Americans to tell Congress: ‘Step It Up!’

Nationwide events scheduled for 2007 National Day of Climate Action

By SANDY LONG

UNITED STATES — Feeling frustrated about the seeming futility of global warming and climate change? Wish there was something more you could do? There is. On Saturday, April 14, thousands of people will gather at sites across the country to call for Congressional action on climate change.

In towns and cities in 50 states, ordinary people have organized a multitude of events and activities to bring attention to global warming. The purpose for the nationwide effort is to urge Congress to implement specific actions to “cut carbon 80 percent by 2050.”

The idea was conceived by best-selling author and journalist, Bill McKibben, who writes in Orion magazine, “The message is simple: after two decades of effective bipartisan action to accomplish nothing, it is time to step it up. We’ve got to slow global warming.”

Locally, the Himalayan Institute (HI) will mark the occasion by conducting a special event titled BioVedic™ Energy Farming—Planting for the Future on its main campus just outside Honesdale in Bethany, PA. From 2:00 to 6:00 p.m., participants will experience musical chants, homemade chai tea and cookies at a garden party while helping to launch the Himalayan Institute’s 2007 organic gardening season.

Marge Watkins, spokesperson for HI, describes the event as part of ongoing efforts to create more positive organic and sustainable practices in support of the environment. The institute’s Global Humanitarian Projects focus on planting Pongamia trees and other crops both here and abroad. “We base what we’re doing on doing something, not just talking about it,” said Watkins.

The Pongamia seed contains an oil which can be used to fuel vehicles. The seed has additional uses as cattle feed, organic fertilizer and more, while the trees provide much-needed shade and the roots help to prevent soil erosion. Compared to fossil fuels, burning Pongamia oil reduces carbon dioxide emissions by about 75 percent and carbon monoxide emissions by about 50 percent.

“Everything we do at the institute is based on balance and harmony with nature,” said Watkins. “We practice what we preach and we want to educate others regarding sustainable methods.”

Information about the institute’s ongoing involvement with biodiesel crops, reforestation and medicinal herbs will be provided at the event and participants will be invited to plant seedlings of biodiesel crops in the greenhouse and institute’s herb garden.

Participants can learn about the institute’s rural empowerment projects in Africa and India, and participate in a traditional Vedic fire ceremony with mantras and herb offerings to nurture and strengthen the divine forces of the natural world.

The Vedic fire ceremony will begin at 5:00 p.m. According to Watkins, a mixture called samagri, consisting of wildcrafted medicinal herbs combined with black sesame seeds, barley, rice and clarified butter will be offered to the fire with mantras (prayers) for creating harmony in nature.

Action in America

Sandy Anderson, a longtime resident and member of the teaching staff at HI with a background in environmental geology, became aware of the Step It Up campaign and realized that the institute’s work with biodiesel crops and reforestation is a working example of a carbon-cutting initiative. In addition to the humanitarian aspect of the program, which targets impoverished areas, Anderson points out, “The potential for reducing carbon emissions to the atmosphere by switching to biodiesel is huge.”

The event, which is one of 11 actions scheduled within an 80-mile radius of The River Reporter’s office in Narrowsburg, NY, will be held rain or shine and the public is encouraged to attend. For more information or directions, visit www.himalayaninstitute.org or call 570/253-5551.

Step It Up organizers hope to have gatherings “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.” As people gather, the organizers will link pictures of the protests together electronically through the internet in hopes of creating the most far-reaching protest the country has ever seen.

In a letter to rally participation, Mc-Kibben writes, “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.”

At press time, the Step It Up website had registered nearly 1,200 actions in 50 states occurring across the country. The actions range from a rally of thousands in New York City, to a handful of scuba divers off the coast of Key West, to a community of senior citizens in Ohio holding a global warming awareness day.

“Polling shows most Americans know there’s a problem,” writes McKibben. “But the forces of inertia and business-as-usual are still in control, and only our voices, united and loud, joyful and determined, can change that reality.”

Visit www.stepitup2007.org for more information and click on “Join an Action” to view actions occurring across the nation.