AUGUSTA – Environmental and public health advocates gathered at the State House Tuesday both to laud Gov. John Baldacci for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Maine and to nudge him into taking even stronger action to reduce the state’s impact on global warming.

Representatives of 14 groups with a combined membership of “25,000 strong, at least” joined forces to create the Maine Global Warming Action Coalition and present Baldacci with 700 signatures of Mainers asking the state government to take a stand on climate change.

Not coincidentally, the gathering occurred just days before the release next week of the state’s climate action plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The plan was required by legislation signed into law last year in an effort to meet regional emissions reduction goals set by New England governors and Atlantic Canada premiers in 2001.

“The timing could not be more critical,” said Mark Hayes of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, citing recently released studies of the climate changes that the vast majority of the world’s scientists believe are already occurring.

Sea ice is declining and temperatures are rising in the sensitive Arctic. But even here in Maine, maple sap is running earlier, sea levels are higher, and the ice on Moosehead Lake is breaking up sooner than it was just a century ago.

“These are not theoretical impacts predicted by a computer model. These impacts are happening in real time, in front of our eyes,” Hayes said. “It’s clear that global warming is an issue we must grapple with today, not leave to future generations.”

Global warming occurs when gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, which can be produced when fossil fuels are burned, rise into the atmosphere and create a greenhouse-like cover that traps solar radiation on Earth, increasing the planet’s temperature and the unpredictability of its weather.

Since 2002, Maine state government has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent by limiting travel, encouraging energy efficiency, purchasing 40 percent of the state’s power from renewable sources, and doubling its fleet of gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, according to Baldacci.

In coming years, the state climate action plan will be among the first in the nation to demand similar actions from the private sector. The state plan will aspire to meet the regional governors’ and premiers’ goals of cutting back greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2010, and by an additional 10 percent by 2020. In the longer term, the desire is to cut the gases by at least 75 percent.

Official release of the final state plan has been scheduled for the morning of Friday, Dec. 3. The plan is expected to include more than 50 specific policy recommendations in the areas of transportation, forestry, agriculture and industry. Baldacci said Tuesday that he intends to introduce at least some of the policies as legislation when the 122nd session begins in January, though he declined to provide details about his priorities.

“With your support, we’re going to make Maine a leader in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. … We couldn’t have a better team,” Baldacci told coalition members.

“We recognize that we have a responsibility to make changes here in our state that will help our environment and our economy,” the governor said, holding to his administration’s constant message that conservation can have financial benefits.

Bob Sheppard of New Hampshire-based Clean Air Cool Planet agreed. His group has worked cooperatively with firms like Shaw’s Supermarkets to boost their environmental sustainability and their bottom line. The New England grocery chain has seen $3.7 million annually in savings from its energy efficiency measures, he said.

“Prudent businesses are deciding to act now. They’re stepping forward into the void to find creative solutions,” Sheppard said.

Companies planning for the long term need to consider the potential negative effects of climate change – particularly in Maine, where skiing, forestry, maple syrup, fishing, farming and tourism are all dependent on the weather, added Lisa Pohlmann of the Maine Center for Economic Policy.

“The sooner we act, the sooner we can turn around these negative economic impacts that are already harming Maine’s natural resource industries,” she said. “The cost of waiting is really much greater than the cost of taking action now.”

Members of the Maine Global Warming Action Coalition include: the American Lung Association of Maine, The Climate Campaign, the Conservation Law Foundation, Environmental Defense, Environment Maine, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Maine Audubon, Environment Northeast, Maine Center for Economic Policy, Sierra Club, Maine Council of Churches, The Nature Conservancy, the Maine Public Health Association and the Natural Resources Council of Maine.