Dear Friend,

With unprecedented rains washing away crops in the American bread basket, and a new surge of forest fires in California, it's clearer than ever that the time for a Secure Green Future is NOW!.

Indeed, global warming is advancing much faster than scientists have predicted. The Greenland ice cap is exhibiting unexpected signs of breaking up, which could create flooding that would be worse than 23 Hurricane Katrinas. British scientists just reported that massive cracks have appeared in the Artic ice cap. An article in Science presents evidence that we have passed critical tipping points, and we need to reverse carbon dioxide build-up, not just slow it down. On top of all this, the global economy is beginning to unravel as dwindling oil reserves drive up fuel costs for an oil-addicted world.

To address these emerging crises with the level of urgency they demand, the Mass. Coalition for Healthy Communities, through our Code Green project, is helping to launch a public policy question called the Secure Green Future (SGF). This advisory question calls for legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions in Massachusetts 80% by 2020, and to shift tax incentives and subsidies at the state level from energy-intensive development projects towards building the local, green economies we urgently need.

[Note: The Committee for a Secure Green Future is a nonpartisan ballot committee formed to promote the Secure Green Future question. The SGF question was developed by the Green-Rainbow Party's Advisory Ballot Working Group. Early organizing support is being provided by the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities.]