The Sierra Club is celebrating a successful campaign, “100 Days of Action to Fight Climate Disruption,” that began with President Obama’s inauguration and concluded on Earth Day. The goal of the campaign was to push the president to take bold action that would avert the climate crisis. According to Sierra Club, over one million Americans from across the country participated in events as well as signed petitions and sent letters to decision makers.

“In his inaugural address and again during the State of the Union, President Obama invited a national climate conversation. Over the past one hundred days, more than one million Americans responded to that invitation with a demand for bold action on climate disruption,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. “The past one hundred days have seen major climate victories — from President Obama’s designating five new national monuments that will protect our wild places from fossil-fuel drilling and mining, to the Mayor of Los Angeles announcing that the city will be coal-free by 2025. Now we’re looking to the President to follow through with his climate commitments and secure his legacy with bold climate solutions like rejecting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.”

The 100 Days of Action to Fight Climate Disruption campaign launched on January 14, just before President Obama’s second inauguration, and provided a framework of administrative steps the President can take to help curb climate disruption. During the past 100 days, a Forward on Climate Rally was held in Washington, D.C. in what the Sierra Club is calling the country’s largest rally with more than 50,000 people in attendance. In addition, climate advocates met with policy makers and held Climate Legacy Town Hall meetings and other grassroots events.

“With President Obama well into his second term, the next few months and years will be pivotal in the fight to address climate disruption and move America toward clean energy,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. “Over the past one hundred days, the American people have shown that they are ready and willing to join the President in this fight that is not only winnable, but one in which we are already beginning to succeed. Working together, the President and the American people can fight the climate crisis, reenergize the American economy, create millions of jobs, and give our children the type of future they deserve.”

With Earth Day a week away (Monday, April 22) there is a greater focus on climate change and the environment. According to Ceres, a nonprofit organization mobilizing business leadership on climate change, a growing chunk of American tax dollars is footing the bill for increasing floods, fires, droughts and other climate-related changes. Ceres compiled data showing rising costs to three federal programs, as well as growing financial exposure for state taxpayers in hurricane-prone states.

“Climate change is fundamentally changing the United States, and American taxpayers are paying a huge price for it,” said Ceres President Mindy Lubber. “The cost of withered crops, submerged streets, hurricane damage and wildfires eventually comes out of our own wallets. Crop insurance losses from last year’s drought alone cost every person in America $51.”

The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is staggering under massive losses after Hurricane Sandy, which triggered more than 115,000 new claims in just the first two weeks after the storm. Although NFIP collects about $3.5 billion a year in premiums, the amount of claims the agency has paid out has exceeded the amount of premiums collected in four of the past eight years. Last year’s losses in Sandy’s wake are expected to approach $8 billion.

“That’s $25 for every American, and that figure doesn’t even include the $50 billion of disaster relief that Congress approved in January for Sandy-impacted states,” Lubber said. Continue reading →

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), a group of leading scientists and engineers who make policy recommendations to the White House, has released a detailed report outlining how the Obama Administration could address climate change in the near term. Climate change was a major topic during President Obama’s recent trip to Argonne National Laboratory as well as during his State of the Union.  The letter offers actions that would reduce emissions and better quantify climate-relates risks.

PCAST has called out these actions as “central” in addressing climate change:

• Focus on national preparedness for climate change

• Continue efforts to decarbonize the economy

• Level the playing field for clean energy by removing regulatory obstacles, addressing market failures, adjusting tax policies and providing time-limited subsidies for clean energy when appropriate

• Sustain research on next-generation clean energy technologies

• Establish U.S. leadership on climate change internationally

• Conduct an initial Quadrennial Energy Review (QER)

For each of the concept areas, PCAST offers precise steps on how President Obama can move forward. Example tactics include creating a national commission on climate preparedness, exploring a North American climate change agreement and improving energy efficiency standards using federal loan agencies. Click here to read the full report.