Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863 By the President of the United States of America.A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the
blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties,
which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the
source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so
extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften
even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful
providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled
magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States
to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved
with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been
respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in
the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly
contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful
diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful
industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the
shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our
settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the
precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.
Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has
been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the
country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and
vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large
increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any
mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious
gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for
our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit
and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully
acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American
People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the
United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are
sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last
Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our
beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to
them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for
such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble
penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to
His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners
or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are
unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the
Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as
soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full
enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal
of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of
the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” ~ Melody Beattie
“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens” -by Carl Jung
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
~ Charles Darwin
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
~ Eleanor Roosevelt
“In the 19th century, we devoted our best minds to exploring nature. In the 20th century, we devoted ourselves to controlling and harvesting it. In the 21st century, we must devote ourselves to restoring it.” – Stephen Ambrose
The consequences of global warming are potentially devastating, but they are not inevitable.
For decades, Environmental Defense Fund has been a leader at both the national and international level, bringing together diverse partners such as major corporations, government agencies, farmers and advocates for the poor to develop innovative solutions to avert this crisis.
But if our efforts are to be truly effective, we must secure a global cap on greenhouse gas pollution that guarantees a reduction in emissions. Ultimately, all that matters is the number of tons of global warming pollution released into our atmosphere.
Without a worldwide mechanism to ensure needed reductions, the effects of climate change will continue to encroach upon us.
There is reason for optimism, however, provided we act quickly.
The new administration and Congress present us with the greatest opportunity we have ever had to enact effective climate legislation here at home and strike a global compact to reduce emissions worldwide.
Here are the exciting initiatives we will be embarking on as we begin transitioning to a new president and preparing for the international climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009.
As a member of EDF, I hope you realize how vital our work is to ending the climate crisis and I urge you to remain steadfast in your support as we seek to solve the greatest of all environmental challenges.
National Action: Capping America’s Global Warming Pollution
Environmental Defense Fund has played a significant role in shaping U.S. environmental policy for four decades. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush adopted our emissions trading plan to cut by half the sulfur dioxide pollution that contributed to acid rain. The Economist called our cap-and-trade approach the “greatest green success story of the past decade.”
Today, after decades of public education and years of painstaking groundwork, America stands poised to pass what could well be the environmental legislation of our lifetime: a cap-and-trade system to drastically reduce global warming pollution.
While the politics of passing such a law remain complex and formidable, we will begin 2009 with four crucial advantages:
A new president will take office with a pledge to support comprehensive climate legislation. President-elect Obama supports a cap-and-trade system and will be far more receptive to our agenda than the previous administration.
With more than 50 Senators on record in favor of an emissions cap, the Senate will begin deliberations from a strong starting point.
New legislation is in the works in the House, and 2009 may begin with a draft bill backed by a strong commitment from House leadership.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can regulate greenhouse gas emissions as a pollutant. That means that if Congress fails to act immediately, the new president can compel EPA to act—which, in turn, will encourage Congress to take action.
With these pieces in place, and with lessons learned from the 2008 Climate Security Act showdown in the Senate, Environmental Defense Fund is well positioned to be a leader in passing effective climate legislation next year. Of course, success is far from assured and will be hard-won.
The economy, health care, the war in Iraq and rising energy costs will almost certainly dominate the new president’s agenda. Therefore, our immediate task will be to help Congress, the president and key players in the executive branch—including at EPA and the Departments of Commerce, Transportation, Treasury, Energy and Agriculture—understand that the climate crisis cannot be overlooked, and that an emissions cap is the only way to solve it.
We are already preparing for this vital task. We are reaching out to people who will serve on President-elect Obama’s transition team, showing them how climate action can be part of their larger energy, national security and economic solutions by breaking our nation’s dependence on foreign oil and sparking a boom in the production and distribution of clean energy that will create millions of jobs in the United States.
Thanks to your committed support, Environmental Defense Fund is also keeping the pressure on Congress by continuing our media, lobbying and field organizing to strengthen our call for bipartisan climate action. The 27 companies of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), including GE, DuPont and PepsiCo, are maintaining their call for congressional action to slash our nation’s global warming pollution.
Perhaps most importantly, we are preparing to debunk and neutralize arguments made by special interests that are determined to keep America dependent on dirty fossil fuels. As I write, some 700 lobbyists for the petrochemical and other polluting industries are spending huge sums to spread bogus claims that global warming isn’t happening or, if it is, it “may be beneficial” to people.
What is most worrisome is that they are sowing fears that a cap on global warming pollution would cost American jobs and wreck our economy. For example, the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association offered commentary on a strong climate bill that came before the Senate earlier this year: “Simply put, this bill puts our country’s economy at stake and may have little or no environmental benefit.”
Additionally, as pressure builds on EPA to implement the Supreme Court’s decision affirming the agency’s right to regulate carbon emissions under the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a strong opponent of climate action, is sounding the alarm and even arguing that Congress should curtail EPA’s powers.
At a time when Congress, especially the House, is sensitive to consumer worries about the economy and energy prices, you can imagine the impact this is having.
While we cannot match these special interests in spending, with the help of our most generous and committed supporters, Environmental Defense Fund will leverage our reputation as a leader in climate science and a recognized bipartisan player on Capitol Hill to educate lawmakers on the real facts and solutions to the climate crisis.
