To the Editor:
On Sept. 21, a group of Islanders will travel to New York City to take part in the historic People’s Climate March. This event will cover an estimated 26 blocks and begin at Columbus Circle and end facing the U.N., where global leaders begin a weeklong summit on global climate issues.
Inspired by their involvement locally with the national organization 350.org, these Islanders have involved themselves on Martha’s Vineyard through education and activism to increase public awareness of this critical concern for all life on our planet.
Islanders Zee and Bill Gamson, Chris Riger, Sarah, Bruce, Aria, and Katrina Nevin, Nicola Blake, and Cathy Brennan will be there. Perhaps most impressive is the participation of a group of 18 students from the Charter School led by their teachers Jonah Maidoff, Lewis Hall, and Jane Paquet. Although they are traveling independently of the Charter School, they were brought to this activism through their classes on
environmental issues.
The students and their teachers will travel to New York City on one of the buses hired by Cape Downwinders, a group devoted to closing down Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant, which has organized round trip buses service to the march leaving from Harwich, Barnstable and Sagamore. For more information call Diane Turco at 508-431-1744 or email her at tturco@comcast.net.
Surely others will rise to the occasion and get themselves down to New York City to join what promises to be a large, significant demonstration to demand global action to stop the climate changes caused by the oil, nuclear, gas, and coal industries polluting the planet. Already the level of carbon dioxide is currently more than 400 ppm (parts per million), and 350 ppm is the maximum level before climate change becomes inevitable. To reverse this carbon dioxide level, the renewable energy sources of solar and wind energy must replace the dirty fuels destroying our planet.
The march itself will include an unprecedented collaboration of more than 1,000 businesses, unions, faith groups, schools, social justice groups, environmental groups, and more, all working together. This march is committed to principles of environmental justice and equality — representing the communities that are being hit the hardest by climate change. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is urging governments to support an ambitious global agreement to dramatically reduce global warming pollution. With our future on the line and the whole world watching, marchers will take a stand to bend the course of history. To change everything, everyone is needed. The People’s Climate March on Sunday, Sept. 21, in New York City is a piece of that change. For more information, go to peoplesclimate.org.
Sarah Nevin
Edgartown