Report from International Day of Climate Action

Two days after the International Day of Climate Action, I think I have finally dried out. On Saturday, October 24th, 300-500 brave souls came out for the DC Rally and march down 16th Street to the White House. We were a site to see as a police escort, followed by a solar powered school bus and then a slew of cyclists led us to the White House in pouring, sometimes torrential, rain – all as we chanted, among other things, "Hey, Obama! Protect, your mamma!" (as in Mother Earth).

Check out some of my photos (Warning: I ain't no pro!).

But we weren't the only ones participating. People in 181 countries came together for the most widespread day of environmental action in the planet's history. At over 5200 events around the world, people gathered to call for strong action and bold leadership on the climate crisis. Check out over 15,000 photos at 350.org.

International Day of Climate Action Saturday, October 24, 2009

This Saturday, October 24th, I’m joining thousands of other citizens of all ages and backgrounds who are concerned about the health of our planet. We are going to Rally in Malcolm X/Meridian Hill Park at 16th and Euclid Streets, NW. We will then march down 16th St. to Lafayette Park and form a Circle of Hope across from the White House.

Why?

According to Bill McKibben, co-founder and director of 350.org, “…350 is the most important number in the world…When Arctic ice melted so dramatically in the summer of 2007, scientists realized that global warming was no longer a future threat but a very present crisis. Within months our leading climatologists—especially the NASA team led by James Hansen—were giving us a stark new reality check. Above 350 parts per million carbon dioxide, they wrote, the atmosphere would begin to heat too much for us to have a planet “similar to the one on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted.””

We are currently at 387 and climbing.

Those who I will be marching with want a strong, science-based, just and equitable international climate treaty that gets us on the path toward reducing world carbon emissions to 350 parts per million. This should come out of the United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark in December. We will be there to support the passage of strong, science-based legislation by Congress and President Obama before that conference.

I hope you will join me. For more information and to register for the event (there is no fee, but they want to know how many people to expect!), click here.

Go Vegetarian. .. Even If Only for One Day

Thursday, October 1st is World Vegetarian Day and October is Vegetarian Awareness Month. Are you a vegetarian? If not, maybe you should try to become one, even if for just one day a week.

Why? A few years ago, I was sitting at Great Sage, my favorite vegetarian/vegan/organic/green/local restaurant in Clarksville, MD. I saw a statistic from the Worldwatch Institute that read:

It takes 25 gallons of water to produce one pound of wheat while it takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat.

If you haven't already heard, we are running low on water and the raising and slaughtering of meat wreaks havoc on our environment.

Compared to grain/pasta, red meat is responsible for:

• 20 times the land use due to cattle grazing
  
  
• 17 times the common water pollution due to animal wastes
  
  
• 5 times the toxic water pollution and water use from chemicals applied to feed grains and water for irrigation and livestock and
  
  
• 3 times the greenhouse gas emissions from greater energy use

The book Skinny Bitch says:

• According to the EPA, animals are the largest polluters of U.S. waterways and
  
  
• The amount of land, food, water and energy used to raise 10 billion animals a year for slaughter could be used to grow food for all the starving people in the world

I've been a vegetarian for nearly 6 years. I don't eat anything with a face, so that means no beef, chicken or seafood. I do occasionally eat eggs and I eat cheese daily. My family and friends back home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania - aka Amish County, aka Land of Cows - don't understand why I make such a sacrifice, but to me, it isn't a sacrifice at all. With heart disease and cancer running in my family, it was a logical decision. Vegetarians have few instances of both of these diseases. But another reason I made this decision was to protect the environment.

The switch for me was easy because I rarely ate red meat or seafood, so all I was giving up was the occasional chicken or turkey breast. If you think it might be too difficult for you, try for just one day a week. And then move to two and see how far you can go from there. If you are worried about how you will get your daily dose of protein, trust me, you can get plenty of protein with a diet of fruits, vegetables and legumes.

Try it. For a day.