Adapted from Moms Clean Air Force
Cleaning up dangerous air pollutants—important for our children’s health.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced the Clean Power Plan in June, 2014, which will limit carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants.
And the deadline for leaving a comment showing your support is December 1, 2014. Listen to the latest Green Divas myEARTH360 Report to learn more about it and how to take action. Then read on for more details about why the Clean Power Plan is so important for our children’s health.
Dominique Browning, co-founder and senior director of Moms Clean Air Force, said:
Moms Clean Air Force salutes the new carbon protections, now EPA’s most important work. They continue a great—and pragmatic—bipartisan tradition of using the Clean Air Act to safeguard our families from harmful pollutants.
Carbon dioxide emissions from power plants are driving climate disruption, leading to a range of serious public health impacts that we are already experiencing.
Carbon pollution is responsible for thousands of premature deaths, higher risk of asthma attacks and respiratory disease, and hundreds of thousands of missed workdays.
Children bear the health burden of climate change already, suffering disproportionately from pollution-related respiratory problems, extreme weather injuries and displacements, malnutrition and hunger from crop disruption, and increased illnesses as disease vectors expand their range.
Asthma is just one example of how climate change harms children in particular. In the US, asthma already affects one in ten children, with higher rates among minority groups and low-income communities. Researchers predict that asthma will get worse from future climate disruption, due to increased heat, rising pollen levels, and the increases in smog and soot that are predicted to plague urban areas – all of which are asthma triggers.
Because climate change will disproportionately affect the health of children, moms and dads support placing strong limits on the amount of carbon that can be emitted from power plants.
Today’s Clean Power Plan will place needed limits on a dangerous air pollutant that until now has gone unregulated.
“Just as we place limits on emissions of lead, mercury, and carbon monoxide, we need to cut carbon pollution from power plants, our nation’s largest source of carbon pollution,” says Browning. “These rules give parents across the country hope that we can avert the terrible consequences of a chaotic climate.”
Take action!
Electricity plants running on coal produce more than a quarter of US carbon pollution. Right now, there are absolutely no limits on carbon pollution. That’s plain wrong.
The only way to slow global warming is to cut down greenhouse gas emissions. Fortunately, the EPA has proposed new rules that would place limits on carbon pollution from power plants–and we need those limits in place as soon as possible.
Tell the EPA that you care about climate change and want the strongest possible limits on carbon pollution from power plants as soon as possible.
Note: Moms Clean Air Force will submit your comment into the public docket on EPA’s proposed carbon rule when you use the link above.
Bonus.
Listen to the latest Green Divas Radio Show.
[dynamic-sidebar id=’Custom Widget 2′]
