NEWS RELEASE

November 8, 2004

CLIMATE CHANGE: OPPORTUNITY FOR BUSH TO SHOW MORAL LEADERSHIP

The Circumpolar Conservation Union hailed the release of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment as a wake-up call to all Americans about the startling impact climate change is already having in our own country, where the welfare and safety of Alaskan citizens is at stake—and sounds the alarm to all humanity about the serious global consequences to follow. The report has the potential to be the tipping point in the global climate change debate and provides a timely opportunity for the administration to reengage on the issue with credibility. "President Bush’s response will prove a first test of his post-election pledge to work together to protect all Americans, as global warming challenges our security as a nation and as a species," says Evelyn Hurwich, President of the Circumpolar Conservation Union. "Climate change is a weapon of mass destruction staring us in the face, threatening all of creation. The science is in and the evidence before us. There is now a moral duty to act on it."

The Circumpolar Conservation Union is the only Washington DC-based NGO observer to the Arctic Council, focused exclusively on circumpolar Arctic issues. Having worked in a nonpartisan manner on environmental and indigenous rights issues for the past decade, the Circumpolar Conservation Union is currently working closely with scientists, religious groups and Arctic stakeholders to bring the Assessment’s findings and implications to the attention of the American public and decision-makers. The Circumpolar Conservation Union will be in Reykjavik for the release of the Assessment on November 9^th, and on November 24^th when Arctic Council Ministers under Iceland’s chairmanship will formally accept it.

Mandated by the Arctic Council Ministers from the eight Arctic nations meeting at Barrow, Alaska in 2000, the Assessment is the most compressive regional study of climate change ever undertaken. The report delivers a staggering message that human induced climate change is no longer mere hypothesis, but is well underway in the Arctic. Previously the Bush administration said the science wasn’t in on climate change and that measures to mitigate global warming would prove too costly—the evidence before us now makes clear that the cost of doing nothing will be much greater.

The prospect for the future is good if either Iceland’s commitment to be the first non-fossil fuel nation, or Russia’s decision to ratify Kyoto are indicators. "Whatever approach the new Administration chooses, we need aggressive action to combat global climate change now," says Ms. Hurwich. "We need measures both to mitigate the effects of climate change and to help people adapt to it —safeguarding our citizens and all life on earth."

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PRESS CONTACTS:

Evelyn Hurwich, Circumpolar Conservation Union, wk: 202-675-8370 x105