James Connaughton, Chair
Council on Environmental Quality
722 Jackson Place NW
Washington, DC 20503

RE: Global warming

Dear Chairman Connaughton,

In light of the important new findings of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, I strongly urge the Bush administration, as it prepares for its second term, to review and revise its position on global warming. The science is clear that we face a crisis of unparalleled proportions. History will judge you for actions you take now that will affect the future security and survival of Americans and all the world’s peoples.

According to the comprehensive four-year study conducted by an international team of 300 scientists, the Arctic is warming almost twice as fast as the rest of the world. In Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia average winter temperatures have increased as much as 4 to 7 degrees in the past 50 years, and could increase an additional 7 to 13 degrees by the end of this century.

Even the most conservative estimates project that Arctic summer sea ice will decline by 50 percent by the end of this century, with some models showing near-complete disappearance. This would very likely have devastating consequences for polar bears, ice-living seals and local communities that depend on these animals as a primary food source. Inuit elders already are reporting that hunting has become more difficult and dangerous due to less reliable sea ice conditions.

The report notes that "human influences, resulting primarily from increased emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, have now become the dominant factor" in causing global warming. Prompt action is essential to prevent dangerous changes in the climate of the Arctic and other regions, but the purely voluntary approach taken by the administration in its first term is inadequate to achieve any real progress. Further delaying action to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions could make an eventual meltdown of the Greenland ice sheet inevitable, raising sea levels by more than 20 feet.

I am shocked and outraged that the administration has been trying to prevent the Arctic Council -- the group of nations that commissioned the study -- from adopting any meaningful policy conclusions based on the report. The administration has even refused to distribute copies of the report. For your sake, for the sake of your place in history, and for our future, I urge the administration to stop playing politics with our environmental, economic, and national security and to move quickly to adopt a new and stronger policy to protect the nation and the world from the threat of global warming