Green activists join 'No War, No Warming' actions targeting Congress

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

For Immediate Release:
Monday, October 22, 2007

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org
Paul "zool" Zulkowitz, Green Party Peace Action Committee member,
on-site contact, 646-549-1615, zooltheartandpolitics@hotmail.com

No War, No Warming groups seek US troop withdrawal from Iraq, end of US oil addiction, drastic steps to cut greenhouse gas emissions

WASHINGTON , DC -- Green Party activists will participate in 'No War, No Warming' events targeting Congress on Monday, October 22 in an effort to push Congress on ending the Iraq War and enacting measures to curb global warming.

Greens will join numerous other organizations that have united under the No War, No Warming banner <http://www.nowarnowarming.org/> to deliver three demands to Congress: (1) stop the war in Iraq and future resource wars by ending US addiction to fossil fuels; (2) shift government funding to rebuild New Orleans and all communities suffering from racism and corporate greed; and (3) adopt green agenda and promote environmental justice with new jobs in a clean energy economy.

The Green Party of the United States, the Pacific Green Party of Oregon <http://www.pacificgreens.org/>, and the DC Statehood Green Party <http://www.dcstatehoodgreen.org> have formally endorsed No War, No Warming. Members of the DC Statehood Green Party and other Greens will take part in nonviolent protest actions on Capitol Hill. Greens from other parts of the US are traveling to Washington, DC, for the events.

Green leaders noted that Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has urged sharp reductions in the burning of coal, gas, and oil by 2015 as a start in preventing a temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius, which would lead to a global catastrophe.

Greens have especially critical of the current Democratic-led Congress for:

• failing to bring the Iraq War to an end and voting for continued funding for the war. Democrats have the power to effect a quick withdrawal of US troops by refusing to act on President Bush's requests for war funding, say Greens. The Green Party calls for troops to be ordered home immediately.

• supporting President Bush's demand for 'benchmarks' as a condition for removing troops, specifically, passage of a hydrocarbon law that will grant US-based and other western oil companies control over 2/3 of Iraqi oil resources. Green Party leaders have called this benchmark an attempt to plunder Iraqi oil and warn that it will feed the US's oil addiction.

• considering inadequate corporate-friendly legislation (such as the Lieberman-Warner bill), and refusing to enact more urgent and effective measures against global warming.

The Green Party has called for several necessary steps to offset climate change: ending fossil fuel dependence; sharp reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (the Green Party's EcoAction committee has recommended 80% by 2016, in agreement with climate scientists' recommendations <http://gp.org/committees/ecoaction/eco_2006_04_25.shtml>); seeking public and private initiatives at every level to support the Global Climate Treaty signed at the Earth Summit in 1992; changing from car-based to clean public transportation; reinvestment and creation of new jobs in conservation and conversion from fossil fuel and nuclear to clean, renewable sources of energy.

The Green Party has also called for the US to rejoin the Kyoto agreement and to show global leadership by seek stronger Kyoto goals to end the climate crisis. The party has endorsed impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney for numerous criminal abuses of power and violations of the public trust, including efforts to mislead the American people on reasons for the invasion of Iraq, and endangering public health by tampering with and misrepresenting scientific research on global warming for political purposes.

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193

Green Party News Center
http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml

Green Party Speakers Bureau
http://www.gp.org/speakers

2007 national Green Party meeting in Reading,
Pa.: video footage, blog and media coverage
http://www.gp.org/meeting2007/

Green Party Peace Action Committee (GPAX)
http://www.gp.org/committees/peace
GPAX Blog http://gpax.wordpress.com

"Greens Call for a Massive National, Global
Conservation Effort to Curb Global Warming"
Green Party press release, April 13, 2007
http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2007_04_13.shtml

"The Race Against Warming"
By Bill McKibben, The Washington Post, September
29, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/28/AR2007092801400.\html?sub=AR

No War, No Warming Press Room: articles on global
warming, oil dependence, and the Iraq War
http://nowarnowarming.org/article.php?list=type&type=3

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