On Friday, November 4, the Paris Agreement on climate change is set to formally go into effect. It aims to stop climate change in its tracks by significantly reducing the emissions that cause global warming while increasing the amount of energy we get from clean solar and wind power.

Whether those goals are achieved depends  on who the people of the United States elect to be their next president four days later.

Hillary Clinton favors the Paris Agreement and will help America lead the effort to replace climate changing coal and oil with clean, healthy, jobs-producing renewable fuels.

Donald Trump wants to reopen coal mines and actually increase America’s use of the fossil fuels that pollute our air, make us and our kids sick, and perpetuate the natural disasters climate change has been fueling since Hurricane Katrina.

There is no doubt in my mind that all the progress we’ve made on climate change over the last eight years will come to a screeching halt if Trump prevails.

But he won’t – not if we all get out and vote, and get our friends, family and neighbors to do the same.

Facts to Keep In Mind

√ We just wrapped up the hottest summer since global record-keeping began in 1880.

√ Arctic sea ice, a key indicator of long-term climate change, fell to 28 percent below the 40-year average in September, tying 2007 figures for the lowest levels in the 47-year satellite record, reports the Natural Resources Defense Council.

√ Last year was the hottest year ever recorded. The first nine months of this year have been even hotter, a record 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th Century average.

√ Nineteen of the hottest years on record have all occurred in the past 20 years.

How does that actually affect us?

⇒  Sea level is rising, swamping our homes and neighborhoods and threatening hundreds of billions of dollars worth of property, roads and favorite vacation spots, from New Orleans to Boston, from Florida to Texas, and even along the Great Lakes

⇒ Storms are drenching us. Flooded communities in North and South Carolina are still trying to recover from Hurricane Mathew, even while neighborhoods in Louisiana still struggle from the effects of Hurricane Katrina

⇒ Drought is stretching our drinking water supplies to the limit and creating so much parched land that some of our most beautiful heritage forests are catching fire and going up in smoke.

⇒ Poison ivy is getting worse as it thrives in the hothouse conditions that global warming is causing.

⇒ Mosquitoes are posting a bigger threat, too, as they spread farther north, live longer as the seasons extend, and spread diseases that used to be restricted to a narrow band in the tropics.

The threat is clear. So is our choice on Election Day.

Vote to Stop Climate Change

Hillary Clinton has been a strong proponent of stopping climate change since the first day of her campaign.

She has vowed to clean up dirty power plants and switch to solar and wind.

She supports building the next generation of energy-efficient cars, homes and workplaces.

And she knows that we can create millions of good-paying American jobs by becoming the clean energy superpower of the 21st Century.

Donald Trump is one of those people who has been discredited by over 99% of the scientific community: a climate “denier.”

He’s called climate change a “hoax” and is eager to roll back decades’ worth of climate progress.

He would squash President Obama’s signature climate change program, the 2015 Clean Power Plan. The Plan will reduce the carbon pollution from the dirty power plants that account for 40 percent of our nation’s carbon footprint.

He wants to “cancel” the Paris climate accord, which would not only be a set back for our own country, but would seriously tarnish our standing on the world stage, too.

He would actually try to accelerate how much coal and oil we burn. It would be HUUUUUGE.

You can stop climate change – by stopping Trump.

If you can still vote early, do it (here I am about 5 minutes after I voted!)

If you can volunteer, sign up here. You can help by canvassing, phone banking, and otherwise working to get people to the polls.

If you plan to vote on election day, know where your polling place is. You can plug in your zip code here to find the right location.

If you have friends, neighbors or family who need help getting to the polls, offer to drive them or get them a ride.

If you’re a lawyer, get trained in voter protection and staff a polling place to prevent voter intimidation.

If you’re active on Facebook and Twitter, encourage your communities to vote.

In other words, whatever you can do, do it.

But first and foremost, vote.

The post On Nov. 8, Vote to Stop Climate Change appeared first on Big Green Purse.

 The simple answer is, “When they break the law.”

In most nations of the world, important laws now exist to protect clean air and clean water, minimize the environmental impacts of destructive practices like logging and mining, prevent toxic dumping and require companies to clean up hazardous waste, safeguard wetlands and wilderness areas, and keep watch over wildlife.

 In the U.S., the bedrock of environmental law is the National Environmental Policy Act, which was passed in 1970 to protect the environment against both public and private actions that might harm eco-systems. In Australia, it is the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Other countries have other legislation in place.  The power of these laws lies in the ability they provide to hold polluters accountable for the havoc they wreak on natural resources as well as human well-being.

