It feels a bit like deja vu to write this, but this is a big week for climate and energy in Washington, D.C. President Obama is meeting with many key senators tomorrow, and in the face of massive oil spills, and massive public outcries about it, we really could see some progress.

The meeting's goal is to identify a policy vehicle that will tackle climate change and energy. Whatever that proposal contains, it won't do everything that we need. But it might at least get us started.

So it would be very useful to call your Senators and make the following points:

1) We need a bill that puts an economy-wide cap on carbon–all carbon, from utilities and factories and cars and anything else that burns coal, gas, and oil. And we need those caps based on science-they have to start us on the route back towards 350.

2)   We won't be fooled by a bill that merely addresses the need for oil drilling regulations or incentives for renewable energy. These things are so obvious that they require no political courage; the only way to honor the suffering in the Gulf is to make deep progress on ending our use of fossil fuel.

If you need inspiration, take a moment to look through the photos from Hands Across the Sand last Saturday, when communities across the country took a united stand against offshore drilling and for clean energy.

And if you need motivation, consider this: in the past six weeks seven countries have set new all-time temperature records. Our friends at 350 Pakistan report that the mercury hit 129 degrees last week.

The planetary heat is on, for real. We need to put the political heat on, right now. We can do it!

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