The only marching of this event was the trek from the Redwood City train station to the high school where the event was held. Several dozen of us came by train, and it was fun to march in. I showed up with a sign, expecting a rally type event. It turned out to be an indoor sit there and clap occasionally while listening to the experts and political leaders type of thing. I sat near the back, so my sign didn't block anybodys view of the stage.

As I type this you can see the entire rally by downloading the software and data from Media Net Cast.

Things began when Rafael thanked everybody for coming to the Fight Global Warming Rally.

Assembly Member Ira Ruskin welcomed us to Redwood City, whose slogan is "Climate Best by Government Test!" He hoped that our work on the climate change issue would improve the political climate on the subject.

Stephanie Schaaf talked about her great love for this area's ecosystem, and the need to keep it beautiful thorough political work.

Rev. Genavive Heywood of Sunnyvale reminded us that the blame game started in chapter 3 of Genesis, and that it simply isn't useful to blame God for climate change because s/he left those fossil fuels on earth for us to discover. Instead we must model better ways to live and go from here.

Linda Craig, President, League of Women Voters of the Bay Area, said that the LWV is very interested in collective solutions to the climate change issue and is watching it closely. She also reminded us that the LWV does a lot of nonpartisan work to inform the public about the choices on their ballots every time there is an election.

Carl Guardino, President & CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group told us about some things his member companies are doing. One CEO is paying every member of his staff $5000 when they buy a hybrid car. Another is saving a lot of energy by pioneering a new kind of reflective roof. He was one of the few people that rode his bike to the event, a rather long ride. He was the only one that took the stage who mentioned having this bragging right.

  

Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, was the keynote speaker. I heard him say that every time we use energy we can afford it because we are depending on an enormous mountain of hidden subsidies, and we are also taking out a loan our descendants will have to pay back, one way or another. He said the issue has to be addressed at every level of government. The personal, the household, the family, the neighborhood, the congregation, the school district, the city, the county, the state, the region, and the federal. Everybody needs to change for anything constructive to happen. He mentioned recent successes like 111 town halls in New Hampshire signing on to the Cool Cities initiative. He urged us all to do something.

Senator Joe Simitian honored the cities of Atherton, Cupertino, Los Altos Hills, Morgan Hill, Palo Alto, Portola Valley, San Bruno, San Jose, and San Mateo for signing the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. He urged those of us who live in other cities to get our local governments to sign onto it.

  

Rick Nordensten said the work is fun, important and valuable. He urged all of us that aren't already involved to do something. Click on the cool button to find out more.