Enacting a hard cap on global warming pollution next year is, by necessity, our highest priority. None of us can afford to wait any longer—and we may never have a better opportunity. This is also the single most important reason for you to invest in Environmental Defense Fund once more at the exceptionally generous level you have in the past.
International Action: Copenhagen—The Global Deal
As we help to craft and pass strong legislation in the United States, we are also focused on efforts aimed at a new global agreement in Copenhagen in December 2009. By coordinating our domestic and international work, we can build U.S. action into a larger global framework and create a global deal that ensures the health of our planet for generations to come.
Environmental Defense Fund has been a leader in the international climate treaty talks since their inception. The Kyoto Treaty incorporates policies and language that we formulated. Indeed, a centerpiece of the current global agreement is the cap-and-trade approach that we developed when working with the Clinton administration on the 1997 proposal for the Kyoto talks.
Cap-and-trade was the grand bargain reached in Kyoto––but that agreement did not deal with a number of issues that are now crucial to solving the climate crisis, such as emissions from deforestation and the participation of major developing countries (including China, which has overtaken the United States as the world’s largest annual emitter of global warming pollution).
Our legal and economic experts have developed programs to address each of these critical gaps. We already have strong relationships with key partners in the nations that must play a key role in defeating global warming in the years to come––including Brazil, China, India, and elsewhere.
Brazil has the capacity to substantially affect the speed of global warming because nearly 20% of greenhouse gases are released from deforestation. Research shows that if the current rate of deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia alone were to remain the same through 2012, the emissions from this deforestation would offset nearly 80% of the emission reductions gained worldwide from the Kyoto Protocol.
Reducing deforestation emissions may be the single quickest way to substantially reduce global warming pollution. But those reductions will only happen with the right incentives.
Working with Brazilian partners, Environmental Defense Fund has pioneered a market-based approach to reducing deforestation, a policy that is getting a lot of attention in the talks leading up to Copenhagen. Our team is also working with other rainforest nations, large and small, to help them participate in a global trading system and give them powerful economic incentives to reduce deforestation.
China’s global warming pollution has grown as quickly as its economy, and millions of viewers of the summer Olympic games learned that Beijing’s air pollution had many athletes worried it would impact their performance. But China is not indifferent to its responsibilities, and is taking significant steps to address its challenges.
In 2005, China enacted the world’s strictest fuel-efficiency and emissions standards for vehicles––too tough for 96% of America’s SUVs. And in January of 2005, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection halted 30 large infrastructure projects, valued at $14 billion, for failing to address environmental impacts. This was followed by a national investigation of pollutants discharged into waterways in 2006 and by a crackdown in 2007 on permitting new plants with high emissions or energy consumption. These are strong indicators that China could be an important ally in solving the climate crisis.
For more than a decade, our team in Beijing has worked with Chinese officials on pollution reduction programs such as a cap-and-trade system for sulfur dioxide and enhanced enforcement tools for regulators. Recently, we partnered with several provinces to develop and promote new techniques to help farmers improve their crop yield, cut their global warming pollution and become eligible for revenue from the sale of avoided carbon emissions.
India is another key player, where Environmental Defense Fund has a nascent presence. Until now, India––like China––has had limited participation in the global emissions market. Given their high economic growth, it is essential that they do more. Our goal is to help developing nations create the monitoring, verification and enforcement systems they will need to join a global carbon market, and to provide the right market incentives for their full and prompt participation.
As a new U.S. president takes his place at the table, our team will work to bring the United States and the European Union closer together on international climate policy. There are still significant differences of position, and the coming months will be critical to resolving them. As the clock ticks, it becomes ever more crucial that Americans and Europeans work together to forge a strong agreement. In fact, the success of the global talks in Copenhagen may well depend upon it.
The Air Car, by Luxembourg-based Moteur Developement Int. (MDI) also runs on compressed air technology, and, according to a January article in the MIT publication Technology Review, the Air Car is already set to go into commercial production. MDI has struck a deal with India’s largest carmaker, Tata Motors, to put the non-polluting vehicles on the streets of India sometime this year.
One day, in the near future, we’ll have the opportunity to make driving safer for our health and environment with options like the pollution-free Air Car, being readied for market by Spain-based Moteur Developpement Int.
Based on proven technology used on the Space Shuttle, the Air Car runs on Compressed Air Technology, a pollution-free engine that burns compressed air stored in tanks made of carbon fiber. The only emission: Cold air that’s used to run the car’s onboard air conditioner.The vehicle is built for city driving, as it gets about 100 miles per tankful. Why oil and gas companies are probably very worried about this latest innovation: The average cost of a fill-up is about $3.The MDI Air Car may also offer up some healthy competition against the Magnetic Air Car here in the U.S.According to an article in Popular Mechanics, Zero Pollution Motors — the U.S. licensee for MDI — expects to produce the world’s first air-powered car for the United States by late 2009 or early 2010.Folks, this is a much better option than a hybrid or electric car, which literally envelopes you in strong electromagnetic fields. Best of all, it has NO EMISSIONS whatsoever.We are simply running out of excuses for not converting to safer (and cheaper!), renewable energy sources that don’t turn the Earth into a toxic waste dump with every mile we drive.
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