, the Sanders-Boxer Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act (S. 309) and the Waxman Safe Climate Act (HR. 1590) seek to fight global warming by reducing emissions and promoting the use of clean, efficient, renewable energy sources.

You can help: write a letter to the editor of newspapers expressing your support for these critical pieces of legislation, and contact your representatives in Congress and ask them to support these bills.

Actions:

• Go to our NJ Media Corps Online Action Center to contact local or state media:

• In your letter, use some (not all) of the talking points below.  Two or three is a good number.  Keep your letter short and to the point. For more background, see the articles and research linked at the end of this page.

3. Visit http://ga3.org/campaign/adv_earth_day_2007 to urge your members of Congress to help stop global warming by supporting the Sanders-Boxer Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act (S. 309) and the Waxman Safe Climate Act (HR. 1590).

Good luck and hope to see you in print!

Talking points:

• The effects of global warming are already impacting our planet. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), "At continental, regional and ocean basin scales, numerous long-term changes in climate have been observed. These include changes in arctic temperatures and ice, widespread changes in precipitation amounts, ocean salinity, wind patterns and aspects of extreme weather including droughts, heavy precipitation, heat waves and the intensity of tropical cyclones." [IPCC]
• According to the IPCC, "Global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750 and now far exceed pre-industrial values determined from ice cores spanning many thousands of years. The global increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land use change, while those of methane and nitrous oxide are primarily due to agriculture." [IPCC]
  
• Global warming is primarily caused by carbon dioxide and other air pollution, which collects in the atmosphere like a thickening blanket, trapping the sun's heat and causing the planet to warm up. Coal-burning power plants are the largest U.S. source of carbon dioxide pollution; automobiles are the second largest source. [NRDC]
• "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level." [IPCC]
• Over the past 50 years the average global temperature has increased at the fastest rate in recorded history.  The 10 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1990. [NRDC]
• New Jersey faces an increased risk, since rising sea levels will lead to coastal flooding on the Eastern seaboard.  [NRDC]
• The United States is the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions among the world's countries.  Our nation produces 25 percent of the carbon dioxide pollution from fossil-fuel burning, even though we account for only 4% of the world's population. [NRDC]
• In Senate Bill 2114 and Assembly Bill 3301, the NJ Legislature "declares it is in the public interest to establish a greenhouse gas reduction program with the goal of reducing the level of greenhouse gas emissions in the State to below the 1990 levels of these emissions by the year 2020." [njleg.state.nj.us]
  
• The Sanders-Boxer Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act (S. 309) would amend the Clean Air Act to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide. [thomas.loc.gov]
  
• The Waxman Safe Climate Act (HR. 1590) would reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to protect our climate. [thomas.loc.gov]

Important Links:

Articles:

Forum brings home climate-change issue
Home News Tribune Online 04/15/07, By REBECCA LERNER, STAFF WRITER

http://www.thnt.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007704150480

Global warming targets may not be met
BY MICHAEL RISPOLI, Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 05/23/07
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070523/NEWS0301/705230501/1008

What the world – and Rutgers – can do about global warming
By Ken Branson and Michele Hujber, February 21, 2007
http://news.rutgers.edu/focus/issue.2007-02-20.0978858197/article.2007-02-21.3940268950

Climate and Ocean Scientists Put Under New Speech Restraints
Any Scientific Statements "of Official Interest" Must be Pre-Approved
http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_54102.shtml#

Climate Science 101
Eaxctly how do we know the planet is warming?
http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/05fal/climate1.asp

Report outlines global warming's effects
The harmful effects of global warming on daily life are already showing up.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/11/AR2007031100368.html

'Smoking gun' on humans and global warming claimed
NASA-led scientists say ocean data ties manmade emissions to warmer Earth
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7665636/

Study: Earth is hottest now in 2,000 years; humans responsible for much of the warming
A panel of top climate scientists told lawmakers that the Earth is heating up and that "human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming."
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2006-06-22-global-warming_x.htm?POE=TECISVA

Study: Southern Ocean saturated with CO2
The Southern Ocean can barely absorb any more carbon dioxide, so more CO2 will stay in the atmosphere to warm up the planet.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/05/17/climate.ocean.reut/index.html