On the march
People's Climate March urges swift action

Sure, some change is good: socks, underwear, scenery. But when it comes to climate – melting ice caps, rising sea levels, mass extinctions – not so much. This Saturday, local residents will have a chance to call attention to this as they join millions of others in 300 cities around the world for the People’s Climate March.

The march will start at 10 a.m. (get there a few minutes early to get your spot) in front of the D&SNG train depot, and proceed up Main Avenue, to a rally in Buckley Park. To stoke the climate-concern fires ahead of the march, there will be two nights of free environmental films, as well as a presentation by renowned ice climber-turned-activist-turned-Patagonia-ambassador, Kitty Calhoun.

“Some of the climbs she’s done don’t even exist anymore,” march organizer Susan Atkinson said of Calhoun, who is coming in from Utah especially for the talk (Friday at 6 p.m. at the Durango Library.)

The marches are being sponsored by a variety of organizations throughout the country, including the Sierra Club, Move On.org, and 350 Colorado (the Denver march is expecting upwards of 10,000 people.)

Locally, the Citizen’s Climate Lobby, of which Atkinson is a member, took up the torch to organize a march here.

“This is too important not to have someone sponsor it,” Atkinson said.

The purpose of the march is to build political will for climate action through legislation, mostly on a national level, she said. To that end, during the march, photographers will be on hand taking pictures of marchers with their posters and signs. So smile. Then get ready to visit your favorite legislator, as a different photo will be faxed to congressional representatives. Every. Single. Day. “Until we run out of photos,” said Atkinson.

“The message is we can have a clean energy economy and be prosperous. We can’t burn our way to prosperity.

Case in point: California, whose ambitious Climate Change Program seeks to reduce carbon emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Despite the naysayers, buoyed by the 2011 bankruptcy of solar-panel maker Solyndra – which defaulted on a $535-million federal loan – renewables are booming in California. Today, the state gets nearly 30 percent of its energy from renewables; Telsa, the electric-car maker, employs 8,000 workers at its plant (the largest manufacturing operation in the state); and in the last decade, private companies have invested more than $20 billion in renewable plants in the state. (*Thank you, L.A. Times.)

So, put that in your smokestack and don’t smoke it.

“California is an example, they increased renewable energy and the economy is not suffering because of it,” said Atkinson.

And with the current administration doing the things it’s doing – rolling back EPA regulations like there’s no tomorrow – well, there might not be a tomorrow.

“This is the most important issue of the day,” she said. “If we don’t handle this, none of our other problems are going to matter.

“It’s a real opportunity for people to voice that we need to take action. The longer we wait, the more difficult it is to tackle.”

For more on the Citizens Climate Lobby, go to www.citizensclimatelobby.org. For more on the Durango People’s Climate March, check it out on Facebook.