Global Warming, Here And Now

The latest from John Edwards...

Global warming isn't a problem our children will face—it's a reality today and it’s accelerating much faster than ever predicted.

We cannot wait until the next president is elected to take action. We all must take responsibility and do our part to stop global warming today—even if the current government refuses to act.

That's why today I’m announcing my commitment to make my campaign "carbon neutral"—meaning we will offset the impact of all our energy use to ensure that our campaign does not contribute to global warming.

To achieve carbon neutrality, we’re taking two big steps. First, we’re implementing a number of simple but effective techniques to conserve energy in our national and field offices. And I’ve asked my staff to take concrete steps to reduce their own energy consumption. Conserving energy now is the single biggest thing we all can do as individuals to combat global warming.

But presidential campaigns by their nature use an enormous amount of energy for travel and operations. Which is why today I have also directed the campaign to purchase carbon offsets that support alternative energy production to neutralize the global warming impact from our travel and office energy use.

Carbon offsets are an expensive proposition for a national campaign—but I believe it is an investment for our planet that we simply must make.

Global warming is bigger than any political party, any election—and certainly any one campaign—and good ideas for achieving carbon neutrality should be shared freely.

I'd like to hear your ideas on how we—all of us on this campaign, and throughout America—can reduce our emissions of carbon dioxide.

Tell me your ideas by visiting our campaign blog here.

We weren't the first campaign to declare our efforts to become carbon neutral. Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack had announced carbon neutrality for his campaign shortly before he withdrew a few weeks ago.

Currently, we're the only campaign in either party to make the carbon neutral pledge—but we hope we won’t be for long. Global warming doesn't stop at party lines and neither should our commitment to preventing it.

I hope that you will do your part as well to stop global warming by taking action to conserve energy in your home, office and personal life.

Thank you for doing your part,

John Edwards

To learn more about the campaign and find out how you can help, click here.

Also, here is John Edwards speaking out on the Iraq war in partnership with Democracy for America.