Speech for 350.org Moving Planet Rally at Los Angeles City Hall Park Saturday, September 24th, 2011 Š 2011 Luke Massman-Johnson
WELCOME Hello Los Angeles Climate Activists! Welcome to YOUR LA 350.org MOVING PLANET EVENT. Thank you all so much for coming out today to add your voice to 350's international call for action on GLOBAL WARMING. And thanks especially to the younger people here who are a big part of our inspiration for change. My name is Luke. I'm not a celebrity or politician or climate scientist. I'm just a citizen with a small house in Hollywood. I have a lovely family, my wife is my best friend, I adore my two children and I want the best for their future. So I am passionate about stopping GLOBAL WARMING and CLIMATE CHANGE, and this fight is worth it for me. I realize there's lots of things you could be doing on a perfect California Saturday. But in a city of 4 million people, you are the ones who made a stand and showed up. And by showing up you have already made a move toward sustainability. You are sending a signal to your fellow citizens, to our politicians here in City Hall, to President Obama, and to leaders around the world. Los Angeles is eager to stop GLOBAL WARMING by moving beyond FOSSIL FUELS and towards CLEAN, GREEN ENERGY and SUSTAINABLE LIFE. We are in extraordinarily good company. Since yesterday evening, starting somewhere out in the Pacific Islands, literally thousands of citizen actions like this one have been unfolding every hour around the world in the most beautiful, energetic, and powerful ways. After the rally today, you owe it to yourself to see the breathtaking and inspiring images collected at Moving-Planet.org. I will be posting pictures of this event, so you might just see yourself! [UPDATE: final gallery here > http://gallery.me.com/wndrdog/100595] Andy Warhol said that each of us would get 15 minutes of fame. And I have been advised that a public speech shouldn't be longer than 15 minutes. But I have a lot to say, and I trust that all of you came to hear it, so I'm going to defy both of these suggestions. This is more of a teach-in; while I'm talking I encourage you to make yourself comfortable and sit if you like. ----DAVID GRAHAM-CASO OK, to kick things off today, I am very pleased to say that with us today we DO have someone with certified green credentials. The Sierra Club has been doing some of the most ambitious and effective work on CLIMATE CHANGE in The US. Here to talk about their incredibly successful Beyond Coal campaign, please join me in welcoming the Deputy Press Secretary of the Sierra Club, David Graham-Caso. >>> DAVID'S SPEECH <<< Thank you so much David, it's an honor to have you join us. We are all very grateful for your inspiring work. ----350.ORG
The Sierra Club and 350.org are among our strongest allies in the fight on climate. For those who might not be familiar, let me briefly introduce 350.org. 350 is the highest safe level of Carbon Dioxide humans can allow in the atmosphere if we are to maintain the balance of life as we know it. For the 20 million years of human evolution, CO2 levels hung around 270. In the last 200 years since the industrial revolution, our extraordinary burning of fossil fuels have spiked that level to 390. Our current way of life has already exceeded the limits of the Earths atmosphe to correct for our pollution. International efforts to stop GLOBAL WARMING — including the Kyoto Protocol and cap-andtrade mechanisms — use 350 as a target to return us to safety. 350.org is building a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis. Its organizers and activists push for policies that will get the world back on track to 350. 350's online campaigns, grassroots organizing, and mass public actions are led from the bottom up by thousands of volunteer organizers in over 188 countries. ----BILL MCKIBBEN The founder of 350.org, Bill McKibben, is a true environmental hero. He authored the first book on GLOBAL WARMING for the general public over 20 years ago, and numerous books on climate and activism since then. Every year he coordinates the world's largest rallies on the environment, enrolling 7,000 local events in 188 countries. In short, he is one of this generations most energetic and vocal advocates for stopping GLOBAL WARMING. Several weeks ago he led a two-week long civil disobedience protest in front of the White House to raise the alarm on the Keystone XL project, and was arrested along side NASA's top climate scientist Dr. James Hansen — the father of GLOBAL WARMING science — and 1200 other activists. In fact one of those brave activists returned from that campaign and volunteered to help me put this one together. Where are you, George? Thank you for your commitment. By coming here to this Moving Planet rally today, each of you are an integral part of this year's 350's worldwide event. And you are also now part of climate activist history! After this event is behind us, if you are looking for more information and inspiration about climate activism, one of the best places to start is at 350.org. ----SO WHY ARE WE HERE? We are here because GLOBAL WARMING is an urgent and unprecedented worldwide threat. And as a result, catastrophic CLIMATE CHANGE is devastating more and more local communities each year. The science is irrefutable and there is no more debate. For decades now, the top scientists from around the world have been trumpeting a crystal clear warning. As we push the Earth towards multiple global tipping
