Monday, April 02, 2007
One Earth, One Climate, One Great Chance to Step it Up
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If you thought April 14 was going to be just another Saturday at the dog park, spin class, and a toddler b-day party or two, you have another thing coming.
April 14 is the day you get a chance to step up your commitment to the earth, set a heroic example for your children (or nieces and nephews or neighborhood gang), and rally for environmental action with millions of others across America – from underwater on the endangered coral reefs off Key West, to atop the melting glaciers on Mt. Rainier, to the levees in New Orleans.
Step It Up 2007 is a swelling national movement to raise awareness about climate change and global warning by encouraging “actions” in as many places as possible, all on April 14. The brain-child of writer Bill McKibben, Step It Up 07 has become the biggest environmental movement since the original Earth Day in 1970. The author of ten books on climate and social issues, McKibben was one of the first to warn about global warming in “The End of Nature” in 1989. As he sees it, “If we’re going to make the kind of change we need in the short time left us, we need something that looks like the civil rights movement, and we need it now. Changing light bulbs just isn’t enough.”
When McKibben began thinking about ways to encourage congress to make critical changes, namely a pledge of 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2005 - the same reduction incidentally, that presidential hopeful John Edwards recently proposed – he imagined maybe 500 rallies. Today, he is overseeing over 1,200 rallies, in every major city and hundreds of towns and communities. “It’s unstoppable,” McKibben marvelled on the phone from Oregon, “because people understand the stakes. Nothing else comes close to the effect this will have on our children. Not our grandchildren,” he clarifies. “Our children.”
In Boston, the Step it Up Rally focuses on those most vulnerable to ecological changes – children. On Boston Common from 2-4pm “One Earth One Climate” will be one of the biggest rallies in the country. Speakers will include U.S. Representative Edward Markey, Chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence & Global Warming, Boston City Councilor Felix Arroyo, Union of Concerned Scientists President Kevin Knobloch, author Ross Gelbspan and Paul Epstein, M.D. of Harvard Medical School’s Center for Health and the Global Environment.
Kids of all ages can enjoy music by Chad Hollister singing original songs, and even join him on stage. Recordings of the children singing with him will be released on itunes. Environmental artist Cindy Snodgrass will bring an 85ft. sea dragon and colorful fish she created with students from the Park School. For weeks, children in various communities have been creating artwork, representing their respect for the earth.
While in Manhattan the Step It Up-ers are organizing a Sea of People all in blue and moving uptown to represent the waterlines which would result from unchecked warming, Boston organizers are planning a human chain, with children joining hands all across the Common, marking the line of Boston’s future waterfront if polar melting continues.
Activist and budding environmentalist Brooke Muggia is the rallying force behind the Boston event. Like Bill McKibben, Muggia is not a doom and gloom pessimist, but a forward-thinking agent of change. “This is actually a very exciting and historic time,” she says. “There is great opportunity for all of us.” Muggia has been spreading the message that children have the power to make a difference. She told students at her children’s school recently, “Maybe this is the earth’s way of telling us something; to slow down, to redefine our priorities. I think we should listen.”
Muggia remembers the moment she realized she was focusing her time and resources in the right direction. Seeing snow fall for the first time this dry winter, her 8 year old son remarked, “See mom, the earth just wanted to know that we care, and it started working again.”
Show the earth you care. Bring your children, friends and co-workers to Boston Common next weekend, and step it up!
Title Photograph By Chris Pilaro/Working Films
Dragon art photo courtesy of the artist
Comments
We are heading into Boston for sure on the 14th ! The kids are going to love it.
Wow, I had no idea this event was happening! I think its fantastic and another way to educate the next generation early. Fantastic article. Keep up the good work Misstropolis.
Hello Misstropolis, appreciate your help in getting the word out about this day. My 7 piece band will be joined by The Park School Gospel Choir from ages 5-9 as well as the adult choir led by Janice Allen. With the kids help, I have written a song w/ my bandmate Aaron Flill called “One World Free”. We will perform the WORLD DEBUT of this tune on the 14th w/ the gospel choirs help. We will also be recording the tune to be available at the end of the show as well as on ITunes and the proceeds will go to Step It Up Foundation.
It is an honor to be a part of this day and is time that all people realized what is really happening to Mother Earth. She’s in trouble and I hope it’s not too late to help save our environment that we so often take for granted.
Hope to se you all there.
peace,
Chad Hollister
Worcester, VT
Chad - it is so great of you to be involved in this event, and to also involve all the kids. I can not wait to hear your new songs! And I will be crossing my fingers and toes that everyone in the capitol hears you too.
Robin
I am organizing an Earth Day event at our elementary school, Forestdale School, in Malden on 4/28th. Our motto is Be kind to your Mother. I have learned a great deal while organizing this event. I plan on attending events to learn more. The Audubon Society is having an Energy Awareness Day for families at the Joppa Flats site. I hope to do both! I will send people your way and hope to do both! Thank you for all of your efforts! I know how much work it is on any level! Hey Chad! We are looking for some music - can you head to Malden on 4/28th?? Malden is an old community with some outdated thinking. It is a challenge and these are the folks we need to reach!
Hello Karen, would love to be involved. Please get in touch w/ me thru my website.
Hope to see you on the 14th.
Thanks,
Chad Hollister
http://www.chadmusic.com
Hello Robin, from a Framingham Mom,
-- I loved this post! I have to add something:
Last Saturday I was at Chuck E. Cheese surrounded by 4 year-old’s and all kinds of “greenhouse gases”—the usual weekend preschool social obligations—next Saturday I will be doing something positive with my kids at a Step it Up event in Framingham—I am really looking forward to April 14.
-- I’m organizing a Step it Up event at Grace Church, 76 Salem End Rd., Framingham, called “Chalk for a Cooler Earth”—kids, families, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and anyone who cares is invited to come join us for a chalk-drawing creative art/protest event. We will have prizes for everyone, a “grease” car to check out, global warming action informations, games for kids, and a lemonade stand to benefit fresh produce for low income families. No dancing mouse, no piles of un-needed presents, just drawing and community. And for Metrowest families you’d still have time to get into Boston for the big rally in the afternoon.
Thanks again for drawing attention to this date.
Message for Chad…
Great music today, man.... having the children choir join you was a touch of genius. Great great idea...whoever thought of that!
By the way, who was that one girl who sang the first two lines of the song solo… had my hair on end… such was the power of her voice! People WILL hear of her sooner rather than later some day… what a talent!
Anyways… thanks to your band for adding a great touch with your songs at the event.
Lets all continue the good work!
Sanjeev
Hi all - wow, what a day Sat. was. What an electrifying event! congratulations to Brooke and Chad and Bill McKibben and everyone involved. Chad, you all rocked the common. The children never looked so beautiful! It was like you all were singing their future into being.
Mary - how did your Framingham event go? Pictures from actions all around the world can be found on the website: http://www.stepitup07.org.
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