http://april.stepitup2007.org/ http://april.stepitup2007.org/article.php?id=340 Friends, Thanks for visiting the site.  Now that you're inspired by all the great action from back in April get in on this action this c­oming November 3rd: click here. And just so you know, this blog isn't really active at this point.  Rather, for all the latest excitment and movement developments, check out the new site: www.stepitup2007.org. 2007-10-26 http://april.stepitup2007.org/article.php?id=338 Opening tonight in New York and Los Angeles, and then around the country: Leonardo DiCaprio's environmental documentary "The 11th Hour."  This is for friends and family and who still don't quite get it (or who like to look at Leo).  It's by all accounts pretty powerful--there were good reviews in the New York Times and L.A. Times this morning--and the best part is that it concentrates on hope and solutions.  Click here to learn of showtimes in your area. 2007-08-17 http://april.stepitup2007.org/article.php?id=337 We were thrilled back in the fall when we received words of support from one of our heroes, Calvin DeWitt, who is one of the father's of the religious environmental movement in this country.  A great leader to be sure, he's now raring to go with plans for Step It Up 2 on Nov. 3, and here's his call to action to have us all join in: So you didn't quite take the opportunity in April to Step It Up?  Or, you took the step to join the movement in April and now want to really get into it?  You REALLY want the Congress to take DECISIVE ACTION on Climate Change???         HERE IS YOUR CHANCE! November 3 is the date that provides more than just a fine opportunity.  It goes way beyond "doing one more thing!"  It is an upcoming milestone to re-establish America's leadership on Climate Change.  This is the date for your to take a vital and powerful action---an action that joined with many others is critical for driving Congressional action on Climate Change. You may just have been an avid "follower" until now.  But now you have the opportunity to lead---in small ways yes, but more than that!  With enough thought about who you know and whom you can influence, you also can lead in BIG WAYS.  November 3 is the NEXT BIG DATE.  Resolve to lead.  Join this great work.  And do so with vigor, enthusiasm, and resolve!   Use this vital day to develop your leadership, to mobilize folks wherever you can.  Join together that first Saturday of November, making it crystal clear that America is moving with conviction, and even urgency, into a position of LEADERSHIP on Climate Change.  We must demand that our leaders lead, or step aside as we step it up!­ 2007-08-16 http://april.stepitup2007.org/article.php?id=336 Here at Step It Up headquarters we're doing our best to stay on top of the latest technological advancements in internet based activism. Last April, we demonstrated the power of distributed grassroots action. Over 1,400 communities were connected through our website by a common goal: cutting carbon 80% by 2050 to stop global warming. For Step It Up 2, we'll be working hard to squeeze and twist the web to wring out it's maximum potential. And when we say we, well, we really mean you. Help us go viral, become a meme, and dominate the blogosphere (don't worry, we don't understand it all either) by spreading the word through your online connections. Here's a few key ways you can help: 1. Join our Facebook Group 2. Recruit your friends for our Facebook Cause (and maybe even give a little dough) 3. Check out our MySpace page and become our friend 4. Write about Step It Up on your blog 5. Email, email, email: tell everyone you know about Step It Up Together we'll conduct an incredible experiment of the web's potential to help create social change. Our opponents may have millions of dollars on their side, but we've got the tools and the people to create a movement like the world's never seen. With your help, we can make it happen. 2007-08-14 http://april.stepitup2007.org/article.php?id=335 You probably see him every day, staring right up at you from a one dollar bill: our first president, George Washington. Whether it was leading the Continental Army into victory during the Revolutionary War, presiding over the Constitutional Convention, or becoming president numero uno, Washington was an exemplary leader in many respects. Take this quote for example: "A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends." Washington had it right. Words are all well and good, but when it comes down to doing something important for your friends (like helping save the planet) what you really need to do is take some action. That's exactly what some of our friends down at Dartmouth College are planning for this November 3rd. This summer, they carried a canoe up to the summit of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire and took a picture with a banner that read: "What Would Washington Do? Cut Carbon 80% by 2050!" For Step It Up 2, they're planning on summiting Mt. Washington again - this time to send a message to our politicians along with tens of thousands of others around the country: it's time for real leadership on global warming. We're excited to hear about actions that are already being planned around the country for Step It Up 2. Keep 'em coming! And remember, as Washington said, actions speak louder than words. 2007-08-13 http://april.stepitup2007.org/article.php?id=334 Check out this great action being planned by Jim Warren, a professor, and some other folks at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, a school named after two of our most significant political leaders. Thanks to these organizers for coming up with a great idea right off the bat. Located in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, Washington and Lee University has an active program in Environmental Studies and a multi-faceted Outing Club.  Our April 14 Step It Up Rally for Climate Action was a success, held in the Commons building on campus.  The President of the University was one of our featured speakers, and he incidentally founded our Environmental Studies Program. We plan to hold our November 3rd rally in front of Lee Chapel, in the shadow of Washington Hall.  