The Star-Ledger
Saturday 15 September 2007
A teaspoon of salt. Six vitamins. Ten glasses of water.
That's been Ted Glick's daily regimen since Sept. 4.
The Bloomfield activist hasn't weighed himself since he stopped eating, but the muscular, 6-foot-1 career rabble-rouser says he has lost 15 pounds, judging from changes in his face, upper body and gut since he started the fast as a call for action on global warming.
Eleven days ago, about 1,100 people across the country started a fast, timed to coincide with the first full day that Congress opened for its fall session. Glick organized the national protest for the U.S. Climate Emergency Council, an environmental advocacy group, to protest what they view as the lack of action by the American government to address the perils of climate change.
Now there are seven.
Besides Glick, there's Diane Wilson of Seadrift, Texas; Jan Lundberg of San Francisco; Diane Thomas of Berkeley, Calif.; Chris Freimuth of Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; Esperanza Martell of New York, N.Y., and Toni Zeidan of Lewisburg, Pa. Some have become nauseated at points but all are well.
Glick, 57, who weighed 210 pounds when he started, says he feels OK and very focused.
"It's a way to walk the talk, it's showing that a person who is willing to do this is for real," said Glick, reached yesterday by telephone at the offices of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, located in a three-story house in Tacoma Park, Md. "It's important to be real on this stuff."
Glick said he is still able to do light office work, write e-mails and take phone calls.
When he tells people what he is doing, he said, people either "get it" or think he's crazy. His wife of 28 years, Jane Califf , supports him in principle, he said, but is growing worried. "When I talked to her today, I heard a lot of concern in her voice," he conceded. But, he added, "she knows who I am."
Glick said he hopes to be able to continue his protest through the end of the month.
Humans can generally last about 60 days on a hunger strike, provided they are drinking water, according to Leo Pritsiolas, an emergency room physician at Clara Maas Medical Center in Belleville. Fasting ultimately is dangerous because it robs the body of its energy source so the body must cannibalize itself. Sugar stores are used up in about a day, then fat, then at about Day 14, the body starts attacking its own tissue and organs, he said. "It's bad for the body," Pritsiolas said.
For Glick, the idea is to catch the attention of Congress, and, more important, to motivate voters to pressure their leaders to take action.
"We can't keep on waiting - our national government has to act," he said. "It's incredibly urgent."
Leaders in both the Senate and House of Representatives have proposed legislation that would curb the emissions of greenhouse gases and fund energy conservation measures. Some had promised that the laws would be passed by the summer but that has not happened yet, Glick said.
U.S. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), perhaps Congress' leading global warming skeptic, could not be reached for comment yesterday. A spokesman, however, pointed to scientific studies detailed in an August report to Congress by Inhofe that the "scientific underpinnings for alarm may be falling apart."
A report by a panel of scientists convened by the United Nations earlier this year concluded that global warming is real, caused by mankind and must be acted upon to thwart adverse consequences, especially to people living in some of the world's poorest regions.
Glick is expecting to return to New Jersey today to visit with his family. He said he will return to the Washington, D.C. area next week to lobby members of Congress.
-------
No comments:
Post a Comment