Asheville 'Steps It Up' with the rest of the nation

The movement to combat global warming kicked off its grassroots activist season on Apr. 14 with a series of events aimed at drawing attention to global warming. More than 1,400 events in all 50 states were part of the Step It Up campaign, all with the aim of urging the US Congress to reduce heat-trapping carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Global warming activists formed a "human postcard" on Capitol Hill, dove to a coral reef off Key West and fanned out across Manhattan's financial district to call for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions that fuel climate change. In San Francisco, people took a caravan of "clean" cars–electric, biodiesel, plug-in hybrid and solar vehicles–to a protest at a Hummer dealership in San Rafael, CA. At a "Sunken Shopping Center" rally in Emeryville, CA, people lined up at a projected new sea-level line to show the area that some scientists say will be inundated after glaciers melt and the oceans rise. In Madison, WI, about 200 people marched from the University of Wisconsin campus to the state capitol. They carried signs reading "Clean air not polluted power" and "Act now–Go green" while chanting "two, four, six, eight, cut the carbon we can't wait." In Chicago's Daley Plaza, about 500 people listened to speeches from a panel of environmental experts who called for a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. The crowd also waved signs exclaiming "Step it up Congress." Although support for legislative action to fight global warming has never been stronger, there's little agreement on how to sell the concept to US citizens who might not readily part with their energy-guzzling lifestyles. Asheville 'Steps It Up' Around 300 people gathered for a Step It Up rally in Asheville's City County Plaza on a windy day. The crowd included a wide range of people–college students who biked from Warren Wilson College, senior citizens, families with children–and a few dogs. A couple of people waved earth flags and a few held signs reading "Cut CO2 by 80% by 2050." Several speakers entertained the crowd for an hour. Among them was Mayor Terry Bellamy who challenged Asheville citizens to plant 5,000 trees by next year to "green up the community." Sandy Pfeiffer, president of Warren Wilson College, spoke about how the college engaged students, staff and faculty to look specifically at the institution's energy usage, building emissions, mobile source emissions and total equivalent greenhouse gas emissions. They used that to identify areas of most concern regarding the college's contributions to the global warming crisis, and to begin instituting positive change and identifying ways to advance sustainability education at Warren Wilson and in the community. This past fall Pfeiffer became a founding signatory of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment–a call to higher education to lead the country out of the global warming reality and into a climate-neutral future through specific action steps on campus that demonstrate viable alternatives. Dr. Richard Fireman of NC Interfaith Power and Light also spoke. When asked what he and the other speakers hoped to accomplish at the rally, he said: "I believe a political movement is necessary to get politicians to act in a responsible way on the climate crisis.... We need a political movement as strong as the civil rights movement or anti-Vietnam movement. Folks need to really be willing to put themselves on the line because the consequences for human and other-than-human life are dire if we don't act quickly and adequately. The word sacrifice is anathema. So many well-intentioned activists are loathe to use it, or even believe that we can have technological fixes that will allow us to have economic growth and development. Economic growth equates with more CO2 emissions, and will continue to do so until and if we can develop new technologies to sequester CO2. Until then, we need to reduce, reduce, reduce the use of fossil fuels. It is clear that we can create a new economy that is less fossil fuel and energy dependent, and we all will be happier doing so. We are long past the point where more is better." Fireman also said there are many grassroots organizations in Asheville working to combat climate change.