There’s a growing number of other climate change initiatives that are well worth becoming part of, too.

One of the most exciting is the upcoming Live Earth: 7.07.07 - Concert for a Climate in Crisis event. Not only will it global and be green, it will also be jam-packed with stars of all stripes—including Al Gore himself at the helm.

As noted in this news report,

LOS ANGELES - Al Gore, the former vice president and now hit documentary maker, on Thursday added rock promoter to his résumé, announcing plans for a 24-hour concert series on all seven continents to highlight, you guessed it, the dangers of global warming.

With a powerhouse lineup of acts from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Snoop Dogg to Bon Jovi,  what’s being called “Live Earth” aims to gather more than 100 of the world’s top musicians on July 7 — and attract 2 billion viewers, most of them via television, radio and the Web.

[...]

Ahead of the formal announcement in Los Angeles, Gore said that the push, which includes a new campaign called Save Our Selves, has the potential to reach far beyond his earlier audiences.

“In order to solve the climate crisis, we have to reach billions of people,” Gore said in a statement. “We hope to jumpstart that movement right here, right now, and take it to a new level on July 7, 2007.”

The SOS campaign was founded by Kevin Wall, the producer behind the Live 8 global concerts in 2005 that raised money for Africa.

“Our climate crisis is the biggest challenge facing humanity,” Wall said. “SOS is more than a global distress call. SOS will give the world the tools we need to answer that call with meaningful action.”

Wall said that these performers had already signed up: Pharrell, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters, Snoop Dogg, Lenny Kravitz, Bon Jovi, Paolo Nutini, Sheryl Crow, AFI, Melissa Etheridge, John Mayer, Damien Rice, Corrine Bailey Rae, Duran Duran, Snow Patrol, John Legend, Black Eyed Peas, Akon, Enrique Iglesias, Fall Out Boy, Mana, Keane, Kelly Clarkson, Korn, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Ray LaMontagne, Robin Thicke, and Kenna.

Micrsoft/MSN its throwing its considerable weight behind the project, too—see liveearth.msn.com/ for event details, action links, and information resources.

But while high-profile star-studded events can raise awareness as well as money for the cause—and with an unprecedented event like this one, you can expect there to be a great deal of both coming out of it—there’s still no substitute for putting our climate change activist boots on the ground in cities all across America.

As well-known environmentalist Bill McKibben wrote about the nationwide Step It Up 2007 events scheduled for April 14 on the group’s website here,

This is an invitation to help start a movement—to take one spring day and use it to reshape the future.

[...]

The largest rally yet held in the U.S. about global warming drew a thousand people. 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.

So pitch in. A few of us are trying to organize a nationwide day of hundreds and hundreds of rallies on April 14. We hope to have gatherings in every state, and in many of America’s most iconic places: on the levees in New Orleans, on top of the melting glaciers on Mt. Rainier, even underwater on the endangered coral reefs off Key West.

We need rallies outside churches, along the tide lines in our coastal cities, in cornfields and forests and on statehouse steps.

Every group will be saying the same thing: Step it up, Congress! Enact immediate cuts in carbon emissions, and pledge an 80% reduction by 2050. No half measures, no easy compromises—the time has come to take the real actions that can stabilize our climate.

[...]

You don’t have to have ever done anything like this—you’re not organizing a March on Washington, just a gathering of scores or hundreds in your town or neighborhood.

We need creativity, good humor, commitment. If you are active in a campus group or a church or a local environmental group or a garden society or a bike club-or if you just saw Al Gore’s movie and want to do something—then we need you now.

Is Mr. McKibben’s estimate of what “a few of us” can make happen by organizing small local rallies and linking them together via the Web overly optimistic? Apparently not—as of this morning, there are already 740 events planned in 48 states across the country and more are being added every day.

I’ve already signed up to take part in Step It Up’s National Day of Climate Action on April 14.  I hope you’ll all do likewise at [url=http://www.stepitup2007.org]http://www.stepitup2007.org[/url]. 

Our planet needs our help, and by working together we can still make a difference before it’s too late.

GV, what a wonderful, outstanding video!

It’s perfect.

The song is so right on when it talks about “I’m dumping my trash in your backyard, making certain you don’t notice really isn’t hard, you’re so busy with your guns and all of your excuses to use them!”

Whether it’s guns, or American Idol, or or the latest celebrity gossip, it seems people just have more “important” things to do than care for the resources their own kids will need in order to have a good life.

I will offer this addition to the resource list for finding ways to help - yes, I’m shilling again for one of my favorite organizations - Co-op America:

http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/climate/