See earlier posts for news coverage and photos from the Twin Ports.

Climate Campaign, Ashland Daily Press 10/26

Pine River Joins Climate Action Day, Pine River Journal 10/21

photo: Dan Branovan… lots more after the jump!

On October 24, more than 200 people from around the Twin Ports made their way by foot and bicycle to Duluth’s waterfront to show support for climate protection.

People began gathering on the harbor side of the DECC at 2:30. A 350 banner was hoisted, and Mary Plaster‘s Green Man and Butterfly puppets started drawing curious passersby. As leafletters passed out bookmarks in Canal Park with tips for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the crowd at the DECC grew, with groups of cyclists arriving by the pair and by the dozens.

Singer-songwriter Rachael Kilgour opened the rally with Pete Seeger’s classic “Well May the World Go,” a reminder that our action or inaction today will be felt by generations to come. Chris LaForge of Great Northern Solar emceed a short rally which featured a welcome from Duluth Mayor Don Ness. Ness touted Duluth’s participation in Cities for Climate Protection – an effort by local governments to reduce GHGs in the face of federal inaction – but said that our efforts up to now shouldn’t be an excuse for complacency. Flo Matamoros and Josie Johnson from the College of St Scholastica spoke about the importance of climate protection to up-and-coming generations and their exciting work to put CSS on a more sustainable path. Writer and former Senate candidate Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer pointed out that the federal government now spends 80 times more on its military than on all environmental protection programs combined. Since climate change is the greatest threat to our country and humanity, he called for that spending to be inverted, and for massive subsidies to transform our transportation and energy infrastructure.

After the speakers, cyclists and walkers took off in opposite directions to spread the 350 message. Walkers followed the puppeteers through Canal Park and the Lakewalk. At the same time, dozens of cyclists led by Duluth Police Chief Gordon Ramsay and Sadie Sigford of the Bike Cave Collective took to the streets, riding through downtown along Superior Street and circling Canal Park. Many riders wore costumes, and there were plenty of tandem and tall bikes, bringing out smiles and waves from skywalks, shop windows and people on the street.

Both routes converged on Endion Beach – the westernmost point of Lake Superior – for a photo (above) which will be delivered to the UN along with thousands of others from around the world.

After the rally wrapped up, some 50 people moved into Amazing Grace Cafe for a climate teach-in, which covered everything from climate science to gardening as climate activism. John Pastor of the UMD biology department spoke about the troubling results of climate change already impacting our region – such as declining moose, loon, and pine populations and drought. He told the college-age audience members that if we don’t act now to reduce GHGs, by the end of their lives northern Minnesota will resemble Nebraska, not the northwoods we all love. Julie O’Leary of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership took the stage to talk about climate policy in Minnesota and Washington; Duluth City Councilor Tony Cuneo spoke about city efforts to support green jobs and bike transit; and Mary Dragich rounded out the panel by talking about the environmental costs of modern food production and the benefits of eating and growing local. Student activists also chimed in about the importance of resisting the Enbridge pipeline, which upon completion will carry oil from the Alberta tar sands to Murphy oil in Superior. The tar sands are one of the world’s dirtiest sources of oil, requiring 1 gallon of oil for every 2 extracted and devastating an area of land the size of England. Teach-in participants also signed postcards to their Senators and signed up for what organizers hope to be a new activist-oriented environmental group in the Twin Ports.

The event was well-covered on local TV news, and enjoyed plenty of advance publicity on the radio and in the Duluth News-Tribune. In addition to the people already mentioned, special thanks to Dylan Kesti, Jan Karon, Loni Coppin, Emily Derke, Michael Latsch, Alex Strachota and Stephanie Dykema (and everyone else at Amazing Grace) for helping make the event a success.

Remember: we have a lot to do between now and Copenhagen… this is only the beginning!

By John Pastor, for the Duluth News-Tribune October 24, 2009

We have known about the greenhouse effect for more than 100 years . In the 1890s, the Swedish chemist and later Nobel Prize winner, Svante Arrhenius, first calculated that the Earth’s temperature would rise approximately 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit if the concentration of carbon dioxide doubled. Arrhenius also realized that with this much warming, much of the Earth’s snow and ice cover would melt. This would increase the warming further by an additional 5 degrees Fahrenheit because snow and ice reflect much of the sun’s heat back into space while the darker rocks and tree canopies uncovered by snowmelt would absorb more heat. Therefore, the response of the biosphere might actually amplify the warming effects of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels.

If we do not pass legislation soon to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions, the northwoods of Minnesota and everything that depends on them will be gone by the end of my son’s life.

