Yesterday, at Georgetown University, President Obama laid out his Administration’s broad-based plan to cut carbon pollution and meet the climate change challenge.
It’s a plan that starts with responsibility. While no single step can reverse the effects of climate change, President Obama believes we have a moral obligation to future generations to do what we can. After all, this is no longer a distant threat – we are already feeling the impacts now.
The 12 hottest years on record have all come in the last 15 years. Asthma rates have doubled in the past 30 years and our children will suffer more asthma attacks as air pollution gets worse. And increasing floods, heat waves, and droughts have taken a toll on our nation’s farmers, which is raising food prices. These changes come with far-reaching consequences and real economic costs. Last year alone, there were more than 11 different weather and climate disaster events with estimated losses exceeding $1 billion each across the United States.
During President Obama’s first term, we took a number of important steps to reduce carbon pollution and spark innovation in cleaner forms of energy. For example, we doubled our use of renewable electricity from wind, solar, and geothermal sources and set the toughest fuel efficiency standards in American history. Thanks in part to these actions, in 2012, U.S. carbon pollution from the energy sector fell to the lowest level in nearly 20 years. To build on this progress, the President’s Climate Action Plan has three pillars: cut carbon pollution in America; prepare the United States for climate impacts; and lead international efforts to combat global climate change.
Now, we’re already seeing many Republicans and some of the nation’s biggest polluters attack the President’s plan. And they’re recycling the same tired and empty arguments that we’ve heard time and time again. To separate fact from fiction, let’s dig a little deeper and compare their rhetoric with the reality.
Claim #1:
Reducing carbon pollution will hurt the economy and cost jobs.
FACT:
Over the last four decades, we have reduced common pollutants by more than half and have doubled economic output.
Our own history shows us that we can protect our environment, reduce harmful pollution, and promote economic growth all at the same time. And the numbers speak for themselves: between 1970 and 2011, aggregate emissions of common air pollutants dropped 68 percent, while the U.S. gross domestic product grew 212 percent. Private sector jobs increased by 88 percent during the same period.
What’s even worse about this claim is that it suggests a lack of faith in American businesses to innovate. When we banned cancer-causing chemicals in our toys, and leaded fuel in our cars, it didn’t end the plastics industry or the oil industry; American chemists came up with better, cheaper substitutes. When we phased out chlorofluorocarbons – the gases that depleted the ozone layer – it didn’t kill off refrigerators and air conditioners; American workers built better ones.
The bottom line is that we don’t have to choose between the health of our children and the health of our economy. Those goals go hand in hand. And by taking action to reduce carbon pollution, we can spark new jobs and industries building cleaner and more efficient American-made energy technologies.
Fonte: White House