WASHINGTON, D.C., Oct. 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The BlueGreen Alliance today announced the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) has joined the national partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations. This announcement comes at a crucial moment in the effort to address climate change. A new assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released earlier this week showed limiting global warming to 1.5oC would require rapid changes to all aspects of society, but that those changes could go hand-in-hand with ensuring a more sustainable and equitable future.
“We are thrilled that LCV is joining the BlueGreen Alliance at this pivotal moment,” said Kim Glas, the executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance. “With new evidence that significant action is required immediately to stave off the effects of climate change, LCV will bring their considerable strength to the fight for solutions that create good-paying jobs in communities across the country.”
LCV believes our earth is worth fighting for because everyone has a right to clean air, water, lands, and a safe, healthy community. To ensure those rights are protected, the organization helps people use their power to shape policy, hold politicians and polluters accountable, and influence elections.
“We’re excited to join together with our allies in the labor and environmental movements as a member of the BlueGreen Alliance,” said Gene Karpinski, president of LCV. “The world is at a turning point in the fight against climate change. Together we will fight to defend the progress that has been made, and to advance meaningful efforts at all levels of government, while building a lasting movement that will ensure we leave a healthy planet for future generations and create an economy that works for everyone.”
Founded in 2006 by the United Steelworkers (USW) and Sierra Club, the BlueGreen Alliance now unites 14 of the nation’s largest labor unions and most influential environmental organizations—collectively representing millions of members and supporters—and is working to solve today’s environmental challenges in ways that will create and maintain good-paying jobs and build a clean, thriving, and fair economy.
“It’s now more important than ever that we work to find solutions to climate change that also create good jobs and economic opportunities for working people in this country,” said USW International President Leo W. Gerard, a co-founder of the BlueGreen Alliance. “We need solutions that rebuild, repair, and modernize our infrastructure systems and invest in manufacturing the cutting edge technologies of the future, including clean energy and energy efficiency, and we’re proud to have LCV join our ranks to help us in this fight.”
“The fight to tackle the climate crisis and the fight to create good-paying jobs across the country are inextricably linked,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club and co-chair of the BlueGreen Alliance. “It is imperative that we join together to find solutions that will reduce pollution, create jobs, and ensure we leave future generations a healthy planet and fair economy.”
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The BlueGreen Alliance unites America’s largest labor unions and its most influential environmental organizations to solve today’s environmental challenges in ways that create and maintain quality jobs and build a stronger, fairer economy. Visit http://www.bluegreenalliance.org.