 Though individuals may find it difficult to file a lawsuit on their own, many law firms and non-profit organizations comprised of environmental attorneys have developed exactly the kind of expertise and experience needed to file suits and win cases. Those groups include Earth Justice, the Natural Resources Defense Council, The Australian Centre for Environmental Law, and similar organizations in Canada, the UK and many European nations, and India, among others. In some cases, criminal lawyers like those that can be found at Prime Lawyers, the sponsors of this post, will also become engaged in legal proceedings to protect the environment.

 Some of the most famous lawsuits have been initiated when concerned citizens and elected officials realized that legal recourse was the most effective way to protect the natural resources they valued. For example, in Tasmania in the late 1970s, a successful law suit foiled plans to construct a hydro-electric dam on the Franklin River in Tasmania’s rugged south-west region. The dam would have flooded the river valley, which was ultimately declared a World Heritage Site.

 In the U.S. recently, lawsuits have helped hold companies like BP responsible for the toxic oil spill created by their rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. They have also forced polluting coal-fired utility companies to clean up their smoke stacks to reduce emitting pollutants that cause smog and contribute to climate change.  And they have upheld the efforts of citizens’ organizations to ban plastic bags in their cities and counties as a way to reduce unsightly and damaging trash that does not biodegrade.

How to Sue to Protect the Environment

 If you find yourself contemplating the need for a lawsuit, contact an environmental legal defense team in your community to discuss your options. Non-profit groups generally have their fees supported by foundations and memberships; law firms will negotiate a fee unless their “pro bono” (for free) attorneys can participate.

NOTE: Sponsored posts allow us to bring you expert content at no cost to you. Our editorial opinions remain our own. Thank you.

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I’ve just returned from a seven-day trip to Beijing, China’s capital, and Xi’an, the country’s cultural heart and soul and home to its famous terra cotta soldiers. In that entire time, I never saw the sun or sky. Nor was I able to drink the water that came out of any tap.

Why? The sky was cloaked in grey smog so thick it obscured the tops of buildings, not to mention the heavens above. The air, while not exactly putrid, smelled dank and dangerous — a result of massive numbers of polluting cars on the road and regional industrial plants that spew contaminants into the air.

I could have worn a surgical mask like many of the city’s permanent residents. Instead, I opted to be a “guinea pig” and see how much the smog would affect me as I went back and forth to various business meetings and tourist destinations.

After just three days in Beijing, I developed a sore throat and itchy eyes, and lost any desire to explore the city’s beautiful parks. I could have easily walked distances of a mile or two. Instead, I took the subway to avoid breathing the outdoor air unnecessarily. Back at my hotel, I kept the windows closed, choosing a stuffy room over a polluted one.

The water coming out of my faucet looked cleaner than the air — but I would have been a fool to drink it. Water treatment anywhere in China is thoroughly inadequate. The country’s drinking water is tainted not just by household waste but from relentless industrial run-off.

Some government figures estimate that over 70 percent of the nation’s rivers have been contaminated by the discharge of heavy metals and other toxins directly into streams and tributaries that feed into China’s waterways. Water treatment facilities remove a smattering of contaminants but never clean up the water to the point where it is drinkable. And this creates another problem.

Independent companies are privatizing the water, purifying and bottling it, and selling it to the public by the tons. What happens to all the empty plastic water bottles? They end up back in the rivers and streams when they’re trashed.

Why is China so polluted?

In short, because it has neither a power federal environmental protection agency nor adequate laws for such an agency to enforce. Yes, the government gives lip service to reducing pollution and protecting public health. But local activists in Beijing told me that given the physical size of the country, a population of more than 1 billion people, and tens of thousands of “renegade” manufacturing facilities, neither air nor water quality will improve significantly until the government makes a real commitment to strengthen and enforce its environmental laws.

This is not to say that air and water in the U.S. are perfect, or even good enough. A recent study by Environment America, using data provided by the American Lung Association, reported that nearly half of all Americans — 48 percent — live in areas plagued by unhealthy smog pollution. A water quality analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council concluded that 22 million Americans may be drinking water that contains excessive levels of poisonous arsenic, among other chemicals.

Still, the same Environment America study notes that “air quality has improved significantly in the last decade as a result of policies at the state and federal level.” Likewise, the non-profit Environmental Working Group found over 90 percent compliance by water utilities in applying and enforcing standards that exist. Their recommendation: that EPA set even more effective standards so water quality will continue to improve.

We can continue cleaning up our air or water. Or, we can abolish the EPA and look a lot more like China. I suggest Michele Bachmann go to China before she decides.

Follow me on twitter @dianemaceachern.

(NOTE: This article originally appeared at Huffington Post.)

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