The 110th Congress began early and with new intensity in January. New leadership, new priorities, new hopes and expectations, and a pent-up demand for legislative action on a wide range of concerns fueled the accelerated pace.

This came none too soon for climate, energy, and human security concerns. The U.S. and world today are facing two mounting threats to basic human security due to our dependence on fossil fuels: harmful climate change and deadly conflicts over oil.

The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) is well-positioned in its new, green building on Capitol Hill and with its nationwide grassroots network to educate and advocate for energy conservation, improved energy efficiency, and accelerated development and use of renewable energy.

Averting Harmful Climate Change

Greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels and other human activities are accelerating global warming and climate changes around the earth. Eleven of the last twelve years have been among the twelve warmest years on record. Glaciers are shrinking, the Arctic tundra and sea ice are melting, species ranges are shifting, sea levels are rising, and extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and intensity. Poor and vulnerable populations are already feeling the effects—from Alaska natives, to hurricane-prone coastal communities, to communities exposed to intensified droughts, heat waves, wildfires, and flooding.

If greenhouse gas emissions from human activities continue to grow, climate change effects are likely to become more extreme, threatening food production, fresh water resources, public health, the survival of species, whole ecosystems, and hundreds of millions now living in low-lying coastal areas around the world. Poor and vulnerable populations will continue to be at greatest risk, as they often are more readily exposed to harmful climate events and have the least capacity to adapt.

Scientists say we must reduce our greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible. Heeding these warnings and uniting in global action for the common good is perhaps the greatest moral challenge facing our country and world today.

The U.S. has a key role to play. The U.S. is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and emissions over the past century from the U.S. and the industrialized world are the principal human factors contributing to the climate changes that the world is experiencing today. Other countries, such as China and India, are unlikely to act to avert harmful climate change without U.S. leadership.

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