Tell Legislators: Protect Our Water From Fracking!

 Subject:Protect Our Water: Support The Fracking Legislative Package

Dear [Decision Maker],

I am writing to ask you to SUPPORT the hydraulic fracturing legislative package, a group of bills that would protect Michigan citizens from the dangers of Fracking.

Fracking has been associated with literally thousands of incidents of environmental contamination in several other states, which we must not allow to happen here. The EPA recently linked groundwater contamination to Fracking in Wyoming, Ohio underwent multiple earthquakes because of Fracking, and now scientists are suggesting that Fracking can also destroy air quality.

Michigan needs to delay any new natural gas Fracking until we have strengthened our safeguards and laws to protect our clean, fresh water, our air, our natural resources, and our communities.

There are some major problems with Fracking. The water that flows out of Fracking wells carries toxic and radioactive substances mobilized from the rock by the Fracking chemicals. A Congressional report on Fracking listed 750 chemicals used in the Fracking process, of which at least 29 of the chemicals are carcinogens or pose a risk to human health. Right now, companies are not required to fully disclose which of these cancer-causing chemicals they are putting into the ground.

In addition, each of these deep Fracking operations consumes up to 5 million gallons of water from local watersheds and the Great Lakes basin. However, Michigan's water withdrawal regulations currently exempt oil and gas drillers from complying with rules designed to protect waterways and groundwater from being depleted. 

Michigan needs to "push pause" on Fracking until we learn more about this process and until we have more protections in place.

Please SUPPORT the Fracking legislative package, and help get this on the agenda of the House Energy and Technology Committee. This is vital in order to protect our water, our air, and our communities.

Sincerely,

Angelita Mercado

Designing the Green Economy

 

 

A green economy is based on the efficient use of energy, reducing polluting emissions and the use of renewable sources of power. A green economy uses these investments to create new opportunities, more jobs and stronger communities.

New job activities will certainly be created as we make the transition towards a green economy while implementing global warming solutions.

Green jobs are in every community in every state throughout the nation, in the same areas of employment that people already work in today.

 

What makes these occupations “green jobs” is that people working in these fields are contributing their time and labor towards environmental solutions.

Millions of U.S. workers across a variety of occupational fields, states and income levels will all benefit from working towards the common goal of transforming the United States into a green economy.

“To achieve sustainable development and a higher quality of life for all people, States should reduce and
eliminate unsustainable patterns of production and consumption and promote appropriate demographic policies.” Rio Declaration, Principle 8 (UN 1992).

A transition to a green economy can assist in overcoming the contribution that the population growth makes to the depletion of increasingly  scarce natural resources.

The key aim for a transition to a green economy is to enable economic growth and investment while increasing environmental quality and social
inclusiveness. Critical to attaining such an objective is to create the conditions for public and private investments to incorporate broader environmental and social criteria.

Moving towards a green economy has the potential to achieve sustainable development and eradicate poverty on an unprecedented scale, with speed and
effectiveness.

What are the challenges to a transition to a Green Economy, and what will make it possible?

 

What is the green economy?

The Green Economy is being mentioned everywhere it seems. Open up a paper or magazine, listen to the radio or TV or visit a website or blog and chances are that it will appear as part of some story. It is certainly an increasingly discussed  subject and it is imperative to understand the relevance  in our troubled economic times.

The principal challenge is how we move towards an economic system that will benefit more people over the long run. Transitioning to a Green Economy will require a fundamental shift in thinking about growth and development, production of goods and services, and consumer habits. This transition will not happen solely because of better information on impacts, risks or good economic analysis; ultimately, it is about politics and changing the political economy of how big decisions are made.

The green economy embraces such diverse industries such as renewable energy production like wind, solar, and electric energy distribution and efficiency organic agriculture, green transportation and green building ranging from energy efficient lighting, to electric passenger trains, to cellulosic bio fuels, to carbon capture, to home insulation.  It is a very diverse industries that is linked together by the desire to achieve sustainability  in a manner that is more Earth Friendly.

What is the "Green Economy"?

 

A Green Economy can be thought of as an alternative vision for growth and development; one that can generate growth and improvements in people’s lives in ways consistent with sustainable development. A Green Economy promotes a triple bottom line: sustaining and advancing economic, environmental and social well-being.

It is a methodology of economics that supports the harmonious interaction between humans and nature and attempts to meet the needs of both simultaneously. The green economic theories encompass a wide range of ideas all dealing with the interconnected relationship between people and the environment. Green economists assert that the basis for all economic decisions should be in some way tied to the ecosystem.
Green economists perceive nature as being extremely valuable and seek to maintain it. Supporters of this branch of economics are concerned with the environment and believe that actions should be taken to protect nature and encourage the positive co-existence of both humans and nature. Emphasis is placed on creating value through quality rather than on accumulating material items and money.
For the purposes of the Green Economy Initiative, UNEP has developed a working definition of a green economy as one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. In its simplest expression, a green economy can be thought of as one which is low carbon, resource efficient and socially inclusive.

Practically speaking, a green economy is one whose growth in income and employment is driven by public and private investments that reduce carbon emissions and pollution, enhance energy and resource efficiency, and prevent the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. These investments need to be catalyzed and supported by targeted public expenditure, policy reforms and regulation changes. This development path should maintain, enhance and, where necessary, rebuild natural capital as a critical economic asset and source of public benefits, especially for poor people whose livelihoods and security depend strongly on nature.
"To truly transform our economy, protect our security and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy," President Obama