points, the window of opportunity for recovery is closing fast. If we are to have any hope of preventing runaway GLOBAL WARMING, we must ambitiously and urgently move away from FOSSIL-FUELS and toward CLEAN, GREEN ENERGY. So we are here to help bend the arc of our civilization toward a SUSTAINABLE FUTURE. Despite the short-sighted resistance by the United States, and despite the flagrant denial by a handful of strategists in the fossil fuel industry and their complicit politicians, you sense the importance and urgency of CLIMATE CHANGE and know that NOW IS THE TIME FOR AMERICA TO FINALLY MOVE. CLIMATE CHANGE can feel overwhelming. The scientific evidence is staggering. The weather events are shocking. The denialists are clever, influential, and extremely well funded. Meanwhile, the suffering around the world – usually by those who are most vulnerable and least responsible – is heartbreaking. It is easy to be intimidated and to lose hope. You could be forgiven for throwing your hands up. But you didn't. You showed up today. You are choosing to pay attention, to inform yourselves, to look reality in the eye. You showed up here today and many of you brought your kids. And if ever there was a reason to step up instead of give up, just look into the eyes of the young ones among you. ----I'M GOING TO MAKE 3 POINTS TODAY 1. 2. 3.
GLOBAL WARMING and CLIMATE CHANGE are real, serious, and urgent The politics on stopping GLOBAL WARMING are very difficult The most important thing you can do on the issue of Climate is to be fully accountable for yourself
-----SCIENCE The science on GLOBAL WARMING is so solid that I almost left it out of this speech. But I'm hoping that through these events around the world today, we can touch a broader audience, including those who doubt the seriousness of this issue. So let me touch on the core science of GLOBAL WARMING and CLIMATE CHANGE. What is Anthropogenic — or Man-Made — GLOBAL WARMING? For the past 200 years of the Industrial and Technological Revolutions, humans have been burning fossil fuels at an alarming rate. Burning fossil fuels — coal, oil, and natural gas — dumps excessive carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, trapping more heat from the sun, and over-warming the planet. It's too much too fast for the Earth to correct for. In geological time, it's not just tipping the delicate balance, it is shattering it.
Humans dump 90 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every single day! 90 million tons a day. That's more than 30 Billion tons a year. For those of you who heard from denialists that volcanoes might be the cause of GLOBAL WARMING, know this: all volcanoes worldwide, both on land and under the sea, puff less than 1% of what humans spew annually. As Al Gore has famously said, "we need to stop treating the atmosphere like an open sewer". How much CO2 is safe? The best science says we need to keep below 350 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the world has already exceeded the 350 maximum, back in the early '90s. For almost 20 years since then, we have steadily ratcheted past that critical sustainable threshold, and are now at 390. In other words, we're already in the red and if we stay here or go any farther we're in serious danger. But there are no signs of slowing down. We all love our freedoms, conveniences, and shiny objects, but they come with a staggering hidden cost: the mining and refining and manufacturing and shipping and packaging and disposing of all our stuff contributes significantly to CLIMATE CHANGE. And as China puts a new coal fired power plant on line every week for the next 20 years to keep up with the world's Westernizing demand for more products, the rate of CO2 emission are guaranteed to increase. What is CLIMATE CHANGE? GLOBAL WARMING overheats the oceans and land. Extra heat in the atmosphere means more hurricanes over the oceans and more tornadoes over land. Extra heat also causes excess evaporation. Evaporated land means a drought. Evaporated oceans mean more clouds, more storms, heavier rainfall and snowfall. Heavier rainfall means more flooding. Heavier snowfall means more snowpack in the mountains. Snowpack is nature's water battery, charging in the winter and slowly draining through summer and fall. But GLOBAL WARMING is melting snowpack too early so we have mudslides and floods, followed by contaminated water and drought. One catastrophic fallout of CLIMATE CHANGE you don't hear about every day is unfolding in South Asia. 3 billion people in 18 nations — almost half the world's population — live in and depend on the watershed of the Himalayas. But as GLOBAL WARMING quickly melts the Himalayan Glaciers, their streams of life have become floods and mudslides, decimating crops and villages and contaminating their only water source. What is a Tipping Point? Picture a stack of children's blocks. When it's short it is very stable. But once the tower gets tall it is unstable and starts to sway. If it sways past the tipping point, the tower will fail instantly and catastrophically. Past the tipping point — which is only a couple degrees off of stable — it's impossible to catch the collapsing pieces and rescue the tower. The tipping points of nature are called bio feedback loops. The melting of the glaciers, the thawing of the Arctic tundra, the acidification of the oceans, and the desertification of land are all tipping points
