Step It Up 2007 : Bill McKibben Writes For Green Seniors

We are very proud to be able to publish an exclusive message from Bill McKibben - eminent author, academic and founder of StepItUp2007 - to all Green Seniors around the world.

2007 could be the year in which you helped this planet remain the wonderful blue-green globe that we care about so much...

Green Seniors,

Here is an invitation to help start a movement--to take one spring day and use it to reshape the future. Those of us who know that climate change is the greatest threat civilization now faces have science on our side; we have economists and policy specialists, courageous mayors and governors, engineers with cool new technology.

But we don't have a movement—the largest rally yet held in the U.S. about global warming drew a thousand people. 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. Changing light bulbs just isn't enough.

So pitch in.  The great thing about Step It Up is that as a result of the great advances in technology, this movement can be very simple and flexible.  To participate, all you need is a group of people, a banner, and a camera.  The rest is up to you.  We have people outside churches, along the tide lines in our coastal cities, in cornfields and forests and on statehouse steps.  With six hundred actions across the country and growing every day, Step It Up promises to be a powerful demonstration of the idea of unity in diversity.

Every group will be saying the same thing: Step it up, Congress! Enact immediate cuts in carbon emissions, and pledge an 80% reduction by 2050. No half measures, no easy compromises-the time has come to take the real actions that can stabilize our climate.  Say it in your own way, whatever is fun, easy, and effective for you, and say it together with the rest of the country.  Sign up to host or join an action at www.stepitup2007.org.

The way forward with this monumental issue is national change through community action.  Step It Up is building community and strong networks by connecting everyone locally.  And from hundreds and hundreds of local groups around the country we’ll have a single call to our nation’s legislators: “Step It Up!” 

Please join us.

Bill McKibben