Students Plan March for Action on Global Warming

By Ed Fallon

My entrée into political work began in earnest in the mid-1980s over concern about the threat of nuclear war.  To me at that time, the possibility of nuclear war presented the most serious challenge facing humanity.  I
cut my teeth as an organizer coordinating the Iowa stretch of the Great
Peace March, a 3,000 mile trek of 600-plus people marching from Los
Angeles to Washington, D.C. 

Today, while
nuclear weapons still pose a grave danger to both regional and global
security, I believe the most serious threat facing human and other life
on Earth is global warming.

The scientific community has reached virtual consensus on the reality of global warming and on humanity’s role in causing it.  Scientists
also tell us that, with immediate and significant action, we can avert
some of the worst probable consequences of climate change. Yet Congress
and the President drag their feet, even as over 500 U.S. cities have signed the Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement.

As often happens, the impetus for change is at the local level.  One exciting initiative is the “March to Re-Energize Iowa,” a student-led walk from Ames to Des Moines on August 2 – 5, culminating in a 3:00 p.m. rally at Nollen Plaza.  It’s organized by the Sierra Club’s “Sierra Student Coalition,” and there’s a similar march the same week in New Hampshire.  One young person joining the Iowa march is Holly Jones from Mt. Pleasant, who studies history and environmental policy at Drake University. 

“Our goal is to build a clean energy economy for real solutions to global warming,” says Holly.  “We
call upon our leaders to take bold, comprehensive and immediate action.
We want to highlight the need to reduce global warming pollution by 2%
a year starting now, achieving 80% reductions by 2050 and
simultaneously creating millions of new, clean-energy jobs for American
workers.”

Organizers want to make this event one of the largest-ever actions in the Midwest on global warming.  Given their single-minded focus and determination, they might pull it off.  Lynn Heuss and I plan to represent An Independence Movement for Iowa on the March, and organizers hope many others will walk for all or part of one or more days. 

To sign-up to march or volunteer, contact Janie Hauser at Janie.Hauser@ssc.org.  You
can also do an internet search for “Sierra Student Coalition” to learn
more about the umbrella group coordinating this effort.

Oh, and two small corrections on the release of our new website last week:  (1)
Because several of you called our attention to the funny stuff where
various types of punctuation should be, Lynn has that problem fixed;
and (2) You can use either “.com” or “.org” to access our website.  Thanks!

Ed Fallon

SOME UPCOMING EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Friday, June 15, 7:00 p.m. (and all day Saturday)
Energy Futures Conference
Iowa State Historical Building
Contact Lorna with Mayor Cownie’s office at (515) 283-4167.

Saturday, June 16, all day long
Juneteenth Celebration
Annual commemoration of the end of slavery
Davis Park and King School in Des Moines
Contact Gary Lawson at (515) 707-4768 or visit www.iowajuneteenth.org. 

Saturday, June 30, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
100^th birthday of historic Fire House #4
(currently the venue for many progressive community events)
1041 8^th Street, Des Moines
Open to the first 250 people who RSVP
Contact Chet Guinn at clguinn@mchsi.com, (515) 282-8054 or 556-8054.

ONGOING
Iowa Resource for International Service (IRIS)
Host families needed for students from predominantly Muslim countries in Africa
Contact Bob Anderson at (515) 292-7103 and visit http://iris-center.org.