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Hello. I'm here to support the Clean Power Plan. I recently received a master of science in 

sustainable systems and one thing I learned while studying sustainable systems is that our earth is 

one huge eco-system comprising thousands of smaller eco-systems, all delicately interwoven and 

interdependent. Another point I learned is how necessary greenhouse gases are; these gases make a 

blanket covering the earth, without which the sun's rays would reflect back out in space and we 

would have no heat. But what's been happening for the past 200 years is that we have been 

thickening this blanket of greenhouse gases by putting more and more carbon into the atmosphere. 

The more carbon that goes in, the heavier the blanket and the warmer the earth gets. Since the 

beginning of human civilization our atmosphere contained about 275 ppm (parts per million, the 

ratio of carbon dioxide to all the other molecules in the atmosphere). As we burned fossil fuels over 

the past 200 years, the level has now reached 400 ppm. The considered safe level to avoid tipping 

points and irreversible impacts is 350 ppm. lfwe continue at our current pace, we ·Nil! not only 

continue to destroy the oalance of the eco-systems, we could make the earth uninhabitable for 

humans. The eartn will survive; our future generations may no-c. 

The earth is already demonstrating effects of warming, of which I'm sure you're all aware, but let 

me just shout out a few. The sea levels are rising as well as the water temperature, which causes 

more severe storms and is a threat to coastal cities and countries. Droughts and wildfires are 

ravaging our western states. Glaciers are melting; the white ice sheets reflect sunrays back away 

from earth, now where the ice used to be, the tundra that was underneath absorbs the heat. This 

and more have a cumulative snowball effect; the more that happens, the faster the effect. 

Even herP in western Pennsylvania, severe storms have increased. Until the 1980s tornaaoes were 

rare, likely to happen once every hundred years. But now, it's commonplace to expect a tornado 

watch. But that's minor compared to what's happening around the world. We are a global 

community and we have to be a world leader in reducing the carbon emissions. 

And it is imperative tnat we reduce carbon emissions now. The changes due to warming are 

happen,ng at a rate faster than climate models predicted. And Ihe carbon that's there doesn't 

dissipate quickly; it hangs around a icng ':ime. But we can ana need to get it down to 350 ppm. From 

a sciemiftc viewpoint, there's no questiOn. 

So why is there such hesitation about tnese stanaards, these scandams th<:t just begin to make a 

move toward reining in the amount oi carbon going into the a'.r!' This is a time when all people 

showd slap their hands on their heads and say, 'Yes, we neE:d to do this. lt makEs sense." Even if it 

weren't as dire as the latest reports are confirming, it would only make sense to cut the carbon 

emissions anyway. To not limit the amount of carbon we pump in the air is not only ludicrous; it's 

suicidal; ir'; already ieading to extmctions. How ironic it would he that we wipe ourselves off the 

planet due to denial a.nd greed. 

The opposing viewpoints focus or, fear and scare tactics, primarily fear of iosin€; jobs. But the real 

scare i' what is happening to our planet. There are no jobs on a dead planet. 

The co;npanies that made their fortunes in fossil f'-ieis need to turn to renewable energies. C.onsol 

Solar sounds pretty good! The renewable energies are the future. Put the jobs there. The fossil fuels 

are not sustainable; It took the earth milliOns of years to make ,[,e coal and oil reserves. Let's value 

wnat ;;; left of them and slow down the usage, instead of desper;;::ely mining and drilling and 

releasing the miliwns of years of stored carbon that is within mr:m. We can survive any possible 

economic ·=ffect; we c;•.nnot survive increased carbon levels. 

! urge yiJu to fully implement the Clean Power Pian.