Pentagon Report on Global Climate Change Proves Need for Green Candidates and Green Agenda.

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

Contacts:
Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator, 207-326-4576, nallen@acadia.net
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@greens.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders said today that a Pentagon report on security threats posed by global climate change demonstrates the need for drastic political action to bring the crisis and possible solutions to the attention of American voters.

"There's no better proof that we need a Green Party, with Green candidates running at every level from President to town council member," said Ben Manski, Wisconsin Green and co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.  "The Bush Administration denies the human factor involved in global climate change and tried to hush up the report.  Most of the Democrats, including Sen. Kerry (D.-Mass.) will allow only minimal measures that barely step on the toes of industry."

The report, revealed by The Observer (U.K.) in a February 22 article, warns of sharp drops and rises in average temperatures around the world, massive famines, threats to coastal cities, and wars (possibly nuclear exchanges) over resources in coming decades.

Commissioned by Pentagon defense adviser Andrew Marshall and written by Peter Schwartz, C.I.A. consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of the Global Business Network, the report asserts that global climate change "should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a U.S. national security concern."

The Green Party and its candidates have called for:

• Conversion from fossil fuel use to safe, clean, renewable energy (solar, wind, fuel cell), through legislation, regulation, and taxation

• Reduction in emissions of carbon and other greenhouse emissions

• Assistance for other nations, especially in poor and developing parts of the world, with similar conversion

• An end to privatization and reckless exploitation of resources (especially fresh water, forests and biodiversity, energy sources); dismantling of international trade authorities and policies like privatization that benefited corporate investors instead of human populations and the environment

• An end to public subsidies for fossil fuel and nuclear industries

• Energy conservation, carbon taxes to discourage oil consumption, and improved energy-efficient public transportation

• Renegotiation of the Kyoto Agreement to address the seriousness of the crisis

Greens recall that the Clinton-Gore Administration, under pressure from fossil fuel lobbies, obstructed enactment of the Kyoto protocols in November 2000, during the international Hague conference on global climate change.  In March 2001, President Bush withdrew the U.S. from the agreement.

A report just released by the Union of Concerned Scientists found a "well-established pattern of suppression and distortion of scientific findings by high-ranking Bush administration political appointees across numerous federal agencies" including climate change research, with "consequences for human health, public safety, and community well-being."

MORE INFORMATION

Forward! 2004
Green Party Presidential Nomination Convention (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 23-28) http://www.gp.org/convention/process.html
Media credentialing for the convention http://www.gp.org/forms/media/

The Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
1711 18th Street NW
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193

Union of Concerned Scientists
http://www2.ucsusa.org

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