A Black think tank convenes a commission to focus on the disparate impact of climate change on minority communities and help involve historically Black institutions in clean energy projects.
 |
For more than two decades, Dr. Warren M. Washington, one of the nation’s leading meteorologists, has been among the U.S. scientists that have studied and predicted the long-term impact greenhouse gas emissions are having on the earth’s climate. Long convinced that reducing climate change requires global action to curtail greenhouse gas emissions, Washington, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., has taken on speaking engagements and activities, such as joining the Commission to Engage African-Americans on Climate Change, to advocate on behalf of people living in economically and socially disadvantaged communities.
After working together for less than a year, Washington and other commission members this past spring shepherded a set of principles to help guide the protection of minorities and poor people and presented them to congressional leaders and staffers who have been working on comprehensive climate change and clean energy legislation currently under consideration by Congress, according to Washington.
Passed by the House of Representatives in late June as the American Clean Energy and Security Act, the legislation, also known as the Waxman-Markey bill after sponsors Reps. Henry Waxman and Ed Markey, would establish a wide range of clean air emissions standards, clean energy job programs, and renewable energy technology development initiatives to facilitate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The Senate is considering climate change and clean energy legislation and is expected to approve such legislation this year.
