Step It UP! 2 Asks Politicans to Put Their Best Foot Forward

Will you Step It Up! and invite your representatives to your local Step It Up 2 rally on November 3rd?

[A message from Bill McKibben:]

“Backs against the wall” is not a scientific measurement, but it’s right where we are on global warming.

It’s the vernacular translation for when the National Snow and Ice Data Center reports that this year the summer Arctic sea ice shrunk to the smallest area ever recorded, about 460,000 square miles less than the previous low point recorded in September 2005. It’s what it means when the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tells reporters, as he did last week, “Wheat production in India is already in decline, for no other reason than climate change. Everyone thought we didn’t have to worry about Indian agriculture for several decades. Now we know it’s being affected now.” He added that a similar shift seems to be underway in China.

And when your back is against the wall, that’s when you’ve got to fight, and fight like you mean it. That’s why we’re launching Step It Up 2. On Nov. 3, people all across the country are holding rallies to demand action on global warming. Find out if there’s one scheduled for your vicinity; if there isn’t, then sign up to start one. We can help make it easy — you’re not organizing a March on Washington, just a gathering of your neighbors.

Assuming there’s an action somewhere in your neighborhood, you can use our nifty new invite tool to ask politicians to attend — to ask them if they’re ready to stop being politicians and start being leaders. Find your senators and representative on the list, and we give you all the info you need to call, email, or send a letter inviting them to an event near you. Even if they’ve already been invited, send them another invitation. And if they’ve already accepted, send them your thanks. While you’re at it, you can ask the presidential candidates to come to your local rally too. The more invitations the merrier.

Our goal is to have more politicians talking to more people about a single issue on a single day than ever before. And having those people talk back, having them demand not empty rhetoric but real progress.

We’ve got a widget or internet tool that tracks how many politicians have been invited and how many have said yes — watch it on this page, at right, or on the Step It Up 2 website, or add it to your own site. We don’t have a $1,000 a plate to lure our politicians to come meet with us. All we have is the power to ask, and the power to see who responds.

And by “we,” I mean “you.”

A scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College, Bill McKibben is the author of The End of Nature, the first book for a general audience on climate change, and, most recently, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. He is also the Project Director of Step it UP!, a nationwide grassroots climate activism campaign calling for national solutions to the climate crisis.

About Jesse

Jesse is a young activist, organizer, policy analyst and blogger. He is currently the co-director the IN campaign at the Breakthrough Institute and helps Breakthrough develop and advance new energy solutions to power America's future, secure our energy freedom, and halt global warming. Jesse joined the Breakthrough team in June 2008 to co-direct the Breakthrough Generation Summer Fellows Program. Before joining the Breakthrough Institute, Jesse spent two years as a Research and Policy Associate at the Renewable Northwest Project where he worked to advance the development of the Pacific Northwest's abundant renewable energy potential. While at RNP, he helped pass two statewide renewable energy standards (in WA and OR) and block plans to build 800 MW of new coal plants. In the past, Jesse has worked as a researcher and software developer with the Department of Physics at the University of Oregon, where he focused on alternative vehicles and fuels, and as a teacher's assistant in energy studies courses at the university. Jesse has a long history of grassroots climate and energy activism and co-founded the Cascade Climate Network, the Northwest's largest network of youth working to tackle the climate crisis and build a sustainable, just, and prosperous future. An active blogger, Jesse is the founder and blogmaster of the site, WattHead - Energy News and Commentary. He currently writes at several sites throughout the blogosphere and has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle and Baltimore Sun. Jesse graduated in 2006 with a B.S. from the Robert D. Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon, where he completed an interdisciplinary course of study in computer science, philosophy, liberal arts, political science & energy studies. Jesse currently lives in Berkeley, CA.