Today marks my final http://74days.GOsustainably.com blog entry. (Anything after this is ICING on the cake.) But, as one thing ends, another begins. Today, December 7th is the beginning of the UN Copenhagen Climate talks, COP15, about which this blog has centered. It also a new day for the United States and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Today, the EPA made history when Administrator, Lisa Jackson announced:
Greenhouse gases threaten the health and welfare of the American people. We also found that greenhouse gas emissions from on-road vehicles contribute to that threat.
The accumulation of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere can lead to hotter, longer heat waves that threaten the health of the sick, the poor, the elderly - that can increase ground-level ozone pollution linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses.
Today's announcement, on its own, does not impose any new requirements on industry. But, today's announcement is the prerequisite for strong new emissions standards for cars and trucks: the ones the president announced last spring.
Today's finding is based on decades of research by hundreds of researchers. The vast body of evidence not only remains unassailable, it's grown stronger, and it points to one conclusion: greenhouse gases from human activity are increasing at unprecedented rates and are adversely affecting our environment and threatening our health.
Read all about it. Keep up the good work contra climate change. And stay tuned for the next evolution of Climate of Change.
Yours Truly,
Pamela Snyder
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