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High tide hits as Olympia rally calls attention to climate change
 [BELLINGHAMHERALD] Freezing weather with light snow flurries greeted about 200 climate activists gathered on the steps of the state Capitol noon Monday to demand the state Legislature get serious about climate change.The climate rally unfolded four hours after the highest predicted tide of 2013 in Budd Inlet. Climate activists draw attention to the winter high tides, calling them a precursor of a future shoreline under siege from sea-level rise. The irony of Monday's cold weather compared to a global climate that is heating due to a carbon dioxide buildup in the atmosphere was not lost on the crowd, or some of the speakers. "Climate and weather are two different things," Olympia-area environmentalist Paul Pickett was quick to remind the bundled-up crowd. Climate is long term and weather is what happens daily, he said. Urgency embroidered with anger and despair permeated the so-called Climate Crisis Rally timed to the first day of the 2013 legislative session. Urgency because the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continue to build: Roughly two-thirds of the carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere the past 100 years is still there. The rest is in the ocean, Pickett said. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just reported that 2012 was Earth's hottest year on record. Further, the latest draft report on United States climate change effects paints a picture of increased droughts, coastal erosion, sea-level rise, weird weather, melting glaciers and intense wildfires. Posted by: Fred 2013-01-17 |
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