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NEWS & LETTERS, June -July 2007‘Step it up’ fights global warmingMemphis, Tenn.--As part of the national Step It Up days of action on climate change, a series of events took place here in April. These included two street corner protests, which got lots of support from passing drivers, two church services, and a group of high school girls making posters to put up around town. We highlighted the demand for binding laws to cut carbon emissions 80% by 2050. More and more people are angry at the administration’s do-nothingness in the face of growing evidence that the damage from global warming has already begun. This anger is turning to action, as seen in the rapid growth of the Step It Up 2007 actions, which started as a proposal posted on a website by six recent college graduates in Vermont and their adviser, long-time environmental activist and writer Bill McKibben. In little more than three months, local groups new and old in all 50 states joined in to hold 1,460 events the same weekend. STUDENTS LEAD MOVEMENT Step it Up 2007 is part of a larger movement, including groups at colleges and universities. Students have taken the lead across the country in promoting sustainable energy use. Students at the University of Memphis and at least 17 other colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada have voted for "green fees" to decrease their schools’ carbon emissions. Organizing of the Campus Climate Challenge has spread to dozens of universities and some high schools. Though it was the largest ever protest against global warming, Step It Up was underreported. In a radio interview in April, McKibben pointed out a change. The Step It Up proposal to cut carbon by 80% was laughed at in January. But by April, it was being seriously proposed by politicians including presidential candidates Bill Richardson and Dennis Kucinich. IMPACT ON POOREST The impact of global warming will be mildest in zones where most of the industrialized world lives, while the severest impact will be on the poor, especially those living in marginal agricultural land, coastal regions, and flood zones. International agencies are warning of potential large-scale migration of climate refugees. Global warming is such a serious problem that society will have to change. The question is, "What type of change will that be?" Even the "progressive" representatives of the ruling class, such as Al Gore, are projecting that it is a "moral, not political" problem. Countering impulses toward a total reorganization of society, official voices channel the movement toward what is achievable within the contours of capitalist production. This way of adapting to climate change would greatly worsen the conditions of life and labor of billions of mainly poor and working-class people, with special hardship falling on people of color and women--but affording some protection to many of the most affluent. --Environmental justice activists |
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