Rainforest Action Network



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		JANUARY 13, 1999 6:05 PM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Rainforest Action Network Mark Westlund: ranmedia@ran.org Shannon Wright: amazonia@ran.org Telephone: 415/398-4404

		NASA: Global warming Is Real - What Should Be Done? Environmentalists Urge End To New Fossil Fuel Exploration

		SAN FRANCISCO - January 13 - "NASA's announcement yesterday that global warming is real should send a message to the world's oil companies and automobile manufacturers that they cannot continue to deny the obvious. Oil's day is over. It is time to invest in the wealth of renewable energy and sustainable development options that already exist, and to stop destroying irreplaceable rainforests and the traditional people who live there for a few more barrels of oil." - Shannon Wright, Clean Energy Campaign Environmentalists' concerns about global warming and climate change were validated yesterday when NASA scientists announced that 1998 was the warmest recorded year in history. "There should no longer be an issue about whether global warming is occurring, but what is the rate of warming, what is its practical significance and what should be done about it," said Dr. James Hansen, a scientist with the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. "It's no secret that fossil fuel emissions are the leading contributor to climate change," said RAN's Clean Energy Campaign director Shannon Wright; "little can be done unless energy companies stop exploring for gas and oil and commit themselves instead to investing in renewable energies. " The oil and gas industry spends over $150 billion annually on new exploration, but invests little in developing renewable sources of energy. The ongoing exploration threatens old growth forests in at least 22 countries, coral reefs in 38 countries, and mangroves in 46 countries. In addition, indigenous peoples on every inhabitable continent and at least eight isolated groups face an immediate or near-term threat from exploration. The NASA report concluded that the average worldwide temperature in 1998 was 58.496 degrees, topping the record of 58.154 degrees set in 1995. NASA researchers collecting data from thousands of meteorological stations around the world have concluded that although some natural phenomena may have contributed to the warming, the planet is exiting the range of normal climatic variability. ### Rainforest Action Network (RAN) works to protect the Earth's rainforests and support the rights of their inhabitants through education, grassroots organizing and non-violent direct action.