Streisand: Everyone must fight warming

WASHINGTON, July 13 (UPI) -- U.S. pop singer, actress and director Barbra Streisand says "every American" needs to help out in curbing climate change.

In an interview with Politico, Streisand said she became concerned about environmental issues after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

"I was very frightened," she said. "And I was committed to gaining a deeper understanding about environmental issues. At the time, global warming wasn't on the country's agenda. Outside of the work of some scientists and academics, global warming was a theory, not a mainstream issue. I spent months talking to experts who studied the effects of climate change, and I learned about the work of leading environmental organizations, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Environmental Defense Fund, among others."

The recording artist noted people have come a long way in the past two decades in their efforts to conserve natural resources and curtail global warming.

"But clearly we are not moving at a quick enough pace," she told Politico. "The United States contains 4 percent of the world's population, but produces almost 25 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions. A lot of time was lost over the past eight years to make the necessary drastic and critical changes in our behavior in order to curb climate change. Many Americans feel like the problem can only be solved with significant intervention by the federal government. That is true, but we also need the action of every American to help solve this problem."

Streisand pointed to suggestions President Barack Obama made to Americans during his 2008 presidential campaign, such as "filling up the air in their tires, replacing older light bulbs (with) newer, energy-saving ones, driving a hybrid vehicle, carpooling, bringing your own bags to the grocery store, installing low-flow showerheads, unplugging unused appliances and recycling."