Although we have refined these calculations further, Arrhenius was correct with one exception: He thought it would take thousands of years for carbon dioxide to double and for the Earth to warm. Arrhenius did not foresee the exponential increase of a fossil fuel-driven economy since his time.

We are well on the way to a doubling of carbon dioxide by the end of this century, if not in the next few decades. The atmosphere already has warmed by slightly more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since Arrhenius’s time. We know for a fact that natural causes cannot have been responsible for this rapid rise in temperature. Only when we add Arrhenius’s equations to our computer models of the Earth’s climate can we come close to matching the temperature rise that our weather stations already have recorded.

Since Arrhenius’ time, we have learned that most of the warming will take place in mid-continent areas such as from Minnesota northward. It is in these regions that we have begun to see some of the first and most rapid effects of warming: the melting of the Arctic sea ice and Greenland’s glaciers as well as the migration of plant and animal species northward and the retreat of their southern borders.

Twenty years ago, Mac Post and I published a scientific paper in which we used a computer model of forest growth to predict that with the amount of warming calculated by Arrhenius, the spruce, fir, pine, aspen and birch forests of northern Minnesota would be replaced largely by brush and prairie grasses where soils are thin or sandy and don’t hold much water or by maples on clay soils that can hold enough water to mitigate against increased drought. We already have begun to see these changes on the ground: Balsam firs are dying here in northern Minnesota, especially west toward Hackensack, and red maple is replacing fir and spruce in some places. The moose, loons, trout, and walleye we also associate with northern Minnesota similarly will decline because they depend on these northwoods tree species for their habitat.

Our tourism and timber industries depend on this mix of conifers, birches and aspen for a sound economy. The chance to see moose and hear loons and wolves, smell pine needles and breath cool, fresh summer air is what draws people to northern Minnesota in summer. Pine and aspen have been the foundation of our timber industry. All this will be gone with even the most conservative predictions of global warming.

But what is even more threatened is our sense of what it means to be a Minnesotan. We are the people of the land of loon calls and moose, walleye and trout, towering pines and firs. What will we be when northern Minnesota looks like Nebraska? Is this the landscape in which any of us would wish to live?

I do not, and I suspect you do not, either. It is for this reason, if for no other, that we need to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. This is being debated in Congress, but this is not a partisan issue. Hot days do not care if you are Democrat or Republican. If we do not pass legislation soon to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions, the northwoods of Minnesota and everything that depends on them will be gone by the end of my son’s life.

The College of St Scholastica ended its busy 350 week with a screening of Taking Root: the Vision of Wangari Maathai. Thanks to Jane Wattrus in the biology department for organizing the film showing, and to CSS Earth Action for hosting a full week of fun and educational events!

former Senate candidate and nationally recognized teacher and author Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer;

Duluth Mayor Don Ness;

singer-songwriter Rachael Kilgour;

and Josie Johnson and Flo Matamoros from the College of St Scholastica Center for Just Living.

Don’t be late! The rally will be quick and fun, and then we head out by foot and bike and puppet to Endion Beach for a group photo that will be delivered with thousands of others to the UN, Copenhagen delegates and President Obama.

Gathering to shout the number 350, Duluth Budgeteer 10/16

350 by Brendan McColgan in the CSS Cable, 10/16

Duluth’s bike rally part of worldwide climate change events on Saturday, Duluth News Tribune 10/21

Alex Strachota on KUWS news, 10/22

Local view: the time is now to act on the greenhouse effect by John Pastor, DNT 10/24

Pedaling for Climate Change, WDIO 10/24

Twin ports residents join global rally, FOX21 10/24

Duluthians rally to reduce carbon emissions, Northland News Center, 10/24

350: The most important number on earth, Reader Weekly 10/22 – read after jump

350: the most important number on earth

by Joel Kilgour for the Reader Weekly

In 2008, a team of climate scientists led by NASA’s James Hansen issued a groundbreaking report on climate change. They concluded that any amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere above 350 parts per million (PPM) is not compatible “with a planet upon which civilization developed, or to which life on Earth has adapted.”

This is shocking stuff, considering the level of CO2 in the atmosphere now stands at 389PPM … and rising fast. In other words, if we don’t reverse course on greenhouse gas emissions now, our very survival as a species is in question. But bringing CO2 levels down is going to take more than changing our light bulbs or biking to work. All of our individual actions are important, but we also need a concerted global effort to cap emissions.

Out of this harsh reality a movement has taken root. On October 24, millions of people in 161 countries will join in the largest ever internationally-coordinated day of climate action. “350” is the simple message they will bring to the streets, to places of worship, to mountaintops and even underwater. 350 will be a hard number to miss on October 24. And that’s good, because 350 is exactly the goal organizers want on world leaders’ minds heading up to December climate talks in Copenhagen .