of GLOBAL WARMING, and all of them are leaning right now. Once they collapse there's no stopping them. Worse, their collapse causes the fall of other systems. But enough about the science for now. [UPDATE: a more detailed primer on GLOBAL WARMING & CLIMATE CHANGE I wrote 2 years ago is available here > http://www.DesignToolbox.com/350/MovingPlanetLA/ Global_Warming_&_Climate_Change_101.pdf] ----WORLD POLITICS & DENIALISM Let me give a brief history of how GLOBAL WARMING and CLIMATE CHANGE have been handled so far. GLOBAL WARMING is not a recently discovered problem. It was first theorized in 1896 — well over a hundred years ago. And we have had major advances in the international science and politics of CLIMATE CHANGE every 10 and 20 years since then: 1936, 1950, 1958, 1972, 1988. Fast forward another 20 years to 1992 – almost a century from the first scientific paper on GLOBAL WARMING. The United Nations Framework Convention on CLIMATE CHANGE was formed and began hosting intensive annual CLIMATE CHANGE Conferences. A draft of what became the Kyoto Protocol was immediately signed by 154 countries – 80% of the world. But not by America. Outside the United States it seemed as if the world was waking up to meet this incredibly important challenge. But here at home another force was in play: "... three large American industry groups set to work on strategies to cast doubt on the science of CLIMATE CHANGE. Even though the oil industry’s own scientists had declared ... that human-induced CLIMATE CHANGE was undeniable, the American Petroleum Institute, the Western Fuels Association (a coal consortium) and a Philip Morris-sponsored anti-science group ... all drafted and promoted campaigns of CLIMATE CHANGE disinformation." 1 The results of these smokescreens are impressive. Despite some 47,000 peer-reviewed scientific documents by thousands of the very best scientists around the world, which starkly prove the reality of Man-made GLOBAL WARMING, the fossil fuel lobby and a handful of complicit politicians and media have successfully deluded half of the US public. Otherwise intelligent and well-meaning people throughout our country can't imagine that GLOBAL WARMING could be caused by humans, or that it is a serious threat. And because people doubt, they balk at some of the simplest steps toward living sustainably. That's exactly where the deniers want us. Apathetic and inert. So we must choose NOT to be apathetic. We must choose NOT to sit idly by.
This is no longer politics. Strategically masking the known threat of FOSSIL FUELS and GLOBAL WARMING is morphing into a crime against humanity â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and against every other living thing on Earth, for that matter! Until the denial is put to rest, until the people in this country wake up en masse and demand a beautiful future of CLEAN, GREEN ENERGY and SUSTAINABLE LIFE, the fossil fuel lobby and their complicit politicians will keep us shackled to the carbon bomb that is already ticking. This is not the America we want. This is not the America we need. This is absolutely not the America we want to leave the next generation. ----EVOLUTION So we need to change. But people are VERY afraid of change. "Many feel the 'American way of life' is an entitlement that operates outside the laws of nature. At the Earth Summit in 1992, George H.W. Bush forcefully declared, 'The American way of life is not negotiable.'" 2 But Bush missed a catastrophic blind spot in his hubris: GLOBAL WARMING doesn't negotiate either! With a flick of her wrist, CLIMATE CHANGE is more and more frequently wreaking havoc on our non-negotible way of life. Ask the victims of Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Irene if their lives and homes withstood the tempest just by virtue of being Americans. Ask the victims of Joplin's tornadoes. Ask anyone who witnessed the drought and fires in Texas, or the rains and floods out East this year. And of course these events are happening all around the world. So while change can be hard and scary, it is obviously harder or scarier NOT to change! The good news is ... America thrives on change! Think of it. All our core beliefs, traditions, and institutions were new ideas at one point. In fact one of the most vital pieces of America's robustness is her amazing ability to EVOLVE. It's not that America is always right, it's that we are constantly and fluidly getting better all the time. A society that stubbornly resists necessary change becomes diseased. A culture of stagnant ideology and obstinate denialism, is blind to the course-corrections necessary to keep its society thriving. Change is not easy. But we don't expect it to be easy. In the long tradition of change in America, our most profound evolutions have had to overcome incredible resistance. Civil rights, womens' rights, workers' rights. It is only with generations of hindsight that the foresight of our wisest leaders becomes enshrined as the bedrock of America.
