[GPCA Updates] GP RELEASE: Greens call for a new kind of national defense: Defense against global warming

[Green Party of California Updates]

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Friday, August 6, 2010



Greens call for a new kind of national defense: defense against catastrophic
climate change

• "Life as we know it cannot survive business as usual": Greens blast
Democrats and Republicans for rejecting even a compromised climate change bill
and for continuing to support offshore drilling, mountaintop removal, and
reliance on fossil fuels

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on global warming
http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-ecological.php
Green Party Eco-Action Committee http://www.gp.org/committees/ecoaction/index.php


WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders and candidates called for national
defense against global warming, with a demand that Congress cut military
spending drastically and transfer the money to efforts to stem the impending
climate change catastrophe.

"We need a new kind of national defense -- defense against catastrophic
climate change," said Alfred Molison, Green Party candidate for City Council
(District C) in Houston, Texas, the center of the American oil industry
(http://www.votealfred.com).  "The White House and Congress keep increasing
military funding, for defense contractors and for the unending, unwinnable
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan-Pakistan.  What we need to do is shift that money
to investment in renewable noncarbon-based energy technology, creation of
millions of green jobs, public transportation to replace car traffic,
retrofitting of buildings, and other measures to reduce greenhouse emissions.
If we don't cut these emissions drastically right now, the resulting damage
and breakdown of security will be far worse than anything a terrorist can
inflict on America."

"Life as we know it cannot survive business as usual.  Defeating global
climate change requires more than a set of policy recommendations or schemes
like 'cap and trade' emissions trading," added Gloria Mattera, Green candidate
for Lieutenant Governor of New York State (http://www.gpnys.org).

Green leaders pointed to key developments in recent months:

• The US Senate's failure to pass the Climate Change bill in July, even after
numerous concessions to corporate polluters: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
announced that he would not try to bring a compromise bill to the Senate floor.

"Democrats and Republicans cannot be trusted to take the minimal necessary
steps to curb global warming," said Laura Wells, Green Party Candidate for
Governor of California (http://www.LauraWells.org).  "America's only hope for
concrete action is a new kind of politics, in which candidates who reject
corporate influence replace Democrats and Republicans in office.  The media
continue to portray politics as a permanent contest between the two
established parties.  But people are tired of seeing so little difference
between them, since both Democrats and Republicans kowtow to the same
corporate interests.  The Green Party represents a real difference, and can
advance real solutions, because it doesn't take corporate donations."

• Reports of record-breaking temperatures and freak weather occurrences around
the globe ("2000-2009 Marked Warmest Decade on Record," Democracy Now!, July
29, http://bit.ly/curQmv), along with the news that 97 percent of scientists
recognize that climate change is real and is caused by human activity
("Report: 97 percent of scientists say man-made climate change is real,"
Science Fair, June 22, http://bit.ly/c8vUrG).

• Evidence that corporate energy lobbies are calling the shots on major US
policies: (1) Continued revelations, in the wake of the Gulf oil spill, that
government regulatory agencies are under the influence of corporations that
they are required by law to oversee; (2) Bipartisan support for continued
offshore drilling, mountaintop removal mining, hydraulic fracturing
('fracking'), 'clean coal', nuclear plants, and other dangerous, destructive
energy sources, while rejecting serious, committed, and immediate plans to
expand and diversify our energy portfolio as well as implement high speed,
low-cost public transportation and carbon taxes; (3) President Obama's plan to
keep 50,000 US troops in Iraq, and delayed withdrawal of combat troops
elsewhere, to protect multi-national interests, which means guaranteeing
access to oil resources for western energy companies and their bankers.

"Despite recent assurances that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been
contained, Americans should see the disaster as only the latest warning about
the amount of damage that corporate reckless and shortsightedness can cause.
The real issue is not so-called energy independence and ending our reliance on
foreign oil.  We need a line of defense against the long-range threat posed by
an addiction to nonrenewable fossil fuel energy in a post-peak era, regardless
of where it comes from.  Offshore drilling and mountaintop removal mining must
be shut down soon, not only because of the immediate danger of continuing
disasters but the sheer fact that these polluting forms of energy are not
sustainable for America's primary interests, its families and communities,"
said Jesse Johnson, West Virginia Mountain Party candidate in the special
election for the late Robert C. Byrd's US Senate seat.


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
• Green candidate database and campaign information:
http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-elections
• Green Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

Green Party Eco-Action Committee http://www.gp.org/committees/ecoaction/index.php

Green Party releases
• "Obama must cancel his plans for Atlantic & Alaskan offshore drilling, and
hold BP and Halliburton liable for the Gulf spill's damage, say Greens," May
5, 2010, http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=314
• "Greens call President Obama's resurrection of nuclear power and handout for
Georgia nuclear reactors his 'worst idea yet,'" February 18, 2010,
http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=297
• "Greens, calling the Kerry-Boxer Senate bill on climate change an 'armful of
retreats and compromises,' seek more immediate international action to curb
global warming," October 7, 2009, http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=252
• "Green Party leaders: US in Copenhagen summit helped kill necessary steps
against global warming," December 22, 2009,
http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=276

"We’re Hot as Hell and We’re Not Going to Take It Any More: Three Steps to
Establish a Politics of Global Warming," by Bill McKibben, TomDispatch.com,
August 4, 2010, http://bit.ly/d8BBC8

350.org 'Global Work Party' http://www.350.org

Video clips from the Green Party's 2010 Annual National Meeting, Detroit,
Michigan, June 24-27 http://www.gp.org http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the
United States http://gp.org/greenpages-blog


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