Step It Up 2007

[atlanticqueen]

Hi All -

Climate change seems to be in the news in some fashion every day. I seem to be ending up in conversation about it frequently, from my living room, to the Christmas dinner table, and outside my local post office. It has been in my realm of thinking for a long time, but now I am looking further into the future, I really see the need for change. This winter, or lack there of, in the northeast is starting to drive the point home even more. Warming will happen regardless of our action. If we act now we can reduce the severity and speed at which it happens. The intellectual know-how is out there, but we need to put the power of the people behind it.

I recently heard about the following website put together by author Bill McKibben (http://www.stepitup2007.org/). He and a small group of folks are trying to organize hundreds, maybe thousands, of rallies on April 14th, all across the country. The point is to send the message to Congress to cut our carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. The response to the website has been fabulous, in just over a month over 550 events have been posted in almost all 50 states. It's amazing to see the growth and to think that so many people are behind the mission and willing to step up and help out.

Friends of mine are planning a rally at Crane Beach in Ipswich, MA. They are hoping to get enough people to spell "80% by 2050" and somehow get a picture taken. They'd love to get some press there as well, maybe even a state representative. Beaches will be greatly affected if sea levels rise to the extent predicted by the majority of scientists, but that's not the only coastal effect. Migratory bird habitats will have to change, as their stop over points disappear. As temperatures rise, ticks and mosquitoes will be around longer each year, potentially infecting more people with Lyme's Disease and West Nile virus or Triple E.

So, I'm sending you this information for a few reasons:
1. If you can come to Crane Beach, we'd love to have you. There are many ways to help out, so let me know your ideas! For more information about "Take a Stand on the Sand" go to: http://events.stepitup2007.org/events/show/167
2. To find a more local rally, or to find one in an area where you might be traveling that weekend, go to: http://events.stepitup2007.org/
3. If you want to plan your own event, go for it! The Step It Up folks will help you out with posters, press releases, a forum for posting the event, and much more. Go to: http://www.stepitup2007.org//article.php?id=38
4. Please pass this information on to as many folks as you can.

Some of you may still be skeptical that climate change is as serious as most scientists believe. I urge those of you to continue to seek out information and keep an open mind. If you have not yet seen "An Inconvenient Truth," seek it out. If you have seen it, talk it up, get your friends and family to watch it and discuss it with them. If you want to read the report that 600 representatives from 150 nations (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) agreed to, go to: http://www.stepitup2007.org/article.php?id=92. There is a lot to be learned and plenty of work to do. We need to act now or the world is going to be a very different place for our children and those generations that follow.

Sometimes all of this can be too scary to even want to think about, but that is why we need to do just that and more. We need to make individual changes and make our voices heard, and the government will respond. Both need to happen in order to make a difference.