Green Daily

Call me crazy, but I'm guessing more climate change concern is better than less. I mean, it's better than climate change apathy given the evidence of serious environmental problems we're facing.

Grassfire.org doesn't feel that way - the conservative organization has announced that they have received over 100, 000 signatures for their petition to "Stop Climate Alarmism". More specifically, the petition is fighting the America's Climate Security Act of 2007 being considered by the United States Senate.

The group already commissions a number of right-wing petitions on touchy issues like increasing US border security and stopping Internet porn (which could suck for a certain porn-loving Canadian traveler I know).

What they're getting very excited about is the recent news of getting more signatures than Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection petition over an eight day period (although Gore's Alliance does claim over 1 million signatures over a longer period). They're also pointing out that, compared to Gore's $300 million ad campaign, the apparently low-cost, grassroots petition launched by Grassfire.org is more popular since its launch.
As a Canadian, this specific bill and the carbon taxes involved won't directly hit me (though the idea of taxing carbon emissions seems to make sense - shouldn't there be more of a financial cost to spewing carbon?). But to call the petition "Stop Climate Alarmism" seems to marginalize the problem. The President of Grassfire.org, Steve Elliott, says that other issues, like the struggling economy, rising gas prices and the mortgage crisis, are more pressing to Americans and that more government bureaucracy is the last thing we need.

Fair enough. Bureaucracy is not always the answer, but a mortgage crisis won't mean much if your house gets swept out to sea (yeah, that may sound like climate alarmist thinking, but I'm probably not going to be signing this petition anytime soon).

Despite calling climate change a "debatable crisis", Elliott's points out that the Grassfire.org's petition has a smaller carbon footprint compared to Gore's much bigger, more polluting efforts.