MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – Scores of people fanned out from one end of Vermont to the other and from top to bottom on Saturday to urge lawmakers to make real progress in the fight against global warming.
Middlebury College scholar in residence Bill McKibben led a group of about 30 people to the summit of Camel’s Hump where they got an early taste of winter and fleeting views of Lake Champlain through the low clouds.
“The purpose is to remind our candidates who are about to become our elected officials that this is literally the highest priority in the state today,” said McKibben. “This is the issue that Vermonters want them to be the absolute leaders on in Washington.”
He said there were about 18 inches of snow on the trail up Camels Hump and about six inches on the wind-swept summit where he spoke by cell phone. He said action on global warming was critical.
“Basically, it’s a beautiful early winter day in Vermont. We want there to be beautiful winter days in Vermont for many years to come, which is why we’re out here,” McKibben said.
On Labor Day McKibben led more than 600 people on a walk from Ripton to Burlington to draw attention to the same issue.
The point of Saturday’s events was being driven home with simultaneous rallies across the state, from the lowest points, kayakers on Lake Champlain and bicyclists in the Lake Champlain Valley, to the highest, on the top of Mount Mansfield, Camel’s Hump, Burke Mountain, Mount Ascutney and on Prospect Rock in Johnson.
McKibben was also planning to speak by telephone with people participating in a rally in the Burlington Intervale.
Global warming is the gradual warming of the earth’s atmosphere by man-made pollutants. If unchecked, some studies say the change could have devastating economic impacts and increase droughts and other environmental problems across the world.
McKibben said the activists were promoting a piece of legislation originally introduced in Washington by Vermont retiring independent Sen. James Jeffords. It would require an 80 percent reduction in reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050, 40 mile per gallon vehicles and other commitments to renewable energy and energy conservation.
McKibben said the members of Vermont’s congressional delegation, as well as the candidates hoping to join the delegation, have all said they were committed to ending global warming.
“We’re just reminding them,” McKibben said. “The real action begins after Tuesday when, with any luck, there will be real change in Washington.”
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