Like the visionary leaders we admire in history, we can see the future today. GLOBAL WARMING threatens everything: our traditions AND our future. So let's become the change we seek! ----YOUR CHOICE How do we do that? I will be honest with you. When you start to pull back the curtain on CLIMATE CHANGE and GLOBAL WARMING, it can feel pretty overwhelming. It's a huge problem with big consequences. It affects everyone on Earth. And even the smartest scientists and most powerful politicians have struggled to get their heads around it. But there are many reasons for hope as well, and we need to keep them closely in mind as we march forward. Here are three pieces of great news to keep us motivated. • First, most of the world is already closely aligned on the need for Climate action. • Second, there are some great local efforts unfolding in US already. • Third, you are in a position of power. Every day. Let me briefly touch on each of these. FIRST First, the vast majority of citizens of the world are at a tipping point on taking action against GLOBAL WARMING. 97% of scientists who specialize in climate already agree. Virtually every peer-reviewed scientific organization that addresses climate agrees. 98% of the world's countries already agree that international cooperation on CLIMATE CHANGE — like The Kyoto Protocol — is essential. Meanwhile, countless other localized climate efforts are already having an impact around the world, like the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign. SECOND Second, there are some great local political efforts unfolding in US Cities even though the federal government hasn't yet ratified Kyoto. Many local politicians have already moved against GLOBAL WARMING without waiting for a federal mandate. In fact, when the US failed to ratify Kyoto again in 2005, the Mayors of 500 US Cities — including Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Pasadena, and 135 others in California — those Mayors stood up and pledged Kyoto-like action on their own! The US Conference of Mayors put together a Best Practices Guide to cut greenhouse gas emissions, reduce GLOBAL WARMING, and create more livable communities. Under our own Mayor Villaraigosa's watch, Los Angeles has indeed started to clean up it's act. We have begun to chip away at the absolute dominance coal has had over our electricity. We have started to
improve public transit through the 30/10 plan. There are local initiatives for solar power, water conservation, building efficiency, the Million Trees LA plan, and many others. Of course we need to hold our politicians accountable and make sure these plans are more than just words. But we also need to applaud and celebrate the considerable efforts that are underway already. THIRD FInally, the third piece of great news — and this is something that even conservatives get behind — YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOURSELF. These set pieces represent that a hundred times a day each of us stands at this decision point. A hundred times a day, for most decisions in your life, you are in a position of power to choose something that contributes to FOSSIL FUELS & GLOBAL WARMING, or to choose the thing which is CLEANER, GREENER, and SUSTAINS LIFE. Some of those decision points are small — like turning the water off while you brush your teeth. And some of them are larger — like choosing a car that get's great milage. Some decisions you may not even recognize as having a huge impact on the climate — like eating meat. The thing is, whether or not you realize the impact you're having with each of your choices ... you ARE having an impact. So we can rally all we want. We can rant at politicians, and we can condemn the US Chamber of Commerce and the Fossil Fuel Lobby. But the Fossil Fuel Lobby doesn't care that we're here today. Why? Because as consumers, we are constantly sending them market signals with our purchases and decisions, that contradict and undermine what we're saying here in this rally. When I buy a disposable bottled water, I'm telling the petroleum industry and the bottled water corporations that the unnecessary waste of petroleum and energy to make a disposable bottle, and the GLOBAL WARMING emissions of packing, shipping, and refrigerating it, are acceptable to me. I just donated to CLIMATE CHANGE! When I leave my TV and DVD and DVR and computer and cell phone all plugged in 24/7 — instead of turning them off with a power strip at night — I'm telling the coal plant to keep the furnace raging because I need more power. I just paid for CLIMATE CHANGE! So the real power that you have isn't here at City Hall Park — although I'm so grateful you joined another historic 350 worldwide rally. The real power you have is in your day-to-day, and moment-to-moment choices. Because the sum total of your decisions each day has far more bearing on CLIMATE CHANGE than your political vote every two or four years. You stand in a position of power. You make the difference, all day, every day. Stopping GLOBAL WARMING and CLIMATE CHANGE is a choice. If each of you keeps making more and more sustainable choices, we can still stop GLOBAL WARMING and prevent the worst of CLIMATE CHANGE.
----WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE TO REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT? The answer to that is as varied as each of us. Greening your life is a very personal effort. One size will NOT fit all. Most of us are already well aware of the basic 'top 10' lists. Things you can do to reduce your footprint at home, at work and school. Things like: • • • • • • • • • • •
Adjust your thermostat, air conditioner, and water heater Turn off lights and unplug phone chargers when not in use Walk, bike, carpool or use public transportation Reduce, reuse, and recycle Buy local produce, shop at farmer's markets Insulate and use efficient bulbs Compost Plant trees Maintain tire pressure Fix water leaks Carry a reusable water bottle
As much as possible, these kinds of things should be BASIC HABITS for each of us every day. So I challenge you to challenge yourself: find ways to make more sustainable choices. You don't have to look far, sustainable choices are literally everywhere. And the amazing thing is, the more you do, the more you care. And the more you educate yourself, the more you want to do. It's an beautiful and virtuous circle, and it feels absolutely fantastic. Here's what decision points have looked like in my life and with my family: • • • • • • • • • • •
I have chosen to be a bicycle commuter for most of my life. When I drive, I plan multiple errands in a single route When my family goes to a park or movie or restaurant, we often choose to stay local and bike there We purchased a small home that needs less heating and cooling We installed screens so I can open windows and doors for a breeze We installed ceiling fans instead of air conditioners in bedrooms, and only use them when someone is in the room We insulated our water heater, and turned the temperature down a few degrees We have installed power strips on all computer, TV, and stereo equipment and turn them completely off when not in use We turn off the water while brushing our teeth, scrubbing in the shower, and washing dishes When we renovated our kitchen we installed Energy Star appliances and use them on their most efficient settings We installed a water purifier under our sink and now bring water bottles almost everywhere
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
My kids are responsible for turning off lights and equipment they use We cancelled our newspapers and most of our magazines. When unwanted phone books and catalogs come, we call and have our name removed from the mailing list. We go to the library more and the bookstore less. We draw and paint and build and dream more, and go to the toy store less. My daughter and I gradually became vegetarian, and our family rarely cooks meat at home We shop more at Farmer's Markets, and started putting compost in our green bin We recycle ambitiously By keeping compost and recycling out of our trash, we now throw away one small bag of trash a week We cut back on flying and try to plan trips and vacations right here in beautiful California When we do fly and travel, we take longer, more relaxed trips. When we shop on Ebay or Amazon, we search by distance as well as price to reduce carbon emission in shipping When our big old car died, we leased a smaller, super-efficient clean diesel with the highest available mpg And just this week we took advantage of the incredible incentives on solar panels available right now in LA. We will soon have CLEAN, GREEN solar electricity on our roof without paying a single dime.
Once you commit to your own version of green philosophy, each of you becomes the most powerful force you can be against climate change. You're impervious to the hysteria in the media on either side. You're above the frothing and finger-pointing in both directions. And you don't need to make anyone else wrong. In closing, let me offer a pledge that I sketched out for myself to live more sustainably. These 25 points fit for me; not all of them will fit for you. I offer it simply as a reference for the kind of thinking that each of us needs to adopt if we are to make real headway against GLOBAL WARMING and CLIMATE CHANGE. ----I PLEDGE TO STOP CLIMATE CHANGE BY LIVING MORE SUSTAINABLY 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
I trust the overwhelming scientific evidence: GLOBAL WARMING and CLIMATE CHANGE are real, man-made, extremely urgent and dangerous. I will not be misled by denialist messages from the fossil fuel lobby and complicit politicians. I understand that because of lobbyists and denialists politicians, the United States has been and continues to be the single greatest roadblock to worldwide progress on GLOBAL WARMING. I understand that in order to evolve America's position on GLOBAL WARMING, a domino chain of enlightenment needs to be kicked off. I recognize that I am the first domino. The most direct effect I can have on GLOBAL WARMING is to evolve myself and reduce my carbon footprint. I resolve to think globally and act locally, which means I recognize the direct relationship between the global threat of CLIMATE CHANGE and the choices I make every day. I will reduce, reuse, and recycle.
8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25.
