Mr. President: Please lead on 350 PPM climate goal

Dear President Obama,

World leaders will soon gather for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, a meeting
that may well affect the lives of hundreds of millions, if not billions, of the world’s people in this century. For
the good of our nation and the good of our planet, we wish your administration every success in endeavors to
reach an agreement that results in a sustainable and livable environment.

While we can expect disagreements on the means to accomplish this objective, there is one singular goal around
which all nations must align in order to avert disaster, the concentration of carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere.
We urge you to attend the conference and seek agreement with fellow leaders in Copenhagen on the ultimate
goal of lowering and maintaining the level of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere at 350 parts per million.

Scientists tell us we must reach and maintain a level of 350 ppm in order to keep global temperatures from
rising to catastrophic levels. That threshold has already been breeched – 390 ppm and climbing – and signs
indicate that global climate change is under way. Those signs include glaciers receding at record rates and the
loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean.

Our nation’s leading climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen, Director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at
NASA, put it this way:

“If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on
Earth is adapted, paleo-climate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced
from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.”

A recent report from the United Nations Environment Program was very specific about the consequences our
world faces unless we take more aggressive steps to lower the level of CO2 in our atmosphere.

• Loss of mountain glaciers will affect drinking water, irrigation and hydro-power for 20-25 percent of the
  world’s population.
• As more carbon is absorbed in the oceans, acidification increases, destroying shell-making creatures that
  provide the foundation for life in our seas. About 1 billion people depend upon the bounty of the oceans
  for food.
• Sea levels will rise six feet, inundating low-lying islands and coastal areas.
• Droughts in the Southwest United States will become more severe.
• Arctic permafrost, which stores twice the amount of CO2 that is held in the atmosphere as well as
  methane, will thaw and accelerate the climate change process.
• Shifting climate patterns will destroy large numbers of habitats, killing species that live in those habitats.

By agreeing to the goal of 350 ppm, nations will craft the policies and solutions to meet this challenge, just as
America once met the challenge of sending a human being to the moon. And by meeting this challenge we will
allow our children and grandchildren to inherit the kind of world that we ourselves have been so blessed to
enjoy.