Today, September 4th is the Climate Emergency Fast. So far, 1,150 people have joined the effort. While most are going without for food for one day, the first day of the Fall session of Congress, more than 100 are fasting for multiple days and a handful are now engaged in an open-ended fast with three demands for Congress:
1. No new coal or coal-to-liquid plants
2. Freeze greenhouse gas emissions and move quickly to reduce them
3. A down payment of $25 billion for energy conservation, efficiency and renewable energy.
Today I am fasting because I believe in the power of many simple acts joined together for one cause.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 150,000 people die world wide already due to the climate crisis. The other morning I woke up to hear that my girlfriend’s mother had lost her home in the middle of the night to a flash flood in a completely unexpected area in Minnesota. That same morning I read news stories of 44 killed in a two-week heat wave across the American Southeast and Midwest, Hurricane Dean reaching Category 4 status in Jamaica, and flooding throughout the Midwest destroying hundreds of homes and killing dozens. I am fasting today out of respect for the victims of future disasters made worse by the pollution that is causing global warming. I am fasting today as a silent cry for help from my representatives in Congress to enact the first national legislation this Fall, nearly 20 years after the first hearings on the topic were held at the Capitol in 1988. I am fasting because while there are so many things that each of us can do to change our consumption habits, the most powerful thing we all must do, is to join hands, look at what we are doing, and stop. Only then will we be able to see another path.
Thank you to Ted and the Climate Emergency Council for organizing this critical effort!
