Things That Make You Go Green

So today I decided I’m going to spend a bit of time writing letters to my representatives, asking them to support better federal regulations of greenhouse gasses. It’s something (writing letters to politicians, that is) I haven’t done since elementary school - these days we sign eletronic petitions or send emails, but I’m thinking that there’s still something significant and impactful about receiving a paper letter. So here goes.

Step 1: Figure out who my representatives are:

• Since I live in California, and since I’m not totally out of touch, I know that my Senators are Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. But sadly, I have no idea who my congressman is. Thankfully, you can easily find out who your representatives are here: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml. Apparently my congressman is Tom Lantos. Good to know! So I’ll be sending letters to:
  • President George Bush
  • Senator Barbara Boxer
  • Senator Diane Feinstein
  • Congressman Tom Lantos

Step 2: Write something:

• Enviornmental Action Defense Fund has written a petition asking congress to support “The Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act” (read more about it here). I decided to use their template as a starting point since it addresses legislation that is currently in play.
• I don’t know if they read these letters, but because I think that the Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act doesn’t go far enough, I’ve sauced up the letter with some references to the recommendations that Al Gore made in his testimony before congress. ‘
• Here’s what the letter I’m sending looks like: Paul’s letter.

Step 3: Mail and wait

• Now that the letters are in the mail, let’s see what happens. When I was a little kid, and we wrote to Ronald Reagan after he was shot by John Hinkley, he wrote back a letter, so let’s see what happens with these!