For those history buffs interested in better understanding how Americans have come to understand climate science, check out this video.

On an encouraging note, it highlights a 2007 poll which found that 72% of American citizens are "mostly convinced" that global warming is happening. It seems the science on climate warming is starting to get through. 

Last month I spent a weekend in Miami Beach at the world’s first carbon-neutral sailfish tournament, co-sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation. The tournament offset an estimated 200 tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions through AgCert, which is using the funds for a project on the East Coast to recapture agricultural methane, a greenhouse gas more than 20 times as powerful as carbon dioxide in trapping heat. Our National Wildlife Federation boat caught and released a total of four sailfish, good enough for 10^{th place.}

A sunny weekend on a boat off the coast of Florida may sound like a vacation. But that calming cruise turns into stressful sport the instant a line starts twitching and your captain starts yelling, "Someone get that rod! Reel, reel, reel!" National Wildlife Federaton supporter Ray Golden and National Wildlife Federation regional representative Ron Warnken were each able to catch-and-release a sailfish, but if you know Ray or Ron, you’ve probably already heard the story – they couldn’t stop talking about what a thrill it was.

And that takes us back to the concern that drove Capt. Dan Kipnis to make The Sailfish Tournament carbon-neutral in the first place – will future generations be able to enjoy the same outdoor opportunities we do now? Or will they live in a used-to-be world where all they know about sailfish, polar bears and moose are the stories they’ve heard from their parents?

That’s why the National Wildlife Federation supports climate change legislation that reduces global warming pollution at least 2% per year and seeks dedicated funding to conserve and restore America’s natural resources already impacted by global warming.

Take a look at this video and you’ll see what we’re fighting to save: http://www.youtube.com/v/7K20_jHLMu4&rel=1

The budget presented on Monday by the White House is an outrage.

It contradicts the hopeful words spoken by the president in his State of the Union address just a week ago about confronting global warming, and sends a message to the nation that any effort by this administration to advance a clean energy future is just empty talk.

Perhaps most egregious, the administration is eliminating the Weatherization Assistance Program that helps poor families reduce their energy bills by making their homes more energy efficient. The Department of Energy's website claims the program "is this country's longest running, and perhaps most successful energy efficiency program. During the last 30 years, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Weatherization Assistance Program has provided weatherization services to more than 5.5 million low-income families."

We need to lift America's poor out of their energy dependency by giving them access to energy efficiency opportunities. It is unfair to make those least responsible for global warming pay more to confront the problem. And the weatherization assistance program is one proven way to help those Americans least able to invest in solutions do their part.

If we hope to reduce global warming pollution by 2 percent per year and meet the targets scientists say are necessary to avoid a climate catastrophe, we must use every tool available, and the most obvious – and easy – is promoting energy efficiency on a large scale.

I’m alarmed that the actions of the administration seem to be in direct conflict with the words President Bush spoke during the State of the Union.

President Bush in State of the Union speech:

And the president just cut $280 million from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), a block grant program that helps the poor pay heating and air-conditioning bills.

Meanwhile, the budget for the "President's Coal Research Initiative" rises more than 40 percent over 2008 levels.

President Bush in State of the Union speech:

The president says he wants to confront global warming. But his budget suggests he’s committed to do-nothing policies for the remainder of his presidency. If he does not act now to confront climate change, he will have left behind a nation full of deficits: financial and environmental.

Outrageous.

Taylor Francis is an inspiring young man from San Francisco who believes he can make a difference. Here is a 15-year old high school student who has rejected the widely-held belief that one person cannot make a difference on climate change. Taylor is the youngest of the one thousand Gore-trained Climate Project presenters and he is literally changing the world with his passion and knowledge. He has now spoken about the urgency of global warming in scores of slide presentations to about ten-thousand people.

This summer, Taylor is going to extend his message to places where he has never been before. He is planning a trip to China in June to speak to potentially tens of thousands of high school and college students in Shanghai and Beijing. His trip was just approved this weekend by Chinese officials and Taylor is now doing his research on what the Chinese people can do to stop global warming.