I understand the my everyday sustainable choices are every bit as important and powerful as pulling the lever in the voting booth. I will attempt to live Kyoto in my home, at work, on my dinner table, at the mall and the grocery store, at the pump, and on vacation. I understand that every four years I get one day to vote for a Presidential candidate and 1461 days of voting with my dollars I acknowledge that carbon emissions are a hidden cost of everything I buy. Every day, with every purchase, my dollars cast my vote for or against sustainability. With every purchase, I understand that I am responsible not only for the final product I take home, but for all the material, energy, resources, and carbon emissions that went into making, packaging, shipping, and selling it, and ultimately of recycling or disposing of it. Therefore I pledge to buy less, buy with less packaging, buy recycled, and buy recyclable. I will buy products that are better made and longer lasting, made of recycled or recyclable materials, and which can be fixed. I will fly and drive fewer miles I will walk, bike, carpool, and take public transport more I will buy local, buy organic, buy free range, from farmer's markets I will eat less meat, eat grass fed, eat organic, eat free range, eat lower on the food chain I will buy American, buy local, support businesses who are ambitiously working to reduce their carbon footprint I recognize that the lifestyle of Americans far exceeds the world average not just in consumption but in material resources, energy use, waste products, and carbon emissions. I will vote. I realize that if I don't vote, I have no right to complain about what happens in politics. I accept that these are the efforts that I must make to win the war against CLIMATE CHANGE. I am PROUD to choose to live sustainably. My decisions give me INTEGRITY and HONOR, and they model sustainable behavior for my children, my family, and my peers. Living in integrity by reducing my carbon footprint is both radical and necessary. It is the definition of GOOD CITIZENSHIP, of STEWARDSHIP, and of PATRIOTISM. This pledge is how I love my children, my family, and my country!
Remember, a hundred times a day each of you stands in a position of power on CLIMATE CHANGE . And your power doesn't stop there. When you live with integrity, you become a leader. By being the change you seek, and leading your family and friends, you can significantly multiply the impact of your choices. Solving GLOBAL WARMING is a decision — it's your decision — and it makes a difference. Thank you very much everyone for sticking with me through a speech that probably should have been published as a 3- volume set. ----AND SOMEOW I’M STILL NOT DONE. I have just a couple announcements ...
First, I have had a request for a copy of this speech and my sustainability pledge and thought there may be others who would like to read it. But I chose not to print off a stack of random copies for today, and instead chose to make it available digitally. You can either go to moving-planet.org/events/us/hollywood/242. Or you can simply put your name on one of our 3 contact lists with the word SPEECH next to it and I'll send you a copy via email. Second, we have some great literature on our info table, including fliers from the Sierra Club's ongoing Beyond Coal campaign, and the solar panel program at Sungevity. We also have info on the upcoming Green Festival LA, the nation's premier sustainability event coming to the Los Angeles Convention Center at the end of October. It's going to be massive and exciting, with 125 visionary speakers, an eco fashion show, green cuisine, a green kids' zone, and much more. And finally — I promise — an acknowledgement. ----ROLL THE CREDITS Putting this rally together was invigorating, but also a very humbling experience. And I learned that you can get a lot done with a just a handful of really good people. I'd like to thank the efforts of my volunteers and dear friends who stepped up and made a real difference for me and for this rally. Please hold your applause until the end so we can jump quickly through this. • • • • • • • • • • •
David Graham-Caso and the Sierra Club Ryan Rice who bought his rally here to join voices with ours today Fax Bahr and George Shea for outstanding networking and media outreach Karla Funderburk who not only built this fantastic set piece, but did it from reclaimed materials that she donated Robin Fogelman and my wife Tammy Massman-Johnson for painting the set so beautifully Vlad Popescu and Suzi Orozco-Neu for manning and womaning the signup sheets Steve Short for donating the PA system all the way from Long Beach Vince Ventresca and my brother JP and nephew Levi Durrer for strong arm support and setup Matthew Patrick for covering this rally in video so we can share clips with 350.org and the world My amazing wife Tammy again - for repeated editing of my speech, for logistics coordination, and for keeping me calm throughout And last but most, my beautiful kids Zoë and Mikah for patiently waiting two weeks for daddy to finish his speech. This one's for you.
----BIBLIOGRAPHY Climate Cover-Up, The Crusade to Deny Global Warming by James Hoggan with Richard Littlemore It's the End of the World as We Know It, by Thomas Wheeler [available at http://baltimorechronicle.com/ 080304ThomasWheeler.shtml ] 1 2