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TechnoratiOver 1,000 Climate Rallies Planned This Weekend
New York - A nationwide grassroots campaign aiming to force the U.S. Congress to take drastic action on climate change is now in full swing.Come Saturday, activists in all major towns and cities across the United States will be taking to the streets to mark "the National Day of Action on Climate Change."
During the day-long rallies and sit-ins on April 14, demonstrators will call for Congress to pass a law requiring an 80-percent cut in carbon emissions by 2050.
"People are ready to do something more than change their light bulbs," said Bill McKibben, a well-known environmental writer and scholar who is among those spearheading the climate action campaign, called "Step It Up 2007."
"They understand the need for quick and dramatic political action," he added in a statement, describing the nationwide campaign as a "wake up call" to legislators in Washington.
In persuading the Congress to get serious about climate change, McKibben and other organizers are using innovative campaign techniques, such as making smart use of the Internet for organizing.
"Instead of marching on Washington, which would burn a fair amount of carbon," said McKibben, "we will have a nationwide rally occurring more or less simultaneously."
In all 50 states, community groups, including students, environmentalists, peace activists, and religious leaders, have pledged to organize more than 1,200 events as part of the activities to observe the Day of Action.
As part of their efforts to make the campaign relatively more effective, organizers said they have chosen a number of iconic places for the day-long events, which would remind people of the urgent need for action on global warming.
A large group of scuba divers, for example, have signed up to hold an underwater rally off the coral reefs in Key West and Maui, while another organization plans to ski down the dwindling glacier above Jackson Hole, in Wyoming.
Also, as the organizers have planned, there will be people gathering near Mount Hood, in Oregon; on the levies in New Orleans' Ninth Ward; and on Canal Street in Manhattan, which is feared to be the new tide line if the seas rise a few feet as a result of global warming.
"My older daughter is organizing a group of kids from her school to join us. My younger daughter has helped to make signs," said Nancy Kricorian, a coordinator for the CODEPINK: Women for Peace group in Manhattan, who is involved in organizing efforts for the April 14 rallies.
In explaining her decision to get involved in the global warming campaign, she said as a mother of 10- and 14-year-old daughters, she could see that for kids of their generation, climate change and the protection of the environment are among the political issues that concern them most.
According to Kricorian, "two weeks ago when the weather here in New York City hit 70 degrees, my 14-year-old who had seen 'An Inconvenient Truth' with her class last spring, looked at me dolefully and said, 'the polar bears are drowning.'"
Growing youth activism on global warming has made the campaign far stronger than ever before, organizers said, who are heavily relying on e-mail communication for community outreach.
The momentum of the campaign is likely to grow further in the next few days, as will the pace of discussions in the Senate on the future of five different bills requiring mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions.
While most of the legislative proposals have much in common, they vary with respect to the stringency of the caps and the chosen regulatory approaches. Observers say differences in approach can be expected to have significant effects on the cost of the programs and the distribution of those costs across households and businesses.
The 1997 Kyoto treaty requires as many as 35 industrialized countries to cut emissions by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. The United States is not obligated to abide by the treaty because the George W. Bush administration does not recognize it.
Recently, at a major climate change conference, UN experts warned that billions of people face shortages of food and water and increased risk of flooding, as a result of global warming.
Agreement on the final wording of the report was reached after a marathon debate through the night in Brussels.
"It's the poorest of the poor in the world, and this includes poor people even in prosperous societies, who are going to be the worst hit," said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which produced the report.
The United States is responsible for about 25 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, although its share of the global population is just 5 percent.
The Bush administration rejected Kyoto in 2001, arguing that it would harm the U.S. economy and that it should have also required reductions by poor but fast growing economies, such as India and China. Bush also repeatedly has said that more research was needed into the science of climate change.
Activists say they want the Congress to adopt aggressive measures on climate change proposals without any delay.
"Congressional action on climate change in the United States will carry tremendous weight internationally," said McKibben. "We are the poster child for carbon in the atmosphere. If we get our own house in order, then we can rejoin the rest of the world in dealing with this problem."
Copyright © 2007 OneWorld.net.
14 Comments so far
Show All"A rich person is not one who has the most but is one who needs the least." Unknown.
Hi Veronique-
I agree with you entirely regarding population. Expansion is under control in developed countries but still running wild in the underdeveloped and religiously-influenced ones. My only caveat is not to accept unthinkingly the unproved hypothesis that carbon dioxide is causing the mild global warming that has taken place since the end of the Little Ice Age. My concern is that warmist activists will spook our governments into spending, or causing to be spent, untold huge amounts of money to "limit CO2 emissions", money that will be wasted. Better to spend it on health and other progressive issues. If the world continues to warm, we can adapt. There is no one "correct" climate.
