PLANET WATCH-Wondering whether this year’s wild weather—from non-stop snowstorms and frigid cold back East to record drought and wildfires here in California—is a sign of climate change? A report funded by no less than the Central Intelligence Agency says that the climate extremes we’re now starting to see are early warnings of more disasters to come.
“Unexpected changes in regional weather are likely to define the new climate normal,” says Michael McElroy, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies at Harvard University. McElroy is co-lead author of the study, which grew out of workshops with an international group of leading climate scientists held at the National Academy of Sciences, Columbia University, and the Harvard University Center for the Environment.
No wonder Secretary of State John Kerry told students and civic leaders in Jakarta on Feb. 16th, that climate change is “the world's largest weapon of mass destruction.”
Kerry is fortunate because he can take action against global warming by, for example, declaring the Keystone XL Pipeline as not in the best interest of the United States, thus keeping tar sands and carbon emissions in the ground. Governor Jerry Brown can also make good on his climate declarations, by instituting a ban on hydraulic fracturing in California, avoiding problems like water hogging and contamination, and land and ecosystem degradation.
He could also emulate the LA City Council, expected to vote this week in favor of a moratorium on fracking, further protecting us from greenhouse gas pollution.
For the rest of us, facing the disturbing worldwide phenomenon of extreme climate disruption, inevitably provokes some denial. This essential psychological defense mechanism makes us think “There’s nothing I can do.” Or we rely on its likewise defeatist cousin, “Eat, drink and be merry – for tomorrow the icecaps will melt, plant and animal species will go extinct, water and food will get scarce and expensive, and it will be hot, hot, hot!"
But we Angelenos have an opportunity to cast away our denial on Saturday, March 1st, when thousands of people, supported by almost 100 community and environmental groups, will rally next to the Port of LA in Wilmington— one of the most fossil-fuel polluted communities in the country—and continue through the streets to downtown LA demanding government action against climate change.
This outpouring will give our politicians what they need: a movement of everyday people, demanding these and more solutions to the climate crisis.
“We’re demanding our elected officials transition us away from climate damaging fuels like fracked natural gas, coal, and tar sands bitumen that pollute our environment and heat up the climate,” said Jack Eidt of SoCal 350, the coalition organizing the demonstration. “We need efficiency, conservation and clean energy now.”
The march will follow a 9:00 a.m. rally with celebrities, politicians, and activists at the Great Lawn at Wilmington Waterfront Park in Los Angeles Harbor. Also planned are a Native American Sunrise prayer, a Climate Action Fair at the 2.5-mile mark, and an evening closing ceremony with music and Aztec dancing in the USC area at Mercado La Paloma around 6 p.m.
Hundreds will then continue their journey for 3,000 miles towards Washington D.C., launching the coast-to-coast Great March for Climate Action. They will reach out to everyday citizens along the way on how they can fight climate change in their daily lives.
This is the second year in a row that a wide array of environmental, humanitarian, religious, political, labor, civil rights, and community organizations, led by SoCal 350, Sierra Club, and Food & Water Watch, have come together in Los Angeles to demand action on climate change. Last year, over 100 groups supported the “Forward on Climate LA” March and Rally that brought 2,000 people into the streets of downtown Los Angeles to tell President Obama to take action on climate change.
The march starts in Wilmington because it has the largest number of dirty oil refineries in California. They process 650,000 barrels per day of crude oil every day, pouring pollution into the local, regional and national environment. The State’s greenhouse gas plan requires almost zero refinery emissions reductions, despite hopes the plan would clean up refinery greenhouse gases and the smog-forming toxics emitted from burning fossil fuels.
“It is time to energize our friends and neighbors, and tell our elected decision makers, we demand clean energy now!” said Eidt.
(Kathy Seal is a member of the SoCal Climate Action Coalition and coauthor of Pressured Parents, Stressed-out Kids: Dealing With Competition While Raising a Successful Child and Motivated Minds: Raising Children to Love Learning. Contact her here: http://twitter.com/kathyseal
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 18
Pub: Feb 28, 2014