On the road with JK … well, actually it was just a walk for JK today. He joined with others at the Climate Change Action Day rally in front of the Capitol today. We have a report of the action courtesy of Richard Bell of the Post Carbon Institute and pictures courtesy of JK blogging community member globalvillage. Enjoy!

The fight in Congress this week to stop global warming got off  to a sunny start this morning on the west front of the Capitol, with Alaska Natives, youth activists, and members of Congress all pounding away at one theme:  the time to act is now.

The event, part of Climate Crisis Action Day, was started by the Alaska Wilderness League, with sponsors and supporters from all of the usual suspects (Audubon, NRDC Action Fund, Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, Defenders of Wildlife), and some not so likely suspects, like sponsor Harris Lithographics Incorporated, a 100% wind powered union printing shop that was the first printer in the U.S. to earn Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.

Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont kicked off the proceedings in his usual rabble-rousing style, saying the country had “come together” to win World War II, had “come together” to fulfill President Kennedy’s call to put a man (sic) on the moon in 10 years, and that it was time to “come together” now and stop global warming. Sanders mentioned his sponsorship, with Senator Barbara Boxer, of the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act that calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80% below 1990 levels by the year 2050.

After a very cute 3rd grader and a teenager crusading for keeping car tire pressures up, Senator John Kerry talked about how far behind the rest of the world the Bush administration had fallen in fighting global warming, citing recent conversations with some of the CEOs of the country’s largest electric utilities who told him they wanted a cap on carbon emissions. 

As for all the dozens of CO2-spewing coal plants now on the drawing boards, Kerry drew a line in the sand: “Every plant must sequester.” Kerry also mentioned all the mayors and local governments that were stepping up to the plate. <!-more-> Rep. Ed Markey, whom Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently appointed to head a special House committee on global warming, noted that 1 year go, all the experts said there was no chance of action on global warming. After the election on November 7, the experts said something might happen. And today, Markey virtually guaranteed that “something will happen.”

Markey called for specific mandates, including a 10 mpg increase in fuel economy for the entire fleet of vehicles, the commercialization of cellulosic ethanol, and a mandatory cap-and-trade system. And he said he would never allow the Republicans to use the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as “a gas station to drill for oil to send to California to run SUVS.” Markey is introducing a bill to permanently ban drilling in ANWR for all time.

Rep. Henry Waxman, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Investigations, welcomed the crowd, and said he had this day introduced the Safe Climate Act with more co-sponsors than any other piece of climate legislation.

TV and radio host Tony Dean, whose “Tony Dean Outdoors” show is aimed at fishers and hunters, talked about how he and his neighbors in South Dakota were seeing the effects of global warming first hand. In an interview afterwards, Dean emphasized his work on getting outdoorspeople together with environmentalist to fight for the values they had in common. He cited research that showed that if global warming proceeds, the prairie potholes that are the breeding grounds for as much as 50% of the country’s ducks will dry up, and hunters will have nothing left to hunt.

California has been leading the nation, and the world, in tackling global warming, and the state was well-represented at the rally. Senator Barbara Boxer spoke of her own legislation (with Sanders, see above). And California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (and two other members of the Assembly) appeared to talk about A.B. 32, the state’s breakthrough climate change legislation.

Some of the most moving testimony came from representatives of Native American tribes in Alaska. Mayor Stanley Tocktoo of Shishmaref, Alaska talked about how his village needed federal help to relocate inland from the onrushing sea. In colder days, spring and autumn ice protected the coastline of his village from the pounding of major storms. But none the ice does not appear until much later, and disappears earlier, leaving the shore exposed to severe erosion. One storm moved the coastline back 125 feet. Tocktoo pointed out that the picture of the polar bear that formed the backdrop for the stage was taken within a mile of his village. The rally ended with calls for the crowd to head on over to the House and Senate office buildings to lobby their members of Congress, together with a reminder that on Wednesday, March 21, former vice president Al Gore would be testifying before the House in the morning, and then before Senator Boxer’s committee in the afternoon.

  Thanks Richard and globalvillage for a terrific account of what happened at the rally!