Ian
Ian McQueen
You forget the population explosion in your comment. I don't know that many people alarmist writings of either extreme pro or anti climate change authors. The mainstream research authored by responsible and rational scientists are enough for most of us.
Here's a letter I wrote to our local paper.
There's an elephant in the room that no one wants to see. It's called global population. In the past 60 years global population has expanded from 2.5B to 6.6B and is estimated to grow to 9.1B in the next 50 years. The Optimum Population Trust indicates that 2B – 3B is a sustainable global population.
The runaway, out-of-control population increase in humanity is the root cause of climate change, global warming, water shortages, desertification, species extinction and any number of other environmental stressors in the world. It is our single biggest and ongoing issue.
Many people and organizations recognise the need for a national population policy, but it remains a non-topic for our politicians. A National Population Summit held in Melbourne in 2002 has had no follow-up. We still do not have a National Population Policy. But nationalism has little place in this scenario except as part of a co-ordinated effort; it is a global problem.
This is a finite planet: its carrying capacity is fixed. And it is in trouble. While the spectre of climate change is growing and various countries argue about what action they should take and try to limit the effect on their economies, global population is rarely mentioned.
There is no way climate change, global warming, water shortages, desertification, species extinction and all other environmental problems will ever be adequately controlled until we learn how to control our human population.
Go to www.popcouncil.org and www.optimumpopulation.org check out their work in developing and developed countries.
The sites are worth a look Ian.
What an utter waste of time! This action is based on the belief that Al Gore actually knows what he is talking about and that there is firm scientific proof that carbon dioxide is the cause of "global warming". Neither is true. The earth has warmed perhaps 1°C in 150 years, and that marked the end of the Little Ice age. Before about 1850 the Great Plains were regarded as useless semi-desert. It is only the change of climate since then that has made this region so productive and the USA so wealthy.
Historically, CO2 levels have FOLLOWED temperature change, not caused it. Get real, read up more than the alarmist writings of the hyperactivists, and learn that there is much more to the story than the simplistic it's-all-our-fault theology being foisted onto the public. If all CO2 emissions were stopped today the temperature change 50 and 100 years into the future would scarcely be measurable! The world warms. The world cools. Get used to it.
By all means conserve and don't waste, but don't confuse conservation and reduction of real pollution with a misguided attempt to change climate.
If you really want to demonstate and help OUR EARTH everyday for the rest of your life.
BUY LESS and REUSE EVERYTHING
as and extra bonus for doing that your brain actually gets a workout.
Climate change is best dealt with at the grass roots level. Let's get the people in the loop. And keep them there.
Free public transportation. Start with one medium size city. Watch what happens.
I fear for the future. It's quite obvious that our Mother (Planet Earth) is in peril. In the US, the only way to rein in is to make hard restrictions, this free enterprize thing isn't going to cut it. Hell I"ve have solar panels and whatever, if I could afford it. The power companies, even co-operatives which I have are not seeking that direction. All anything in the US cares about is profit. But not me, I've lived withpout power and getting ready to live with out it again. Hope I can handle it, I'm not as young as i used to be.
the legislators are part of the problem!...what is occurring right now on planet earth and throughout our entire solar system is a massive 'ascension'...a 'rise in consciousness' by this planet, this sun, the other planets & moon & beyond...where's the proof? Right here:
these are NASA Deep-Space probe & Hubble Space Telescope (HST) photos...
3 part investigative report
http://www.enterprisemission.com/_articles/05-14-2004_Interplanetary_Part_1/Interplanetary_1.htm
Just to be clear, I believe the call is for a reduction in total carbon emissions of "80% below 1990 levels by 2050." While it may not seem like a big goal to have, it most certainly is. There are several bills in the House, such as Waxman/Bohlert's bill that call for that level of reduction, including an economy-wide carbon trading scheme - complete with heightened government oversight, which the EU Commission could have utilized in their attempt at carbon trading. In the Senate, the Boxer bill is fantastic and at the very least, every Senator should be on board with McCain/Lieberman (as much as that pains me to say), because it does call for very strong reductions.
CALL YOUR LEGISLATORS!!!!!
I, too, saw "An Inconvenient Truth" earlier this week and I hope that for my children's and grandchildren's sake that the goal for 80% reduction in carbon emissions is set a lot sooner than 2050. Maybe 2020 would be more like it. I like 20/20 - the vision is a lot clearer than 20/50.
I just hope this is not going to be like the typical Earth Day events where everyone drives and there is a massive amount of printed material that is handed out, much of which ends up in dumpsters.
in the year 2050?
250 years?.....43 years from now?