[MCN] Montana at the Red Line: Cut Carbon Now! Rally this Saturday

[David Merrill]

*MONTANA AT THE RED LINE:  CUT CARBON NOW!*

A Community Gathering to Mark the End of the Paris Climate Talks
This Saturday, December 12, 2015
11:45 am
XXX’s, North Higgins Ave., Downtown Missoula





350 Missoula and the Sierra Club hope to harness the momentum coming out of
the Paris climate talks this Saturday, December 12, at 11:45 a.m., at a
community gathering at the XXXs at the end of North Higgins.  Len Broberg,
a Professor in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana, attended
the Paris climate talks and will be speaking at Saturday’s event.



Creative “red line” actions will be going on in Paris and around the world
on Saturday to signify the people’s commitment to not crossing the red
lines of the climate crisis.  At 12:12 we will make one full minute of
noise to demonstrate that the people have the last word on Paris, not the
negotiators.  Please wear something red and bring noise-makers:  pots and
pans, horns, instruments, etc.  Face-painting materials will be on hand for
rally participants’ use.



What do the agreements in Paris mean for us here in Montana?



350 Missoula and the Sierra Club have arranged for a number of speakers who
will strive to answer this question.



One clear thing after Paris is that the work of the climate movement is not
done. A consensus among world leaders is a positive development only if it
moves society in the right direction. A consensus arranged with the help of
fossil fuel industry lobbyists, with vague time limits and non-binding
carbon reduction commitments postpones the difficult decisions to the next
generation, and that’s repeating the mistakes of the summits in Rio, Kyoto,
and Copenhagen.



That’s unacceptable.



The way forward must include the steep reductions in carbon pollution
called for by the science. As the writer and activist Bill McKibben says,
at its essence, this is not a political problem. This is physics and
mathematics problem. Our planet has a “carbon budget” for the greenhouse
gases that cause global warming. We bust this budget, pour pollution from
the burning of fossil fuels beyond the Earth’s life-support systems, and we
will pay the consequences.



Here’s another way of looking at it. Mother Nature has drawn for us a Red
Line. We must cut carbon and keep 80 percent of the world’s fossil fuel
reserves in the ground or the forests and mountains we love in the Northern
Rockies burn up, the streams we fish shrink and dry, the Montana we leave
to our children and grandchildren is significantly degraded. Our two
largest economic drivers, Montana’s agriculture and tourism, are left to
atrophy in the heat and drought.



As many studies suggest, this Great Transition to renewable energy is an
opportunity to once again release America’s potential. We have the
technology. We have the money. Everyone knows we have the expertise and the
willing work force.



What are we waiting for?



Society has wasted 25 years without the called-for carbon reductions. The
margin for error now is slim or nonexistent. We are on the precipice of
runaway arctic melting and methane release, and, as people with a
clear-eyed view of the future, we must keep the pressure on. We must start
making deep cuts in carbon pollution globally and immediately.  If we
don’t, we will make it impossible to limit long-term global warming to 10
C, which James Hansen and other leading climate scientists have said is the
target for a livable world.



-- 
David Merrill
Senior Organizing Representative
Sierra Club
Missoula, MT
(406) 549-1142--office
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