FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 18, 2021
Contact: John Weber, jmatthewweber@gmail.com

DETROIT, MI — Today, Business Forward and the Climate Action Campaign (CAC) hosted a virtual press conference with local community and business advocates to fight for major federal investments to curb the dangerous effects of climate change and protect local communities.

The speakers pointed to an alarming new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as well as recent severe flooding in Michigan. The event included speakers representing Business Forward and the Green Door Initiative, as well as Michigan’s state climatologist.

A recording of the event is available HERE.

“Severe weather, extreme temperatures, and changing weather patterns have affected commodity prices, disrupted supply chains, damaged plants and equipment, and hurt consumer demand,” said Business Forward Executive Director Liz Fairchild. “The business community needs Michigan’s elected officials to pick up this banner and lead the fight for big, bold climate investments that will create good-paying jobs in urban and rural areas, revitalize our aging infrastructure, and build an economy resilient to the threat of climate change.”

“The climate crisis is a statewide issue, and solving it is going to require major investments, both to prevent this crisis from getting worse and to protect communities from the fallout,” said Michigan State Climatologist Jeff Andresen. “That means passing big, bold investments in climate infrastructure to build our clean energy infrastructure, cut down climate-altering pollution, and finally stop this problem at the source.”

“We need leaders like Rep. Haley Stevens to take bold action to limit climate-altering pollution while investing in new, clean energy jobs that will sustain families across the country,” said Green Door Initiative Founder and CEO Donele Wilkins. “These disastrous extreme weather events are not part of some far-off future. They’re happening now and we need to take immediate, bold action to stop them.

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