|
The only way that we can get real leadership on climate change is with leaders who believe that it's real. Sign here to have that message, and your personal comment to Senator Inhofe, to his office via snowball (yes we're serious).
Friend,
In case you didn't see it, last week Senator James Inhofe turned the Senate floor into an episode of the Marx Brothers. In his latest attempt to convince us that climate change is, in his words, "The Greatest Hoax" the senator tossed a snowball on the Senate floor. He thought it was a funny way to "prove" his argument that if it's cold enough to snow in Washington D.C. human-induced climate change is a hoax.1
While it's tempting to dismiss Inhofe as a fool, the truth is more insidious than ridiculous. Inhofe collects millions in campaign contributions from Big oil and other fossil fuel companies2 - So do most of the politicians in power right now, which is why Inhofe gets to chair the Senate's most powerful committee on the Environment, instead of being laughed out of the Congress.
And with another big snowstorm hitting DC this week, I've got an idea for how we can show everyone that we're on to the truth behind Inhofe's denial. Sign here and we'll deliver dozens of snowballs to Sen Inhofe's office, and we'll inscribe each one with a personal message from climate activists like you to the Pro-tem of climate denial.
Inhofe's stunt was so incredulous that it almost rendered the White House speechless.3 But Inhofe's theatrics are no laughing matter. He is the chairman of the powerful Senate Environment and Public Works committee, which determines whether key environmental laws make it to the full Senate and helps to set the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). And Inhofe, whose family once constructed an igloo on the National Mall to poke fun at former Vice President Al Gore4, is not stupid.
As we've written previously, the leading climate deniers in Congress are also the members most heavily paid by the fossil fuel industry.5 The connection between big business that profits from global warming pollution, and our broken political process that runs on money is more than coincidental.
Before we can swipe denial from the halls of Congress, and make our government a tool to fight climate change, we need to confront the spokespeople blocking action - like Inhofe. But to shake up and wake up the Congress, the media, and our communities, we need to do it in a way that's funny, visual and engaging.
That's why we plan to deliver your messages to Senator Inhofe via snowball. Here's the deal: you sign this petition, and include a message for Senator Inhofe. Our team in D.C. will make hundreds of snowballs (there's plenty of fresh snow to work with today) and hand write your messages (as many as we can fit) onto the snowballs with organic food coloring. Then we'll grab a camera and some friends and go deliver all the snowballs, and your messages, to Inhofe's office.
I don't know if the Senate security will let us in with all the snow, or what the Senator will do with all that ice and water once we give it to him. But I do know that it will be a lot of fun to watch. More importantly, it will be a safe, non-toxic, totally sustainable (what's a more renewable resource in the northeast this year than snow?) way to respond to Inhofe's ludicrous claims, and show that we know he's nothing more than a paid mouthpiece for corporate climate killers.
Click here to get started by signing our petition, and adding your message to be included to Senator Inhofe.
Thanks!
Drew Hudson, and the pro-snow team at Environmental Action
1 - C-SPAN, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) Snowball in the Senate
2 - Oil Change International, Dirty Energy Money database, Sen james Inhofe.
3 - Elana Schor, Jim Inhofe’s latest climate pitch: Snow joke, Politico, Feb. 26, 2015
4 - Brad Johnson, Inhofe’s Grandchildren Build Igloo To Mock Killer Snow Storm: ‘Al Gore’s New Home’, Think Progress Green, Feb. 9, 2010
|