George Washington and Robert E. Lee are perhaps controversial figures for some modern Americans, since both were slaveholders.  But in many ways both of them were enlightened leaders of their times.  We will consider what a President of the United States and a President of a prestigious liberal arts college would say about global warming and the threats to durable ways of living.  We'll ask ourselves what kind of world we want to live in, what kind we want to leave for our children and grandchildren and beyond.   2007-08-11 http://april.stepitup2007.org/article.php?id=333 Dear Friend, There are occasional moments in history when we desperately need leadership, and this is one of them. If we’re going to deal with global warming, then we need to go beyond politicians who say the right words and find champions who will actually do the tough work to transform our energy economy. And you could play a key role in bringing those leaders to the fore. This is an invitation to take one Saturday this fall and use it to build a movement, a movement strong enough to finally put this issue on the table where it can no longer be ignored. Here’s the idea. On November 3, a year before the next election, we’re asking people to organize rallies large and small in their communities. Each one should take place in some spot that commemorates great leaders of the past. People have already committed to climbing New Hampshire's Mt. Washington and gathering in Chicago's Lincoln Park. Others will gather at the Rhode Island church where John F. Kennedy was married, or in front of a site honoring Navajo elder and activist Roberta Blackgoat. But we need hundreds more, gatherings in places that bear the names of national leaders or of locally celebrated men and women who did the right thing in a moment of great need. You’ll know the person that makes sense in your city or town—they don't need to be saints, just true leaders, the kind who, faced with the great issues of their day, didn't punt or compromise. 2007-08-09 http://april.stepitup2007.org/article.php?id=332 ­Check out this post from Bill on the Grist:­ Movements need to keep on moving; once the rock starts to budge you've got to push even harder on the pry bar. It's time to Step It Up once more. Circle Nov. 3, 2007, on y­our calendar -- it's the next big date in the fight to get America to finally do something about climate change. We're calling it Step It Up 2: Who's A Leader? With your help, by the time night falls on that Saturday -- almost exactly a year before election day -- we should have a better sense of who will finally muster the political will for meaningful action about the biggest threat we face. Step It Up 1 happened on April 14 and was the first open-source political protest in U.S. history. People in 1,400 cities and towns in all 50 states staged rallies to demand strong climate action. For those actions, we concentrated on American geography: people picked places (the coral reefs off Key West, the tide lines in a dozen coastal cities, the dwindling glaciers on western mountains) that showed what was at stake from global warming. Click here to continue reading on Grist.­ 2007-08-08 http://april.stepitup2007.org/article.php?id=329 We couldn't be more excited to be kicking off another set of Step It Up rallies, and we're already calling all the historical impersonators we know to ask them for help. Sound nerdy? Check out this piece on the Grist:  On April 14, many thousands of you showed what it takes to be leaders, and now it's time to see who else will take up the call for action. And we don't even have to wait long to see the kinds of places where these rallies will take place--a few April 14 organizers are already planning their November 3 actions. Beth Milham, in Newport, Rhode Island, plans to rally in front of St. Mary's Church in Newport. Beth took this photo with her friends last weekend, demonstrating the kinds of places and people November 3 will highlight. Why St. Mary's? It's the spot where John and Jackie Kennedy were married. There are marks of JFK all over Newport, including his "Summer White House" where the Peace Corps legislation was signed into law. "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" gains whole new meaning when we're talking about leadership. On November 3, we'll all step up to the plate! 2007-08-06 http://april.stepitup2007.org/article.php?id=328 As Bill McKibben said today in New Hampshire, this is a movement that keeps on moving. Today, two simultaneous marches in Iowa and New Hampshire ended at the states' capitols. It was a powerful call for real solutions to global warming: 80% by 2050 and much more. Check out a video from the final rally here in Concord, N.H. and get excited for our next steps as we continue down the road to a clean energy future. 2007-08-05 http://april.stepitup2007.org/article.php?id=327 You'll have to forgive us for all the attention we've been giving the March to Re-Energize New Hampshire in the past few weeks. But while much of the country is sweating through the last few months of July or planning a well deserved vacation for a few weeks  in August, a crew of over twenty students have been working their butts off to pull off what they hope will be a giant march for climate solutions here in the Granite State. You're faithful Step It Up organizing team has been helping out where we can and we're giddy to see the whole thing about to happen. The students here aren't alone, momentum is also building over in Iowa, where another group of young people have been planning a similar march. They'll be joined by climate luminary James Hansen, a big supporter of Step it Up, as well. If you're somewhere in the Northeast or Midwest, get on over to one of these marches. For the rest of you, catch some of the flavor in the video above of some last minute organizing (remember this from Step it Up?) and get on over to www.climatesummer.org  for more info. Read on for a full invitation from the March to ReEnergize New Hampshire team: 2007-07-31 http://april.stepitup2007.org/article.php?id=326 It's clear now that if the revolution won't be televised, it will certainly be seen on YouTube. For Step it Up, we focused on