DECATUR - When Aimee Daniels of Decatur decided to park her sport utility vehicle last year and buy a more fuel-efficient sedan to commute to her job in Springfield, it was because gasoline prices had surpassed $3.50 a gallon.

Today, however, the environmental reasons behind her decision are what's driving her to attend a town hall meeting Tuesday in Decatur to discuss the problems caused by global warming and what Illinois residents can do about it.

Daniels said she and her family enjoy taking walks in Spitler Woods near Mount Zion, and she wants to preserve its beauty for her 8-year-old son, the second child she and her husband are expecting in August and for future generations. "I want to keep the environment safe and healthy," she said.

The Illinois Environmental Council is looking for people like Daniels and is conducting a series of town hall meetings around the state to build support for passage of the Illinois Global Warming Response Act, with bills (Senate Bill 2220 and House Bill 5254) now with the respective rules committees of each legislative body.

The legislation would require power and industrial facilities to pollute less and for cars and buildings to be more energy efficient. These measures would reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that is produced.

"Climate change often seems like a huge, nebulous threat," said Jonathan Goldman, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council.?;"Yet in Illinois we have soaring asthma rates and gas prices and shifting gardening zones - very real problems that have the same causes and solutions as global warming."

Decatur's meeting is co-sponsored by the Community Environmental Council, Agricultural Watershed Institute, Audubon Society and environmental affairs council of Millikin University.

Jeff Tish, president of the Community Environmental Council and program services manager for the Macon County Conservation District, said it's important for everyone to make good decisions to protect planet Earth. "This is the only place we have to live," he said.

Among the speakers at the town hall meeting will be nationally known climate change expert Don Wuebbles, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.