February 26, 2009 by Elizabeth Willoughby
Susan Sarandon's soft and soothing voice narrates a new public service announcement urging the public’s participation in an act of peaceful civil disobedience early next month.
In an effort to bring attention to the climate crisis and the coal-fired power plants that are a contributor to global warming in the US, thousands are expected to rally at the Spirit of Justice Park and then move towards the Capitol Power Plant on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
“The American people will take a stand at Congress’ own coal-fired power plant,” says Sarandon, “a glaring symbol of coal’s hold over our government.”
A national coalition of diverse advocacy groups, Capitol Climate Action is determined to deliver a strong and clear message to the country’s new administration right up front. “The world is waiting for the Obama administration and Congress to lead the way forward on this defining issue of our time,” says Dr James Hansen, a climate scientologist. “They need to start by getting coal out of Congress.”
During the days leading up to the protest date are other planned events hosted by various groups within the coalition. Train travel from California to Washington, a “young people’s” protest expected to be 10,000 strong, CCA speakers and a lobby on Capitol Hill will precede March 2nd’s final rally at the Spirit of Justice Park at 1:00.
Like Gandhi and Martin Luther King did in the past, Sarandon asks people to take a stand on this important issue: “They were willing to stand up for what’s right, even if it meant peacefully breaking the law.”
Al Gore is apparently of the same mind. On CCA’s home page they offer this quote from Gore: “I can’t understand why there aren’t rings of young people blocking bulldozers and preventing them from constructing coal-fired power plants.”
“Civil disobedience can overcome great challenges,” says Sarandon. “And global warming is the greatest challenge of our time.”
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1 comment
I guess everyone missed the testimony of William Happer Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics Princeton University Before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Senator Barbara Boxer, Chair February 25, 2009.
The protesters should read it and then go to New York City and stand in the record March snow. Maybe then they will rely on real science instead of junk science. "The current warming period began about 1800 at the end of the little ice age, long before there was an appreciable increase of CO2. There have been similar and even larger warmings several times in the 10,000 years since the end of the last ice age. These earlier warmings clearly had nothing to do with the combustion of fossil fuels. The current warming also seems to be due mostly to natural causes, not to increasing levels of carbon dioxide. Over the past ten years there has been no global warming, and in fact a slight cooling. This is not at all what was predicted by the IPCC models."
Global warming is a religion, not science.
about 1 year ago