getting pictures in, but we also got flooded with fantastic videos from around the country. We were reminded of these vids when we watched the Democratic YouTube debate a few days back. First off, we wanted to give a shout-out to the brave snowman who asked a question about global warming. If you haven't seen his video, here it is: But just as Billiam the Snowman is a great spokesperson for the snowmen of the country, we know there are some fantastic Step it Up organizers out there who are great spokespeople for all of us humans too. Don't believe us? Just check out the video below of Tiffany Cordero, one of our heroes in NYC. And go for it and submit a video question for the Republicans on YouTube - Mitt Romney says he doesn't like answering questions from snowmen, so let's give him a couple from all of us. Here's Tiffany rocking the crowd: 2007-07-27 http://april.stepitup2007.org/article.php?id=325 It was almost 1 year ago that some of us here at Step It Up headquarters were getting ready to launch a plan to walk 5 days across the state of Vermont calling for action on global warming.  In many ways it was the success of that action that inspired us to start thinking about ways to join with others in similar efforts around the country, hence the Step It Up actions back in April. Since that walk across Vermont, others have organized similar efforts walking for 4, 5, or even 8 days, as they did in Massachusetts back in March.  And momentum is still building... Now there's just 1 week to go before hundreds, if not thousands, of citizens will be commencing 5 day marches in Iowa and New Hampshire continuing the call for action on global warming.  Through June and July, dozens of students and youth in both states have dedicated their summer to organizing these 5 day marches, dubbed the March to ReEnergize US. Click here to read the official invitation letter they've put together, and if you are in a state nearby, sign up to join in the action... Oh, and in case you need a bit more inspiration to get up and walk 5 days, check out and order the documentary film about the walk across Vermont featuring Bill McKibben: www.jancannonfilms.com. See you out it the streets! 2007-07-24 http://april.stepitup2007.org/article.php?id=324 Just when folks might have been thinking that the climate movement might be starting to ease up a bit for the summer, this past Saturday, July 14, students and residents from across New Hampshire took up the call to action in the White Mountains.  As part of an effort dubbed Climb It for the Climate, over a hundred folks met at the summit of each of the mountains named after a former president in the White Mountain Presidential Range calling for action on global warming. Oops, looks like your browser does not understand iframes. The message was fun and powerful... "What would [president's name] do? Cut Carbon 80% by 2050!" Here's some of what the Climb It crew had to say about the action...  "Washington, Adams, Jefferson . . . these hallowed names echo through the centuries of American history. Their leadership, vision, (and incredible hair-styles), continue to inspire us today. If these men were alive, they would surely take on today's greatest challenge: global warming. Sure, we'd have to brief them on the situation, but once they got the facts their course of action would be clear: follow the advice of leading scientists around the world and Cut Carbon 80% by 2050!" Click here to see the slideshow from the whole expedition. And the ascent of these great mountains isn't all that's in store for New Hampshire this summer.  In just 2 weeks, folks in Iowa and New Hampshire will be commencing the Marches to Re-Energize US.  In New Hampshire we're walking from Nashua to Concord from August 1 - 5, and in Iowa the march will go from Ames to Des Moines from August 2 - 5.  Check out climatesummer.org for more information and to sign up.  And please help spread the word -- click here to read the official invitation letter for New Hampshire, and please forward it far and wide, especially to folks in the New Hampshire area.  Can't wait to see you out there. 2007-07-17 http://april.stepitup2007.org/article.php?id=323 You've probably seen lots of articles, TV ads, and blogs about the Live Earth concerts. We wanted to offer an eye-witness account of the goings on, live from the nosebleed section. Thanks to Step It Up Burlington organizer Katey Gordon, we scored some last minute tickets to see Al Gore, Cameron Diaz, Jane Goodall, and Bon Jovi. Coming from New York City, floods of people headed toward Giants Stadium. We were impressed that the New York City bus station had so many signs stating "Live Earth tickets this way" and such things. The concert was packed with people fanning themselves in the sun with signs (courtesy of World Wildlife Fund) that said, "I'm Hotter than I Should Be" and commemorative Live Earth bandannas. Yes, it was hot. But fans in Rio de Janeiro were probably hotter. For those of you who participated in Live Earth house parties, or watched the concerts on TV or online, the excitement of the event probably came through. What couldn't be heard, and in our eyes, the most exciting part, was the crowd's positive energy for change. The tens of thousands of people who came were mainly young people, mainly from New Jersey, and maybe mainly there to catch the music. But plenty of loud applause, standing ovations, and cheers of support rang out in favor of the kind of action we all seek on climate change. When Robert Kennedy Jr. spoke of the need for leaders to take up the challenge, the crowd roared. When Melissa Etheridge played her song from "An Inconvenient Truth," people were very moved and engaged. And every single time Al Gore took the stage, the crowd roared. And many times rose to its feet. Coming home on the bus that night, we wondered what kind of action would result from Live Earth, as I'm sure many of you did. This may be a historical turning point, in the way "An Inconvenient Truth" provided so many opportunities for local action. Global audiences turned their attention to this issue in a powerful way on July 7, and, we hope, they will sign Al Gore's pledge and live it as well.  2007-07-11