We know that global warming threatens our way of life.
Experts predict that the decreased snow-pack in the Sierra's will mean massive shortages in clean drinking water in California; there will be a longer and more severe wildfire season, coastal cities like San Francisco and Santa Monica will become submerged as sea levels rise. According to scientists the window of opportunity to avoid the worst effects of global warming is quickly closing.
Solving the problem won't be easy; we need to transform how we use energy and live our lives. We are going to need new technology and policies that will get these technologies put in place.
But while the scientists and politicians argue about the long-term solutions and haggle over politics, the one thing we do know is that we’re ready to take action now.
We have a lot of the tools to take the first big steps today, improvements to solar and wind make those technologies cheaper and better than ever before. We can transform a regular hybrid vehicle into a plug in electric hybrid that gets more than 100 mpg. We can build buildings that are so energy efficient they net energy rather than use any energy.
And we’re not just ready, we’ve already started. On campus, students have been leading the way. Students at UCSC buy 100% of their energy from clean energy sources, Bauer Hall at Berkeley is one of the most energy efficient buildings in the world, at USC they entire campus fleet is green cars and the UC Chancellors are committed to making the UC campuses carbon neutral.
Students have worked to pass transformative legislation, like the Million Solar Roofs initiative, quadrupling the number of solar homes in the last 3 years, and the Global Warming Solutions Act, capping California's emissions.
To stop the worst effects of global warming, we need to reduce global warming pollution at least 25 % below 1990 levels by 2020. We'll educate people across the state about technology that we do have to solve the problem, we'll continue to lead the way by getting these technologies put into place on campus and in our communities and we will call on our elected officials to do what they can to cut global warming emissions.
