Dear CCAN supporters,
In case certain elections have you down, take heart. The most impressive vote this fall was not on November 4th. It was on September 21st. That’s when 400,000 Americans elected to march in New York City for the People’s Climate March. If you want to know what direction our nation is really headed in, the Climate March holds the clues. Black, white. Young, old. Gay, straight. Our country was represented at the march and our voice was loud: We want climate solutions now!
I’m reminded of the urgency of our movement and the progress we’re making wherever I travel in the Maryland/Virginia/DC region. Last month, I was in the Virginia coastal city of Portsmouth where sea-level rise linked to climate change is already wreaking havoc on a near-weekly basis. As I met with State Senator L. Louise Lucas, she explained that flooding was so bad in Portsmouth this September after a heavy rain at high tide that she had trouble reaching the apartment building she owns and operates for mentally handicapped adults to begin an evacuation.
In Annapolis, Maryland the flooding is getting so bad that a recent study from the Union of Concerned Scientists says there will be near daily “nuisance flooding” of streets and homes in the not-too-distant future. In other words, entire parts of the city are headed toward permanent disappearance.
But I’m also reminded of the progress we’re making in fighting the core source of the problem: greenhouse gas pollution. The city council in Washington, DC is on the verge of dramatically increasing wind power consumption in the city while encouraging community-based solar installations. Meanwhile, Maryland activists continue to succeed in keeping gas fracking out of the state. And in Virginia, thanks to President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, the state has the chance in the next few years to finally cap carbon pollution from its power plants.
Read more about these campaigns and learn how you can plug in on multiple important issues wherever you live. We voted with our feet in New York City in September. Now we must vote with our actions every day.
Onward!
Mike Tidwell
