NH Sportsmen Poll

A poll recently released by National Wildlife Action found that 60% of New Hampshire sportsmen believe global warming impacts their quality of life.

Among the highlights:

• 72% of hunters and anglers in New Hampshire believe global warming is occurring, with 63% indicating that human activity is a contributing factor;
  
• 75% of New Hampshire sportsmen believe our elected officials have a strong moral responsibility to act now to confront global warming and protect our children's future;
  
• By a two to one margin, global warming is the most important conservation issue among these voters;
  
• One in every three respondents (32%) report that they have already seen changes to wildlife habitats that they think may be caused by global warming;
  
• 66% of New Hampshire sportsmen agree global warming is an urgent problem requiring immediate action and a majority (57%) believe the United States is doing too little to address the issue;
  
• More than three-quarters (77%) agree the United States should be a world leader in addressing global warming and 87% agree that we can improve the economy and create jobs while confronting global warming;
  
• New Hampshire hunters and anglers would be attracted to a candidate who agrees with them on addressing global warming, and only 14 percent have decided who they will vote for in the upcoming presidential primary.

The poll got some great press in New Hampshire.

Learn more.

Hunter and Angler Lobby Days

8 Candidates Lay Out Their Global Warming Plans

Below, I've posted all of the 8 Democratic Presidential Candidates responses to questions by moveon.org members about their plans to address global warming. Believe me, there's good, bad, and ugly among these responses. But we need more of this, more citizens challenging these '08 hopefuls to lay out their plans, and act on them.

Please, watch the clips, and keep score.

Ed. Note: Thanks to MoveOn and their Town Hall series on climate for providing these clips on YouTube. Be sure to check out their website for more on this great series. ~ Wildlife Action

Richardson Gives a Swing at Subsidies

Energy Independence, Richardson Style.

New Orleans, and a Cabinet Position?

The executive.

Bill Richardson Lays Out One Agressive Global Warming Plan

80% by 2040!
Dates and rates, baby!

Edwards Gets Green Job Question

Open the grids!

Carbon Auction?

Get off our addiction to oil!

Kevin Powell Asks the Green Champ About His Plan

We should not be building another coal-fired power plant in the United States of America!

It's time for the President to ask Americans to be patriotic about something other than war...

Steve Kirsch Asks Kucinich: Isn't It time to Accept EU's Plan

Yes. And then some. Cap and Share!

The Impact Of Ethanol

We cannot call ethanol the path of the future.

Kucinich's Plan--Green Philosophy!

Integrated Greenness. This, we like!

Subsidies: Will Gravel Redirect the Power?

Redirect? No, he'll end it! Fusion? Fission!? Fusion! Skullduggery!

Political Interests

Ethanol? Corn? Clean Coal? Sequestration? Nuclear?

or Efficiency, Wind, Solar?

Gravel Lays Out His Plan

Wait, somehow his sales tax plan helps global warming?

Does a good job pointing out that Israel, Japan, and France are leading the way.

What is American doing?

40 MPH in the Next 20 Years, Will Hilary?

Well, she'll try.

There is no try, Hilary, only do.

Would She Create A Cabinet Position?

Nope, she wouldn't. She cares about New Orleans, though.

What is the most important priority, Hilary?

Global Warming is ONE of her highest priorities? Oy!

More Green Jobs or Big Business. Dodd?

Oooh, a bold new vista!

Dodd articulately says nothing he hasn't already!

The Dodd Administration Will Oppose LTC

Global Warming Is A Serious Issue! says Dodd

Dodd's Plan

Under his plan, Polluters Will PAY, hrmm...sounds good, but where's the rest of the plan. He says nobody else achieves 80% by 2050, but Richardson is pledging 90%. Sounds like a Green-Off to me

Former Labor Secretary Asks About Carbon Auction

Clean Energy a Manhattan Project?

Jean Barker reminds Obama of Liquid to Coal

Obama defends his stand on liquid to coal, "clean coal" technologies.

How IS Obama's Plan Different?

Well, at least he talks the talk now.

Stop Dirty Coal?

Daron Murphy asks if Biden would stop new dirty coal plants!

Bush failed @ G8, would Biden?

Biden says no.

Biden's Plan?

Biden lays out his plan.

USCAP Un-American? Give me a break!

The Washington Post ran a Reuters article Sunday entitled Carbon Backlash: Coal Divides Corporations. The article dealt with the divide in the corporate world between the corporations who have embraced the nations call to curb global warming emissions--GE, DuPont, Pepsi, and Catepillar, GM aka Chevy all joined the United States Climate Action Partnership--and vocal coal industry execs clamoring against them as enemies. Robert Murray, the chairman and chief executive of Murray Energy Corp., went so far as to stop doing business with his one time tractor supplier Caterpillar. He then called the USCAP corporations Un-American.

Just let that one heat up your atmosphere for a few seconds.

