Global warming becomes major issue in election

course at Villanova University held by Bread for the World representatives readied them to take on Washington D.C. on Friday.

Gina Sciubba, elementary and early childhood education major, said, “I felt that going down to D.C. was an experience I would not have gotten to do without this class, and to be honest I really enjoyed it and I felt as though I made some sort of impact on the world.”

The day began with a briefing with CRS representatives, Brendan Cavanagh, the CRS grassroots advocacy specialist, and CRS legislative assistant Jenna Welch. It ended with 23 smiling students and several impressed and blown away Congress staff members.

Cavanagh said, “I’m very proud that CRS was a partner in this practicum. CRS was able to share its advocacy expertise and in return got valuable advocacy support. I am confident that all of the students who participated came away with an understanding of advocacy and an appreciation of its importance.”

“It is a good thing to contribute money or canned goods to help a hungry family. It is another thing entirely to change the laws that can make a better life for one billion people around the world,” said Zurek.

Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”

The funding for the campaign has mainly come from private contributors. In a phone interview with the Washington Post, Gore declined to name his exact contribution but stated that he has given all of the proceeds from “An Inconvenient Truth,” both the book and the documentary, and from his 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, among other things.

Gore is introducing his campaign at a crucial time in the political election, when the final two Democrats are fighting for their spot on the ballot and whoever wins will have to fight it out with McCain. The campaign is trying to ensure that the issue of global warming will be as important as the other top issues of the election, like Iraq and health care.

Now that many people are catching the going green phenomenon, it is almost guaranteed that the next president will have to take more of a stance on global warming than the current administration has.

As of February 2008, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton support an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. John McCain was the lead author of a bill to reduce emissions by 65 percent by 2050.

McCain supports an increase in fuel efficiency with no specifications, while Obama supports a standard of 50 mpg in 18 years and Clinton supports a standard of 55 mpg in 22 years.

Clinton and Obama have specific goals set for a renewable electricity standard, while McCain has opposed proposed standards in 2002 and more recently in 2005. Clinton has a goal of a 20 percent reduction in energy consumption by 2020, Obama has a goal of a 50 percent reduction in energy intensity by 2020 and McCain supports energy efficiency but has no target specified. All of the candidate information was gathered from ecovote.org.

“It’s important to change the light bulbs but it’s much more important to change the laws,” Gore said in an interview with the Washington Post. “The path for recovery runs right through Washington, D.C.”