Like Taylor, do you think you can make a meaningful difference addressing global warming? I am not asking you to go to China, rather I am asking this pointed question because I was saddened by one of the key findings in a recent Yankelovich Poll that revealed that only one in five Americans "feel they can make a difference when it comes to the environment." Wow, what happened to the once pervasive "can do" American spirit that has made this country great in times past?

I am particularly concerned with my generation. This is our watch. As older adults, we have the duty to protect the nature of tomorrow for our children and their children. Sadly, we are failing. What has depleted our once-famed entrepreneurial spirit? What has happened to our confidence in good-old-fashioned grassroots democracy as the only real agent of change? Why are we neglecting our personal roles? Why are we not acting?

Perhaps a constant drumbeat of "feel good" television ads from big oil and big coal has successfully misled us to believe that they hold the solution. (Do you think we ought to trust our energy future to an oil oligopoly?) Instead of investing in clean energy technologies that create green-collar jobs and carbon-free energy supplies, for the past two years, ExxonMobil has chosen to take in about eighty-billion dollars in profits. Can we trust our future to ExxonMobil? Only a few would admit to such folly. Yet, a steady stream of green-washing may be lulling us into a dangerous complacency and dependence. Thank about it, when has the problem ever become the solution?

Active volunteers threading back to this Nation’s founders have always been the real lubricant of democratic change. If "we, the people" fail to find solutions to global warming and ignore dangerous buildup of greenhouse gases, we will have only ourselves to blame.

Frustrated with our complacency, college students are rising up in record numbers to defend their own future and to give voice for legislative actions that can stop global warming. Last fall, six thousand college students gathered from across the Nation to rally at the "Power Shift" conference held at the University of Maryland. Many then went on to Washington to lobby Congress.

Recently, about a million students on 1,800 college and university campuses participated in the largest climate teach-in called "Focus the Nation."  While both of these highly successful efforts were co-sponsored by National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology Program and others, these gatherings were designed and organized by the students themselves.

Witnessing the leadership of so many students like Taylor Francis, I am reminded of something Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. once wrote, "Never tell a young person that something cannot be done. God may have been waiting for centuries for somebody ignorant of the impossible to do it."

When America’s youth have had enough and begin to lead, as they are now doing, I believe the "grown-ups" will soon follow. We all need to "be ignorant of the impossible" and believe that by working together we can reduce global warming pollution. We must muster the will to act. As we do, we will soon discover that we have the where-with-all to solve the climate crisis and to end our oil addiction at the same time. With more energy efficiency, photovoltaics and thermal solar, large-scale geothermal, tidal, ocean-current and wind energy, we can phase out our dependence on oil supplies from destabilized nations and eventually eliminate carbon emissions entirely.

By acting now, we can help wildlife and future generations survive. By reducing global warming pollution by about two percent each year, we can stop the pollution that will cause irreversible climate change. It is still possible to end the emissions of carbon into our environment in time to stop its buildup in the atmosphere. This is not an issue of technology, it’s an issue of moral obligation and personal will.

To learn more about Taylor’s travels visit his personal website at www.taylorfrancis.org

National Wildlife Federation's 2006 Campus Ecology Yearbook (17th Edition) is now available on line. It is searchable by topic and state at http://www.nwf.org/campusEcology/dspYearbook.cfm

Yesterday was the largest national teach-in on climate and global warming in U.S. history.  The Focus the Nation Team estimates that 3 million people participated at some 1,800 institutions across America.

This response would have seemed beyond possibility even two years ago. But is happened! -- There were seminars -- editorial visits -- classes -- labs -- letter campaigns -- email blitzes -- films -- rallies -- art shows -- concerts -- tabling events -- poster sessions -- petitions and more. The reports will be coming in for weeks.

A bipartisan group of nearly one third of U.S. Governors -- 20% of U.S. Senators -- 10% of the House membership -- participated directly as speakers along with many state and local officials.

And there are many more people -- future leaders -- better informed on global warming and what needs to be done today than there were yesterday morning at this time.