Singer and songwriter Carole King lives in the Northern Rockies and has spent years exploring nearby forests and mountain peaks. She loves the region's rugged beauty, but lately she has begun to fear losing it to a powerful and dangerous force. Climate change threatens to devastate millions of acres of trees, wreak havoc with wildlife, and undermine the regional economy. If left unchecked, climate change could cause irreversible damage to this iconic American landscape.
But Carole has also noticed another potent force at work: concerned citizens holding fossil fuel companies accountable and demanding clean power now. Across the Northern Rockies -- and the countless other places hit hard by climate change -- Americans are calling for a more sustainable future.
Carole has added her voice to the choir with a new video at NRDC's DemandCleanPower.org.
People know Carole as one of the most successful and beloved songwriters in pop music history and incredible performer as well. But I want to share another dimension I have seen first-hand over many years. Carole has matched her passion for music with a fierce commitment to protecting America's wildlands. Whether she is trekking to Washington, D.C. to advocate for forests in her home state of Idaho or calling for climate action at live performances, Carole is a tireless champion for our natural heritage. I've had the pleasure of hearing her sing at NRDC events, and when she belts out "I Feel the Earth Move," you realize she moves on behalf of the Earth.
Like millions of other Americans, Carole knows we can power our country with clean energy. We have the ingenuity and resources to create energy that doesn't poison the air or destabilize the climate. But fossil fuel companies continue to carve up our wild landscapes and sink wells in our backyards and blow the tops off our mountains. People have had enough, and they are pushing back.
In Idaho, members of the Nez Perce tribe and others have opposed turning a remote mountain pass into a thoroughfare for massive trucks carrying "mega loads" of equipment for the Alberta tar sands oil mines. In Kansas and North Carolina, people blocked the oil and gas industry and its allies from repealing state renewable energy standards. And throughout the nation, citizens sent more than 3 million messages in favor of the Obama Administration first-ever carbon standards for power plants.
You can throw your support behind these and similar efforts by going to DemandCleanPower.org -- a gathering place for those who stand firmly against climate-destroying fuels and in favor of a clean energy future. Some of the nation's leading cultural figures, including Carole, Robert Redford, Van Jones, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Jack Kornfield are joining forces with us to help move America beyond fossil fuels and climate chaos.
We know how to build a sustainable energy future; we just need more citizens to insist upon starting today. As Carole says in her video: "We can overcome the big money interests that are keeping things the way they are. Please add your voice to mine. Get your friends and neighbors involved and demand clean power now."