Manifesto Calls for US & World Leaders to Support Zero Emissions Goal at September UN Climate Sum

WASHINGTON - Sept. 3, 2014 - PRLog -- CONTACT:
Terence ”TC” Muhammad at 336-253-4498 (mobile) Terence@HipHopCaucus.org
Tom Weis at 303-378-1364 (mobile) tom@climatecrisissolutions.com

WHO:         Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., President Hip Hop Caucus &
   Tom Weis, President, Climate Crisis Solutions
WHAT:       Media Availability to Discuss Zero Emissions Manifesto
WHEN:       Wednesday-Friday, September 3-5
WHERE:    Rev. Yearwood in Washington, DC & Tom Weis in Boulder, CO

“A Zero Emissions Manifesto for the Climate Justice Movement (http://ecowatch.com/2014/09/03/zero-emissions-manifesto-climate-change/)” released today calls on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (who calls zero emissions an “achievable goal”) to challenge world leaders attending the Sept. 23 UN Climate Summit to bring their zero emission plans to COP20 in Lima, Peru this December and to COP21 in Paris, France in 2015. It also calls on U.S. political leaders to support zero emissions as a goal for the U.S., and for America to embrace its “moral imperative” to combat the climate crisis by launching a “wartime-like mobilization” to transition off of fossil fuels. Its release comes less than three weeks before the Sept. 21 People’s Climate March.

For the first time, the world’s leading climate authority, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has embraced a goal of near zero greenhouse gas emissions or below. Zero emissions has also been embraced by business leaders as well-known as Bill Gates, and world leaders as prominent as OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria; UN climate chief Christiana Figueres; Prince Charles; former President Jimmy Carter; former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan; and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

BIO
Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., President and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus, is a minister, community activist and one of the most influential people in Hip Hop political life.

A national leader within the green movement, Rev Yearwood has been successfully bridging the gap between communities of color and environmental advocacy for the past decade. Rolling Stone declared Rev Yearwood one of our country’s “New Green Heroes” and Huffington Post named him one of the top ten change-makers in the green movement.

Rev Yearwood entered the world of Hip Hop Politics when he served as the Political and Grassroots Director of Russell Simmons’ Hip Hop Summit Action Network in 2003 and 2004. He was also a key architect of P. Diddy’s “Vote Or Die!” campaign.  Then in 2004 he founded the Hip Hop Caucus to build a sustainable organization for Hip Hop politics.

Rev Yearwood is a proud graduate of the University of the District of Columbia & Howard University School of Divinity. He was born in Shreveport, Louisiana.

BIO
Tom Weis is President of Climate Crisis Solutions, a Boulder, CO-based consulting firm dedicated to solving the global climate crisis through a green industrial revolution. A social change agent with more than twenty-eight years of environmental and political expertise, he has served as a congressional aide to a Member of Congress and directed field operations for presidential campaigns in Iowa and Texas.

In 2010, Tom launched the “Ride for Renewables,” riding 2,500 miles from Colorado to Washington, DC championing a green energy “moon shot” for America. In 2011, he launched a campaign against Keystone XL, riding 2,150 miles from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast in support of farmers, ranchers and tribes fighting the project.

Prior to this, he spent six years as a wind developer, where he helped permit 600 MW of wind energy projects; served as Strategic Advisor to the President of the Board of the American Wind Energy Association (http://awea.org/) (AWEA); and received AWEA’s 2009 Special Achievement Award for his role in co-creating the American Wind Wildlife Institute (http://www.awwi.org/).

From 1990-1995, he directed a statewide “Save the Everglades” campaign for Clean Water Action in Florida, where he played a key role in launching a multi-million dollar ballot initiative against the sugar industry; was National Field Director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (1996-1997); and worked with the National Forest Protection Alliance (1999-2003), including as Executive Director.

For more information, visit hiphopcaucus.org (http://www.hiphopcaucus.org/) & rideforrenewables.com.