Tell your Senator to support climate legislation!

Climate change affects our lives in so many ways; negatively impacting our water, energy, transportation, agriculture, ecosystems, and health all across the nation.

The World Wildlife Fund is urging voters to put pressure on their State’s Senators to support climate legislation in Washington with the “Act for Our Future” campaign; a national public awareness campaign that supports legislation that would help protect the nation and the world from the devastating impacts of climate change.

The new campaign officially kicked-off with TV ads in five states that are key to the bill’s passage in the US Senate: Alaska, Indiana, Maine, Montana and North Dakota, as well as with the launch of a new website, ActForOurFuture.org.

“Climate change is one of the most urgent issues of our times, and without meaningful climate legislation, our legacy to future generations will be a world where many of the places we love and the things we care about will be a thing of the past,” said WWF President and CEO Carter Roberts. “Our campaign brings that message directly to the voters. We’sre asking Americans to contact their Senators and ask them to vote ‘syes’s on legislation that will help protect us from the worst consequences of climate change.”

According to the recently released report Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States, every region of the country is experiencing significant, adverse impacts from climate change including more severe droughts, floods, heat waves and wildfires. These impacts are expected to worsen during the course of the century if action is not taken to slow climate change.

“Our campaign will encourage Americans to call on Congress to pass strong legislation that will create a clean energy economy and curb the carbon pollution that is causing climate change,” added Roberts.

2009 is a critical year in global efforts to take action, with passage of U.S. legislation viewed as an important step towards gaining agreement from other nations to reduce their emissions during international climate negotiations set for December in Copenhagen.

Passage of climate legislation remains a top priority for the Obama Administration, and those efforts were bolstered in June when the House of Representatives approved the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which places a national limit on greenhouse gas pollution while setting up a market-based framework to bring down emissions in an economically efficient manner. It would also provide funding for U.S. communities to help cope with the impacts that are already being experienced across the nation as a result of climate change.

Similar legislation is expected to be introduced in the Senate the week of September 8th and will likely be voted on later in the Fall.

Check out the campaign advertisements in Alaska, Indiana, Maine, Montana and North Dakota, visit: http://www.worldwildlife.org/climate/act-for-our-future/videos.html.