Today, more than 100,000 people in 400 locations across the country rallied in a National Day of Climate Action. In Arlington, around 200 people rallied along with guest speakers including Wendy Rieger of NBC4, Rep. Jim Moran (D-8th), Arlington County Board Chairman Paul Ferguson, Arlington County Board member Walter Tejada, the Sierra Club's Jim Dougherty, Stella Group President Scott Sklar, and Miles Grant ("The Green Miles") of Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment. For more, see the "flip."
Wendy Rieger quoted Albert Einstein that "nothing happens until something moves." This is a worldwide issue, bigger than us, we need Congress to act.
Walter Tejada, Paul Ferguson, Jim Moran
Paul Ferguson emphasized that we need to do something about climate change for economic and quality of life reasons.
Scott Sklar said that the extraction, conversion and use of fossil energy is our biggest environmental problem. Virginia is one of the biggest carbon producers because we're a coal state. Changing 1 light bulb from incandescent to compact fluorescent saves 1,300 pounds of carbon over its lifetime. Also saves money. The technology is coming into the market to save immense amounts of energy. We can do it if we make the personal decision to take action. We have to bypass government a little bit, take action as individuals, think about the world we want to leave our kids when they're old enough to be standing here.
Miles Grant said that just because it's cool today doesn't matter. It's like if you go to a Nats game and someone hits a home run, you wouldn't think he'd hit a home run every day. Climate change is a crisis. We need to "choose green," "talk green," and "act green." Being green isn't about "exhausting yourself," and it "doesn't have to be complicated." Don't be afraid to be a strong environmentalist, to make the case. Get involved. Ask your boss to make the office more environmentally friendly. Reusable coffee mugs and grocery bags instead of paper. It's not that hard.
Jim Moran said that there was cause for some optimism from the local and state levels, but that we won't be getting anything from the Bush Administration. Arlington is taking the lead, but "ideas are not coming at the national level." In fact, the EPA under Bush has done everything it can to actually roll BACK progress, has argued before the Supreme Court that the facts on climate change were still ambiguous! This is "bankrupt" and a "corrupt sellout to corporate polluters." The Supreme Court did the right thing, no thanks to Alito, Roberts, Scalia and Thomas. Congress will have to force the EPA to act. The best climate change legislation is by Barbara Boxer, which Bush of course will veto. At least that will put the pressure on. In the last few years, the good guys have lost. We have only one planet we can live on, and we must "preserve and protect this precious environment we were left to shepherd." We've got to get off of our "overwhelming reliance on fossil fuels." Thanks to Al Gore for taking leadership. Global warming is the greatest threat to life on this planet. The US has 4 1/2% of the world's population, emits 26% of the pollution. Right now, we're at the turning point, the transformational opportunity.
The goal is to cut carbon emissions 80% by 2050. In order to accomplish this, we need to start cutting carbon emissions by 2% per year.
They were handing out free compact fluorescent light bulbs today. A good website to buy CFLs is www.1000bulbs.com. Each bulb will save you $30 on your electric bill, and they last 3 times longer than regular, incandescent bulbs. This one's an easy choice.