Ask Philanthropists: Fund Climate Breakthrough Now!
I am writing to you today to ask for your help. I am extremely alarmed and I believe you can help us all do what is needed to stop the destruction of everything I care about. Time is running out for effective climate stabilization below the globally adopted 2°C/3.6°F heat ceiling. As you know, above that temperature runaway climate change is increasingly likely. If we don’t change course soon, we lock in enough future warming to blow through this heat ceiling within the next generation. I believe the US must lead the way, given our role in creating the problem and our unequaled ability to develop solutions to great challenges. We must make it increasingly costly to release heat-trapping pollution into our air and we must begin an economy-wide transition to 100 percent clean energy right now. The problem is that there is not enough urgency. Current efforts are clearly not up to the challenge of stopping runaway climate change. Our policy makers are paralyzed, while business waits for, or often, actively impedes government action. So, the non-profit sector must awaken and mobilize citizens in a coordinated campaign to push government to act. History repeatedly has demonstrated that dramatic change can be accomplished by a small percentage of committed people. A strategic plan for such a campaign exists. We have little time left to act and so we must be bold in vision and action. An extensive US grassroots campaign must begin before nations come together for the UN Climate Conference in Paris this December to develop a plan for averting catastrophic global warming. Billions of dollars are needed to conduct the campaign over this next year. As leading philanthropists, I am asking you please to work with your peers, such as those with The Giving Pledge to help fund the campaign to unite disparate efforts, galvanize citizens, and catalyze climate stability. The Giving Pledge donors have the only funding pool deep enough and the ability to act quickly enough in order to engender climate stabilization in the short time left. Moreover, I believe that if the climate is not stabilized, then all the other good work of Philanthropy would go for naught on a rapidly warming planet. Now is the time, you and your peers can provide the needed leadership, and there is nowhere else to turn. For the sake of all that we hold most dear, please help lead us to a viable, clean, and healthy future. Thank you for all the good things you do.
Bill and Melinda Gates, Tom Steyer, Peter and Jennifer Buffett, Michael Bloomberg
First & Last Name
Email
please leave blank
Address
City
Zip