It is no secret by now that the world is suffering from global warming. Due to increased temperatures, earlier snow melt, and lengthening warm seasons, wildfires have skyrocketed all across the United States. Even though the number of wildfires have not increased to an unusual amount, the new dry conditions have caused wildfires to become harder to control and more easily spread. According to the National Climate Assessment of 2018, over the past 20 years, the gradual changes brought about through global warming have increased the area burned across the nation drastically.

Today, more than half of the Great Barrier Reef is dead. Food security is being threatened due to the loss of breeding grounds for fishes and marine mammals. The warming of ocean temperatures associated with global warming has caused a phenomenon called coral bleaching, slowly killing off ocean ecosystems and coral reefs around the world.

Global warming is happening, and it is taking its toll on the world both above and below ground.

Much of the problem with global warming is the human carbon footprint -- the amount of carbon we put into the atmosphere. According to the US Energy Information Administration, the burning of fossil fuels was responsible for about 76% of all green house gas emissions in 2017. Needless to say, the consumption of fossil fuels has had a significant impact on our carbon footprint and therefore global warming. 

As of 2019, the fossil fuel industry is the most subsidized industry in the United States. As a whole, the industry is estimated to have received over 5.2 trillion dollars worldwide in 2017. That is 6.5 percent of the entire world's capital set aside as subsidies for one industry. In fact, 85% of all subsidies are put into the fossil fuel industry. The United States is the second largest subsidizer, giving almost $650 billion dollars annually to support the extraction of coal, oil, and natural gases. By putting so many funds into the industry, the United States and other countries such as China and Europe enable these corporations to continue to extract resources and sell them at a cheaper price than they would without the subsidies. Sold at a cheaper price, the amount of fossil fuels consumed by the general population is much greater than unsubsidized levels. According to the IMF, reducing these subsidies would have lowered global carbon emissions by almost 30 percent, preventing almost half of air pollution deaths related to fossil fuels. 

If simply removing these subsidies would reduce our global carbon emissions by almost a third, what would happen if this money was used instead to subsidize renewable energy sources? The answer would be job development, the creation of a long term source of energy, and further reduced emissions as the societal infrastructure moves off of fossil fuels. In order for this transition to happen seamlessly, however, the government must stop their support of the fossil fuel industry. 

Join us in requesting Congress to halt government spending on the fossil fuel industry. Every signature can help us make this transition to a greener world a reality.