CBS/AP: Global Warming Protests Held Across U.S.

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/14/national/main2684456.shtml

Global Warming Protests Held Across U.S.
More Than 1,300 Events Urged Congress To Require 80 Percent Cut In Emissions By 2050

NEW YORK. April, 14, 2007

(AP) Americans worried about climate change gathered Saturday on ski slopes and in cities for a nationwide day of demonstrations aimed at drawing attention to global warming.

More than 1,300 events were organized in every state under the banner Step It Up 2007 to push Congress to require an 80 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

“When it comes to global warming, I don't exactly think President Bush is doing such a hot job,” said 12-year-old New Yorker Tiffany Cordero. “A lot of people are thinking just of now. But we won't have a 'now' if we don't focus on the future.”

Tiffany delivered a speech for a rally in lower Manhattan's Battery Park, overlooking New York Harbor, where people dressed in blue — some equipped with scuba gear and beach balls — gathered to form a Sea of People human line to symbolically mark New York's future coastline.


Participants with the "Sea of People" project march down the street in Lower Manhattan during the Step It Up 2007 rally, Saturday, April 14, 2007 in New York. (AP Photo/Dima Gavrysh)

Quote “We see this to be the most pressing issue of our time, and our generation.”
Will Bates, 23, organizer



Scientists say melting polar ice caps and glaciers will cause ocean levels to rise, although estimates vary. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has projected that ocean levels will rise 7 to 23 inches this century, but other scientists warn the sea level could rise 10 feet or more, enough to flood Lower Manhattan and other low-lying coastal areas.

The threatened rise in the ocean also was dramatized by a New Coast Parade in Portland, Maine, one of more than 30 observances in that state. “The most important things that we have a responsibility to do in government are to prepare our children for a bright future and to preserve and protect our natural resources,” Maine Gov. John Baldacci told a gathering in Portland.


FULL story at link.