Nearly 400 scientists signed a letter today endorsing the demands of the March to End Fossil Fuels, which will take place Sunday in New York City. Addressed to President Biden, the demands of the letter and march include: halting federal approval of new fossil fuel projects, like pipelines and export terminals; phasing out oil and gas extraction on public lands and waters; and declaring a climate emergency, which would halt fossil fuel exports and investments abroad, and expedite new clean energy development. Original signers of the letter include noted climate, public health and environmental scientists Rose Abramoff, Robert Howarth, Mark Jacobson, Peter Kalmus, Sandra Steingraber, Farhana Sultana, Lucky Tran and Aradhna Tripati. The letter was facilitated by the national advocacy group Food & Water Watch.

The letter states, in part: “On your first day in office, you issued an executive order pledging that it is ‘the policy of my administration to listen to the science’ in tackling the climate crisis… And yet, rather than ratchet down fossil fuels, your administration has approved drilling permits at a rate faster than the Trump administration, opened up huge swaths of land and ocean to leasing, expanded exports, approved new pipelines, and embraced industry greenwashing ploys like carbon capture, which further entrenches our reliance on fossil fuels.”

“We scientists heard the President loud and clear when he pledged two years ago to ‘listen to the science’ on climate. Yet now we’re watching our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions spiral out of control while White House policy becomes increasingly unaligned with reality. Science says we need to ratchet down fossil fuel extraction – the White House is doubling down,” said Sandra Steingraber, PhD, senior scientist at the Science and Environmental Health Network. “Scientists are here to say that our data support the demands of this march: President Biden, stop approving new fossil fuel projects, phase out drilling on public lands, declare a climate emergency and provide a just transition to renewable energy.” 

“Given how bad global heating has now gotten, it’s simply insane that President Biden still refuses to declare a climate emergency, and indeed, continues to make everything worse by expanding fossil fuels,” said Peter Kalmus, PhD, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Nothing takes away my hope for humanity’s collective future more than Biden’s choice to stand with the fossil fuel industry. He must pivot and become the climate leader the planet needs, or else he’ll continue locking in higher temperatures and ever more irreversible damage to Earth’s habitability.”

“We can no longer quietly study what is burning down around us when the solutions are so obvious and so necessary to humanity’s survival. For decades, we have tried every possible way to communicate the severity of the climate crisis to the public. I have been increasingly risking my career and freedom to get this message across. On September 7, I risked felony-level charges to peacefully prevent the Mountain Valley Pipeline from drilling under the longest undammed river in the Eastern U.S. I don’t know what else to do. We are desperate. We are not exaggerating. And we need an emergency response from our government now,” said earth scientist Rose Abramoff, PhD, of the Ronin Institute.

Sunday’s March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City is part of a mass global escalation to end fossil fuels, with mobilizations occurring around the world, which all take place just days before the U.N. Climate Ambition Summit. At the summit, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has demanded world leaders come with a commitment to approving no new fossil fuel infrastructure and bring concrete plans to phase out existing fossil fuel production.

Scientists signing the letter have done so in their individual capacities and not on behalf of the institutions with which they are affiliated.

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