Misstropolis

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Is September the new August?

by Brooke Muggia

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Another Indian summer? A belated fall? Or another indication of climate change? Whether or not you are convinced that climate change is a reality, we are living on a new planet. Atlanta is experiencing a severe water shortage, California struggles with ferocious fires, the mountain tops are bare, the glaciers are melting, the mosquitoes are buzzing in October, and on and on.

And yes, I am the first to admit that shorts in October feel great (although strange!), convertibles with their tops down look liberating, and child - filled parks remind us what it must be like to live in South Carolina. However, we don’t. We live in Boston and are meant to be experiencing frost, sweaters, migrating birds, heating bills, crisp mornings, pot roasts, and firewood deliveries.

If you are concerned about the unseasonably warm last few months and hope that September is not the “New August,” there is something that you can do about it, rather than just cringe at the thermometer. This Saturday Step It Up rallies all over the country will address global warming and try to bring it to the forefront of leaders’ agendas. 

The internet-coordinated Step It Up campaign produced more than 1,400 events in all 50 states last April - the largest global warming event in U.S. history. This year, November 3 rallies in eastern Massachusetts will include events in Boston, Cambridge, Concord, Newton, Hull, Worchester, and Framingham.

From one concerned friend to another, word is spreading about this chance to take action and confront the anxiety that global warming triggers in so many of us. When the League of Women Voters in Needham heard about the Boston event, they started passing the word to meet at the Needham Center rail station to travel together to Boston on the 10 am train. This way, they not only minimize the greenhouse gases produced by the trip downtown, they also get to enjoy the company of climate-conscious allies.

Teenagers from Boston Latin School’s Youth CAN have signed on to co-sponsor the Boston rally. Folks in Cambridge have organized a walk from City Hall down Mass Ave starting at 8:45 and ending at the Boston rally, and a group of cyclists will be starting out from Boston at the conclusion of the event, to carry the climate alert to the historic battlefield of Concord’s Minute Man National Historical Park, joining riders and carpoolers from more than a dozen towns around the area.

This is not a political, but a moral issue, and it demands all our attention. Children should not have to be worried about the plight of polar bears, penguins, bees, and trees, and yet in many parts of the world they are. And it’s not only for the next generation’s sake that we need to be part of the climate solution - I don’t know about you, but I plan on being around 50 years from now when scientists say water will be in different (and dangerous!) places and a startling number of species will be extinct. That is not the future I have dreamed of.

Let’s be able to tell our kids that we helped launch major green initiatives rather than being unable to look them in the eye on the day they ask, “Where were you when we still knew we had time?” Although it may not seem like it, everything else can wait; the planet – the terrarium of our life – cannot. Although the warmer air is invisible and easy to ignore, the consequences are not. Step forward and Step It Up!

More information can be found at http://www.stepitupboston.com and http://www.stepitup2007.org.