Dear MoveOn member,
Last night, through Al Gore's Live Earth concerts, 2 billion of us rallied to stop the climate crisis.
Now, it's time to change more than our light bulbs, it's time to change our leaders.
That's why we're holding our Virtual Town Hall on the climate crisis.
All eight of the Democratic presidential candidates responded
to MoveOn members' questions on the climate crisis.
Now, it's time to watch their responses and weigh in on which one has the best plan.
This is a critical vote.
Your choice sends a strong message to the candidates about what kind of leadership voters
want to see. And it'll help ensure that our next president takes the climate crisis seriously.
Click below to hear the presidential candidates' plans
to stop the climate crisis and to vote for the strongest one.http://pol.moveon.org/townhall/climate/townhall2.html?id=10779-2919065-P71H4s&t=2Think about it for a second: two years ago this issue wasn't even on the map for most people.
But today, literally billions of people know about it, and all of the presidential candidates
have a plan to do something about it.
Over the last few weeks, MoveOn members submitted tough questions to the candidates about how
we can best deal with climate change. From new jobs and cars that run cleaner to plans holding
polluting corporations accountable, the candidates have laid their plans on the line in the
first-ever forum dedicated to the global climate crisis.
And last night, at 1300 parties all over the country (our biggest event since 2004!), MoveOn
members got a sneak preview of the plans and started to discuss how we'll move forward. We did
all of this with our friends at Campaign for America's Future, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights,
and League of Conservation Voters.
There was press coverage of the events nation-wide too. Here's just a couple exceprts:
From the Sun Sentinel in South Florida:
Sharon Koskoff hosted a party Saturday for about 50 strangers. The Delray Beach resident was
one of at least a thousand people nationwide who hosted Live Earth concert parties. Organized
by MoveOn, a liberal grass-roots organization, the local get-togethers were supposed to bring
people together for a night of political and environmental activism..."It's all about bringing
people together and meeting like-minded people," said Koskoff, who invited guests to her house
through the Internet. 1
From the Daily Times-Call in Longmont, CO:
Connors said the people coming to the potluck at her Erie home are already aware of the issues
and are interested in hearing what presidential candidates have to say. "I don't think anyone
would come to this unless they already had some sense that something's amiss," Connors said.
"I'm one of the people, and there are many of us, for who the issues of the environment and
the climate crisis are paramount." 2
You can help make sure our next president has the right plan by voting right now for the candidate
you think can lead us out of the climate crisis (voting closes Tuesday at midnight PDT). There's
great information on the vote page about the climate crisis and what each of the candidates is planning to do.
Click here to vote:http://pol.moveon.org/townhall/climate/townhall2.html?id=10779-2919065-P71H4s&t=3One important thing to remember: Winning the vote for the best climate plan does not constitute
an endorsement of the candidate for president. Before we make an endorsements together, we'll
keep pressing the candidates on all of the important issues. Watch your email for info on the
last Virtual Town Hall Meeting on Health Care this fall.
Thanks for all being a part of this moment in history and for all you do.
–Ilyse, Anna, Jennifer, Wes, and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Sunday, July 8th, 2007
P.S. Here are some excerpts from the candidates' answers to your questions (they're listed in the order that the candidates responded in):
Senator Edwards: One of the goals of this transition to new forms of energy...is not only to address this crisis of climate change, but also to strengthen the American economy, and not just at the top, which is what we've seen under Bush. Instead we want to strengthen the economy and strengthen the ability of Americans to earn a decent living from the bottom up.
Click to hear more from Senator Edwards:http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2744&id=10779-2919065-P71H4s&t=4Governor Richardson: I would create within the White House, a cabinet-level agency and a prestige individual to head it up. But it would be run by me, the president, because I believe its gonna require presidential leadership to get it through the Congress.
Click to hear more from Governor Richardson:http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2745&id=10779-2919065-P71H4s&t=5Senator Dodd: It seems to me that energy policy, developing the alternatives in technologies to become independent, self-sufficient, deal effectively with global warming require bold initiatives. Fuel-efficient standards, a corporate carbon tax, reducing those emissions of polluting CO2 in our environment are all things that I'm strongly advocating in the Dodd Energy Plan.
Click to hear more from Senator Dodd:http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2746&id=10779-2919065-P71H4s&t=6Representative Kucinich: When we understand that the individual choices we make have an impact on the globe, then as a president, that helps us move compassionately in a new direction with the food choices we make, with the product choices we make, with the kind of vehicles that we move in, incentivizing mass transit, organizing the entire county along this area of green philosophy, everything changes.
Click to hear more from Representative Kucinich:http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2747&id=10779-2919065-P71H4s&t=7Senator Obama: What I've proposed, and will be detailing over the next several weeks, is a system in which you have a cap and trade system that also auctions off the permits, so that we are getting the sorts of investment in creating a market for clean technologies, but we're also generating billions of dollars each and every year that we devote to the sort of Apollo project or Manhattan project on clean energy that is so necessary.
Click to hear more from Senator Obama:http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2748&id=10779-2919065-P71H4s&t=8Senator Gravel: I would hope, now we could do some subsidies for that, which would be for basic scientific effort, but as far as trying to subsidize various industries and give them incentives, boy, just let energy rise to a higher level. Its simple economics, the higher the price goes, the more people who come in and look for alternatives.
Click to hear more from Senator Gravel:http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2749&id=10779-2919065-P71H4s&t=9Senator Biden: What I would do if I were president of the United States, is I would direct U.S. negotiations immediately to go back to the table. I would sign on with the Germans to talk about the fact that we have to get all nations involved in coming up with a treaty that is a binding treaty on all parties. I would limit greenhouse gases here in the United States of America. I wouldn't wait till we had an international agreement.
Click to hear more from Senator Biden:http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2750&id=10779-2919065-P71H4s&t=10Senator Clinton: We have to demonstrate leadership, but we do have to get the rest of the world involved. Those countries that went into Kyoto, we have to take a hard look at how well they're doing and what we can learn from that... Global warming to me is an issue of economics because I think we can create a lot of green collar jobs. Its an environmental issue, obviously, but it's also a moral and ethical issue. We have an obligation to clean up the mess.
Click to hear more from Senator Clinton:http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2751&id=10779-2919065-P71H4s&t=111." South Florida parties support Live Earth concerts": Sun Sentinel, July 8, 2007
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=27532. "Democratic activists sponsoring Live Earth parties" The Daily Times-Call, July 7, 2007
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=17290Support our member-driven organization: MoveOn.org Political Action is entirely funded by our
3.2 million members. We have no corporate contributors, no foundation grants, no money from unions.
Our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. If you'd like to support our work,
you can give now at:
http://political.moveon.org/donate/email.html?id=10779-2919065-P71H4s&t=12PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION,
http://pol.moveon.org/Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
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