The People’s Ratification of the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty

The US Government won’t sign it – let the people say that they’re for it

Dear Friends,

We at the Climate Crisis Coalition are writing to enlist your support in signing and helping circulate the People’s Ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. The CCC represents a coalition of groups focusing on environment, labor, communities of faith, indigenous rights, public health, environmental justice and human rights.

This petition drive has grown out of a number of recent developments.

First, the climate crisis continues to accelerate. Just this last year, four hurricanes, intensified by warming surface waters, devastated parts of Florida. Altered rainfall patterns left two million people in Kenya at risk of starvation. A freak December hurricane ravaged Paris and left a quarter of a million homes in France without power. A record 10 typhoons staggered Japan. And 2004 turned out to be the fourth hottest year on record.

In January, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, declared that the world has "already reached the level of dangerous concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere" and called for immediate and "very deep" cuts in emissions if humanity is to "survive."

Pachauri's declaration followed findings by an international task force of scientists and policymakers ("Meeting the Climate Challenge") that preventing "irreversible damage" and minimizing the risk of "abrupt, accelerated or runaway climate change" requires the global temperature increase to be held below 2C above pre-industrial levels (compared to an increase of 0.7C today).

The task force concluded that if current trends continue, the likelihood of exceeding that threshold is very high – green house gas levels are set to exceed the limit set by the panel for 2100 within the next few decades. The pre-industrial level for carbon dioxide, the most prevalent green house gas, was about 280 parts per million (ppm). These levels have now risen to 379 ppm – and are rising at a rate of more than 2 ppm per year.

Against that background, the Bush Administration in December reneged on a pledge it made in 2001 when President Bush withdrew the US from the Kyoto process. At the time, he said he would do nothing to obstruct the efforts of other countries to forge an agreement. But at the most recent round of climate talks in Buenos Aires, the US (with the support of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, among others) prohibited participants in the next round of climate talks in May from formulating any action plans to slow the rate of change.

In coordinating this petition drive, the CCC hopes that participating groups will “co-sponsor” the petition by circulating it to their members and constituents. We are also eager to gather as many individual endorsements for the enclosed petition as possible.

Because the climate crisis affects so many aspects of society, we would suggest that participating groups attach a short cover letter explaining to their constituents why this effort is relevant to their specific concerns (e.g., as a matter of faith and stewardship, public health, renewable energy job creation, human rights, etc.)

The Peoples Ratification started on February 16, 2005, the day that the Kyoto Protocol formally took effect. We are off to a strong start, and we are getting stronger with new cosponsors joining us by the day. Our intention is to work with all the co-sponsor groups in publicizing the petition campaign and in deciding how and when to release the accumulated signatures.

Since it is our political leadership that is not only abandoning its responsibility to the international community but is actively working to thwart any progress by the rest of the world, it seems time for citizens to take this responsibility on themselves.

Please join us – either as co-sponsors or endorsers – in this ground-up effort to bring the United States in line with the rest of the world. Our hope is that this effort could help regenerate a spirit of outreach and cooperation which would stand in stark contrast to the official posture of defensiveness and denial which currently marks this Administration’s climate policies.

Thank you so much for entertaining this request,

Ross Gelbspan (on behalf of the Climate Crisis Coalition)

>>> see petition