For Immediate Release:
July 20th 2007
Dan Omasta, Colorado Campaign Coordinator, COPIRGs’ New Voters Project, (303) 573-0610,
Sujatha Jahagirdar, Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project Program Director, 323-309-6120, sujatha@studentpirgs.org
New Report Predicts Global Warming Disastrous for National Parks
Youth on the Campaign Trail to Ask Presidential Candidates: What’s Your Plan?
On the heels of a new report
that predicts disastrous consequences for the country’s national parks
as a result of global warming, young people in Chicago and throughout
the country are bringing their concerns about global warming directly
to all of the Presidential candidates.
“Global warming will
have a huge impact on the world that I inherit.” said Dan Omasta,
regional What’s Your Plan? campaign coordinator. “It is very important
to me to know what all of the candidates’ plans are to deal with this
problem.”
This weekend young people will be hot on the trail
of Mitt Romney as he attends an event at the Brown Palace Hotel at
12:00 pm in Denver tomorrow to ask him “What’s Your Plan to stop global
warming? (See below for times and locations) Students will also trail
Governor Romney at events in Iowa, Senator Barack Obama in Chicago and
all the candidates at the debate in Charleston, South Carolina.
The
question that students will pose to candidates this weekend is part of
a new national campaign called What’s Your Plan? that calls upon all
the Presidential hopefuls to pay attention to young people and address
key youth issues such as global warming, college affordability, health
care, and financial security.
Since the campaign launch, young
people have spoken to almost all of the Presidential candidates
including: Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Barack Obama, John Edwards,
Duncan Hunter, John Cox, Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd, John McCain,
Tommy Thompson, Ron Paul, Dennis Kucinich, Hillary Clinton, Sam
Brownback, Mike Huckabee and Joe Biden. See photo gallery
The
new report, released by the nonprofit National Parks Conservation
Association, highlights the possibility of more wildfires in Yosemite,
flooding in the Everglades, and disrupted ecosystems in the Smoky
Mountains as a result of global warming. “With more floods, drought,
and air pollution, global warming will have enormous consequences for
the word young people will inherit,” stated Sujatha Jahagirdar, the
Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project Program Director. ”Young people are
very aware of this fact and are more interested than ever in how the
candidates plan to tackle this problem.”
According to a recent poll
published by the New York Times, 58 percent of young people say that
they are paying attention to the 2008 elections, compared to just 35
percent at this point in 2004.
The Student PIRGs predict that
youth voter turnout will continue to increase in 2008 – and if the
candidates offer up detailed policies on youth-specific issues and
communicate them directly to young people, young people will vote even
more.
# # #
The Colorado Student
Public Interest Research Group (CoPIRG) is a non-partisan, student
directed, state-based organizations that works to solve public interest
problems related to the environment, consumer protection and government
reform. www.copirgstudents.org
What’s
Your Plan? is a project of the Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project and
allied youth organizations. Since 2003, the project registered more
than 600,000 young voters and made more than 650,000 personalized Get
Out the Vote contacts leading up to Election Day to turn out young
voters. www.whats-your-plan.org
