Call for action on global warming

With the one-year countdown finally on for national elections, environmental activists and local politicians rallied in Santa Rosa's Juilliard Park Saturday to push global climate change higher on the political agenda.

Organizers, including the local Climate Protection Campaign and the Sierra Club, attracted more than 100 people -- including a smattering of eco-conscious teenagers -- despite the lure of near perfect autumn weather and a downtown Fall Celebration complete with mini-train and chalk drawing just a few blocks away.

They settled for fresh fruit and power bars; live music from local youth bands; a bike race where slowness, not speed was the object; and a parade of speakers who called for more action -- both personal and political, local and global.

"We want to force global warming more onto the table," said Nabeel Al-Shamma, of the Climate and Energy Committee of the local branch of the Sierra Club, speaking of the presidential race already in full swing. "Right now it falls around third after the Iraq War and health care. And we need to push it to the top. It's a much more urgent issue.

"We have the solutions today. What's missing is the political will," Al Shamma said. "We tend to wait for a crisis before we act and we can't do that."

The roster of speakers included San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno, a Democrat running for the third district Senate seat covering much of southern Sonoma County, and Rue Furch, who is angling for Mike Reilly's Fifth District seat on the county board of supervisors.

Furch has pledged to put forward a countywide Greenhouse gas reduction plan that would include policies to implement a list of goals she helped formulate as a county planning commissioner for inclusion in the new general plan.

"We need to rethink the way we live and travel and consume," she said. "Those changes need to be incorporated in our building codes and transportation planning. In the way we use land and water. We need a rail transit system. We need more true hybrid and electric vehicles."

A procession of youth from area high schools and Sonoma State University also took to the podium to exhort young people to embrace climate change as the primary issue facing their generation.

"The current generation did a bunch of activism around things like Vietnam," said Patrick Meddaugh, a senior at Cardinal Newman High School. "Now it's our generation's turn to do our own activism and global warming is the big challenge of my generation."

Saturday's rally was a follow-up to last spring's National Day of Climate Action, in which 1,400 similar rallies, under the banner of Step it Up, were staged in all 50 states. The group's goals are to reduce carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050, impose a moratorium on new coal plants and create 5 million new "green" jobs.

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at 521-5204 or meg.

mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com.