Activists with the Fellowship of Reconciliation and other groups plan a climate-change rally from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday, coinciding with the start of a 105-day legislative session. The goal is to draw attention to rising global temperatures that have been tied to human activities such as burning coal for power.
The event also coincides with severe high tides on Puget Sound, which offer a glimpse early in the week of future sea level effects as the effect of global warming continue.
Chances for legislative action this year are uncertain. Gov.-elect Jay Inslee has advocated action while in Congress, and Democratic Sen. Kevin Ranker of Orcas Island is proposing a carbon tax that could help discourage use of carbon-based fuels that contribute to global warming by generating greenhouse gases.
But Inslee has not laid out his plan, and a new conservative majority caucus in the state Senate may be reluctant to take action. Inslee did promise Thursday that he would push for thorough and fair environmental reviews any coal-export proposals.
For details on the rally, go here for the sponsors’ press release, which says in part:
“Extreme weather patterns throughout the world, historic rates of polar ice melt, and other realities confirm scientists’ increasingly strong findings that the climate crisis is already upon us,” said Bourtai Hargrove, one of the event’s organizers. “Every person, local community, state and nation must take bold actions to reduce climate disruption.”
The rally will include brief speakers, music, and dozens of persons in a human mural spelling out “NO COAL” because the organizers oppose exporting coal through Washington and Oregon ports to Asia, where it would be burned and would return to us in air pollution and climate damage.
Another human mural will spell out “350.ORG” because the nationwide nonprofit organization at www.350.org has done excellent work. The organizers are recruiting 70 volunteers to commit themselves to participating in the rally’s human mural Interested persons should contact Rod Tharp at (360) 951-1080
smcrae@earthlink.net.
Several brief speakers include Paul Pickett, a scientist who currently teaches a climate course at The Evergreen State College; Zoltan Grossman, another TESC professor who recently published the bookAsserting Native Resilience: Pacific Rim Indigenous Nations Face the Climate Change; Gar Lipow, author of Solving the Climate Crisis Through Social Change and Cooling a Fevered Planet. When the climate crisis rally ends at 1:30 p.m., additional speakers may address other issues needing bold legislative action.
