Step It Up for Climate Action

Climate scientists say we need to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050 in order to stave off the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. The United States is the world’s biggest greenhouse emitter, so the world vitally needs us to do our part. That means our nation must consume 80% less heating oil, 80% less gasoline, and 80% less electricity from coal in four decades! It’s daunting but doable – just a 2% cut per year – if we get started now.

A growing contingent in Congress recognizes this responsibility, but for the most part it’s been a vanguard of concerned citizens, state and local governments, and forward-thinking businesses leading the charge. So renowned author and long-time New Dreamer Bill McKibben, along with a team of Middlebury College students, recently launched an advocacy effort to push Congress over the hump and adopt the 80% by 2050 goal. The idea, dubbed Step It Up 2007, has spread like wildfire, with more than 700 events now planned in communities across the U.S. on April 14th!

Can we count on you to take a stand for climate action in your community? Here are three steps to getting involved:

1) See if a Step It Up event is already scheduled near you. If so, RSVP for it today. If not, consider signing up to host your own event. Events can be whatever size you like and Step It Up will help you with banners, posters, and press releases.

2) Log onto My New Dream to invite New Dreamers near you to your local Step It Up event. You can also post the event on the New Dream Community calendar.

3) Walk the talk with Turn the Tide. If our growing nation is really going to hit Step It Up's goal of cutting total emissions 80% by 2050, we're going to need a vanguard of individuals to cut their personal emissions much sooner and much more dramatically. Thousands of New Dreamers have already gotten a jump start with simple steps that are cutting 94 million pounds of CO2 emissions per year.

Dream on,

Steve, Julia, Rose, Sean, and all your friends at New American Dream