Northlanders are adding their voices to the 350 movement. Students and faculty at the College of St Scholastica have organized an entire week of climate awareness events leading up to October 24, from 350-second walk-outs to planning meetings on how to make their campus more sustainable. The Earth Action club kicked off the week with a Green Midday Munch, served to hundreds of people and featuring local and organic food and information about the environmental costs of food production.

Students in Grand Rapids and Ashland are also organizing. Church people are preparing to walk or bike to worship over the weekend. Street theater and letter-writing parties are also in the works.

It will all cap off with a big bicycle/pedestrian rally in Duluth on October 24, featuring Mayor Don Ness and author Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. The rally starts at 3pm on the harbor side of the DECC, and will be followed by a group ride through Canal Park led by Duluth Police Chief Gordon Ramsay and the Bike Cave Collective. There will also be a walking route, for those who prefer that carbon-free mode of transportation. The ride and walk will both end at Endion Beach for a group photo to send to the President and Copenhagen delegates.

More photos and details about the week’s events can be found at 350twinports.wordpress.com.

A panel of experts and activists will talk about the effects of climate change on our region; what’s happening with climate policy from St Paul to Copenhagen; the City of Duluth’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and creative ideas for reducing your carbon “foodprint”. There will be lots of time for Q&A.

Confirmed speakers:

• John Pastor, author and professor of biology at UMD
• Julie O’Leary, Northeast program coordinator for the Minnesota Environmental Partnership
• Tony Cuneo, at-large Duluth City Councilor and member of the City of Duluth Environmental Advisory Council
• Mary Dragich, president of Slow Food Lake Superior

By: John Myers, Duluth News Tribune October 21, 2009

When hundreds of college students and other Northland residents gather for a bike rally Saturday in Duluth, they’ll be part of a worldwide statement on climate change being made in 164 nations.

The rally is one of more than 3,890 events planned worldwide Saturday aimed at pressing world leaders to support major steps to reduce carbon emissions.

The “350” rally, which includes Duluth Mayor Don Ness, Police Chief Gordon Ramsay, and author and former U.S. Senate candidate Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, will start at 3 p.m. behind the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center.

Participants are encouraged to bike to the event to avoid increasing carbon emissions.

Leaders for most of the world’s nations will meet Dec. 12 in Copenhagen to discuss a new climate treaty to help reduce carbon emissions and lower carbon levels in the Earth’s atmosphere.

A majority of scientists who study climate say that human-caused greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane are spurring a rapid and dramatic increase in global temperatures. They say that warming will affect things such as forests and crops, ocean and lake levels, wildlife, and human health. Much of the carbon comes from burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil.

Several scientists and environmental groups say even if the Copenhagen treaty is approved and a huge global effort is made to meet new carbon standards, it still won’t be enough to stop continued warming. In recent reports, scientists say carbon levels need to be reduced to no more than 350 parts per million to slow warming. Current levels already are about 385 parts per million.

Dylan Kesti, a senior at St. Scholastica majoring in global politics and communication, said the rally is an easy way for the community to get involved in a global issue that affects everyone.

“We hopped on board because this is such a simple version, such a tangible explanation of what we need to do … get down to 350. We don’t have to debate the deep science of it, so it’s easier for people to understand,” Kesti said. “It’s also a chance for us to get out of our little college groups and get into the community with this message and join with other groups in Duluth with a common goal.”

Supporters of the 350 rally also will hold a “waltz-in” dance at 4 p.m. Friday on the sidewalk in front of Duluth’s Whole Foods Co-op to raise awareness of climate-related issues.

Other events centered on climate are under way at local colleges, including a rolling 350-second student walkout held Tuesday at St. Scholastica.

Organizers promise that Saturday will be one of the largest days of global political action ever. Climbers on Mt. Everest will raise a “350” banner, and the president of the Maldive Islands, a nation threatened by rising sea levels, will don scuba gear and lead 350 of his countrymen in an underwater demonstration. In Sydney, Australia, 10,000 people will form themselves into a “3,” while people in London will create a “5” and cyclists in Copenhagen will ride in a “0” pattern.

Earth Action at the College of St Scholastica kicked off their 350 Climate Awareness Week today with a Green Midday Munch – serving hundreds of plates of delicious, local food to students, faculty and members of the community – and raising awareness about how our food choices effect the planet.

Local veggies

Carbon "foodprint"

Campus Minister enjoys local food

Happy customer