Enemies of climate change didn’t let Americans’ waning belief in global warming8212;or Saturday’s thunderstorm8212;rain on their parade.
According to a Pew Research poll released Thursday, the number of Americans who say they don’t believe in climate change has doubled in the past three years, now comprising a third of the country. So U students and the U Office of Sustainability joined more than 200 Utahns outside the Salt Lake City Public Library, participating in one of at least 5,000 rallies that were held in 181 countries Saturday as part of www.350.org’s International Day of Climate Action. The participants said they wanted to show their support for legislation that will reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million and remind an increasingly skeptical country that climate change is real and a threat to humanity.
Tim DeChristopher, a senior in economics and environmental activist facing up to 10 years in prison for fraudulently bidding at a federal auction in order to protect Utah land from gas and oil companies, took the stage of the Library Plaza as a thunderstorm raged above. He and the day’s other speakers, including former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, were quick to draw parallels between the storm and the opposition they have ahead of them.
“Consider this practice for the battle ahead,” DeChristopher said from the podium over the sound of pouring rain. “We have the power to live up to our potential and create a world we have always wanted.”
This world is now a little farther away thanks to the fossil fuel industries that have spent the past year using dirty tactics to confuse and deceive the American people, protesters said.
Dillon Hase, a senior in political science, said that much as how the tobacco industry hires scientists to put out false expert information that there is no solid correlation between smoking and health problems, fossil fuel companies such as Exxon Mobile have done the same to deny climate change8212;or at the very least, humans’ responsibility for it.
And that’s why they were there, Hase said8212;to fight back.
Activists have to think outside the system if they want to finally change the unjust laws that allow industry to pollute the planet, DeChristopher said.
DeChristopher might go to prison in January after the federal trial for his fraudulent bidding concludes, but he said it’s that sort of civil disobedience that will not only effectively retaliate, but also show people how much personal potential they have to fight a system overrun by lies.
“This is not a belief system, this is not a religion, this is not a political party,” said Vicki Bennett, director of sustainability for the Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office. “It’s a scientific fact, and we’ve got to let everyone know.”
During the rally, hundreds of attendees knelt to form the shape of the number 350 in Library Square. A photographer snapped the picture, which appeared on the big-screen television in New York City’s Times Square along with photos of others around the world, including London and Egypt, doing the same.
But regardless of the political climate or weather forecast for any given day, a healthier planet than the one we have now is something that’s always worth bringing to the world’s attention, said U Office of Sustainability Director Myron Willson.
Richard Payson/The Daily Utah ChronicleAshley Anderson organizes people into the number 350 at the International Day of Climate Action on Saturday. A photo was taken and then shown on a screen in New York along with pictures of people from around the world doing the same thing.