Saturday, September 08, 2007

Fighting BobFest Report

I spent a good part of Saturday at the 6th Fighting BobFest and heard some good speakers, but the best part is just being in the middle of a bunch of progressives in the sunshine. One building houses a multitude, a veritable cornucopia of political organizations. Check out the list here to get a feel for it. I hope to have pictures up later.

The Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative was on hand with a nice selection including some books by featured speakers and presenters. Several authors such as Laura Flanders, Dr. Eban Goodstein, and John Nichols were on hand to autograph their books.

I also attended an excellent breakout session on Global Warming that featured Dr. Goodstein, Monona's own State Senator Mark Miller, Rep. Spencer Black, Sen. Mark Miller, and Nino Amato. Pretty sobering stuff.

Prof. Goodstein heads up Focus on the Nation, a group that is organizing a national teach-in on global warming to take place on January 31, 2008. This effort is so important I personally promised Prof. Goodstein that I would do my share to help spread the word. I plan on another blog post to cover this brilliantly simple idea in more detail. Check it out and if you know a college student make sure they know about it.

Senator Miller and Representative Black have introduced the Wisconsin Safe Climate Act, (Senate Bill 81) an incredibly important piece of legislation to sharply reduce carbon dioxide emissions in our state. The bill would require that global emissions be reduced to the 1990 level by 2020. This task would be a lot easier to accomplish if the federal government had not been a roadblock since 2001.

We in the US must address global warming and soon.

Hard as it is to recall today, the US was once a leader on the environment thanks to the leadership of people like Gaylord Nelson and more importantly because of the activism of the American people.

We can be a leader again - but only if the American public reengages and forces our political leaders to act. In the face of Washington's steadfast refusal to act, willing State and local governments have taken the lead, but we need national action.

Senator Miller's web page has some great resources on global warming. Take a look at this excellent summary by Prof. Jon Foley, Director, Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), University of Wisconsin. (Note: This is a fairly large file of about 18MB)

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