The candidates may have avoided the environment during the debates, but 65% of the American public thinks the government doesn’t do enough about the environment and should do more. A new report on global climate change and a threat to the publicly supported Roadless Area Rule are making national and international headlines. Will the Administration enact emissions controls in an effort to slow global warming and conserve the last remaining pristine acres of American soil for future generations?

• Almost 70% of Americans polled believe global warming is a very serious or somewhat serious problem and favor legislation setting aside the last of the protected forestlands.

Arctic Meltdown: Can an international report and bi-partisan legislation bring us together to save the coastlines and cultures of our gradually warming planet?

Its official. Arctic ice is melting, and at a rate faster than expected. The results of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment commissioned four years ago by the eight nations with Artic territory are in, with startling findings: the increase in greenhouse gases that trap heat on the earth’s surface from smokestacks and tailpipes are causing a gradual rise in temperature and eroding thousands of square miles of sea ice each year.

• In Alaska, Western Canada and Eastern Russia, average winter temperatures have increased as much as 5-7° F in the last 50 years and will continue to rise 7-13° over the next 100.
  
  
• A 1.5 foot rise in sea level on relatively flat land would erode 150 feet of shoreline – more could have a devastating affect in low lying coastal plains areas like Florida and Louisiana.
  
  
• Over the last 30 years, Artic sea ice has decreased about 8% or over 300,000 square miles – that’s an area the size of Texas and Arizona combined.

Unless we curb emissions we will loose species and cultures at an alarming rate and shift the balance of fresh and saltwater enough to cause dramatic climate shifts all over the globe. In the US, where we generate 1/3 of the earth’s pollutants, the “Climate Stewardship Act” – authored by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) – is scheduled for a hearing next week, showing bi-partisan concern for acting on our global well-being. How are our emissions affecting the Arctic balance? What can we do to slow the warming of our planet? Can this be an issue that unites Republicans and Democrats for our common good?

Leaving Lands Untouched: Safeguarding the last of our pristine lands may mean making an unprecedented stand by unlikely allies.

Issued in January 2001, the Roadless Area Conservation Rule protects 58.5 million acres of wild national forest land from most commercial logging and road building. With more than one-half of America's national forests already open to logging, mining, and drilling, the rule was intended to preserve the last third of undeveloped forests as a home for wildlife, a haven for recreation, and a heritage for future generations.

• As well as maintaining clean air, natural habitats for fish and wildlife and providing sources of clean drinking water, recreational activities in national forests generate five times the revenue of logging – an estimated $100 billion in recreational benefits and nearly 330,000 jobs a year.

The Administration proposal eliminates the Roadless rule altogether – giving mining and lumber interests access to the last 31% of these pristine lands – in violation of recommendations from 7 federal agencies, over 180 Native American groups and over a million public comments. Holding the last remaining wilderness in trust for future Americans is a core value crossing party lines and uniting Republicans and Democrats against the challenge to this historic bi-partisan conservation rule.

• A 2001 poll showed broad bi-partisan support within the 67% of those supporting the current policy; including 76% of democrats, 66% of independents and 58% of Republicans.
  
  
• Building new roads will increase cost to taxpayers in public subsides to private timber, oil and mining companies. The timber program alone cost taxpayers over $2 billion from 1992-1997.

Can we balance our need for resources while preserving the economy and ways of life that depend on the land? Can we afford to leave public lands held in the public trust untouched – can we afford not to? Can new energy, papermaking, and building material technology render the need to open these wild places unnecessary? If we give away these lands now, will they be restorable or lost forever to our children’s children?