If you can tell me what is more American than GE, DuPont, General Motors, Johnson and Johnson, Pepsi, Dow Chemical, please let me know. In fact, if you can tell me what's more American than these corporations teaming up with large, respectable environmental organizations in the spirit of civic engagement and responsibility to challenge the Congress of the United States to do something about the challenge of this generation, then please, I'll take you out for vegan soul food!

Murray says that in order to curb emissions, we need to invest more heavily in coal, not less, looking to clean coal and such. But if he really believes this, why be against a cap and trade? If he's really confident that the technology is out there to produce enough energy while meeting the emissions cap (agreed to by scientific consensus), he wouldn't be desperate enough to call USCAP un-American. But then, I guess hes kind of insecure.

In totally unrelated, shocking news, the daily grist is reporting that Wilderness is pretty much a thing of the past.

Marc

Angling for Industry

Anyone who’s been picking up the Washington Post lately has seen the enormous feature about Dick Cheney, “The Angler.” Each day, the Post has covered a different manner in which Cheney has expanded and reinvented his power and influence as vice-president. Today’s feature, “Amending Environmental Laws to Benefit Business”, hits home. The post laid out Cheney’s calculating efforts to ease environmental regulations in favor of industry, in the face of law and science. In the case of endangered fish in the Klamath basin, “law and science seemed to be on the side of the fish. Then the vice president stepped in.” This cowboy of the American bureaucracy, this patient angler, worked gradually but persistently to overturn environmental regulations. When all else fails, challenge the science and create doubt!

“The thing to do, Cheney told Smith, was to get science on the side of the farmers. And the way to do that was to ask the National Academy of Sciences to scrutinize the work of the federal biologists who wanted to protect the fish.”

Gee, where else have we seen pro-industry politicians “challenge the science”? Cheney was able to get a panel from the National Academy of Sciences to claim that there was “‘no substantial scientific foundation’ to justify withholding water.” And what happened after Cheney hooked the panel?

“Months later, the first of an estimated 77,000 dead salmon began washing up on the banks of the warm, slow-moving river. Not only were threatened coho dying -- so were chinook salmon, the staple of commercial fishing in Oregon and Northern California. State and federal biologists soon concluded that the diversion of water to farms was at least partly responsible.”

The government had to pay $75 million in disaster aid to farmers and fisherman because of this decision, which was meant to benefit farmers in the first place. The article goes on to tell the narrative of Christine Todd Whitman’s clash with Cheney over just how fast and how pro-industry the overturning of environmental legislation had to be, a clash that ultimately lead to her resignation.

Kudos to the Post for trying to revive the tradition of investigative journalism in this country, letting the people know just what those politicians they elected are doing behind closed doors. It’s encouraging to see such an enemy of the environment get blasted in such an important publication. And while it’s unfortunate that the Post waited to blast Cheney until after the fact, this article raises serious questions about the kind of elected officials we want to send to the hill in ’08.

Marc

Mobilizing Young Voters

In light of Marc’s report detailing NWF’s commitment to the Power Shift conference and the greater Campus Climate Challenge, I found the following voter turnout data particularly appropriate. Newly released figures from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) indicate that student voters have become an increasingly large, diverse, and active constituent body. In the past presidential election, this so-called Millennial Generation (voters ages 18-29) turned out in record numbers (up 11% from the 2000 presidential election). The trend continued in the most recent 2006 mid-term election, suggesting that young voters, notoriously characterized as an apathetic bunch, are beginning to change their ways.

Eligible 18-29 year old voters will be pushing 44 million in 2008 and ’08 hopefuls are taking notice. Nearly all the leading candidates have dedicated campaign resources to attract young voters: from targeting them via social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, to hiring youth outreach directors, to hosting events directed at younger audiences (Clinton’s Club 44 and Giuliani’s Young Professionals for Rudy). And if that doesn’t work, there’s always my personal favorite: downloadable Obama mobile ringtones that remix catchy sound bites with modern hip-hop beats.

Through initiatives like Campus Climate Challenge, young voters are becoming increasingly aware of and concerned about the impact of global warming and climate change. It is my belief that this concern will mature into other forms of environmental activism. Although it is perhaps too ambitious to expect every young voter to champion on behalf of the green movement, it is not unreasonable to hope that many young voters will take platforms on energy independence and global warming into account when choosing who to support in 2008.

Bettina

Shift The Power!

A room full of talented folks from NWF met with Campus Climate Challenge coordinator Jessy Tolkin to discuss the promising Power Shift conference happening this fall. The conference will be the largest and hopefully most important student climate meeting yet—drawing 3 to 5 thousand students, ’08 presidential hopefuls, and climate experts from all corners of this broad and diverse movement.

NWF is looking to play a powerful role in the conference, ensuring that Wildlife message gets across to the students and leaders. With the mind-bloggling but encouraging 11-committee organizing structure to the conference, covering everything from racial, ethnic, and class diversity to logistics and planning, there is definitely room for influencing the way this conference turns out!

So let’s hope those presidential candidates--Republicans too!--conservationists, evangelicals, crazy activists, hunters and anglers, crunchy granolas, and whoever else cares about climate change show up this fall and start shiftin’ the power.

Marc