Global Warming Rally Set for Capitol

Environmentalists, members of Congress and the mayor of an Alaskan village threatened by rising seas will be among the speakers at a rally tomorrow at the U.S. Capitol aimed at reducing the causes of climate change.

Organizers have said that thousands will attend what they call Climate Crisis Action Day, which would make it the largest demonstration held in Washington on the subject of warming global temperatures. The event will run from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on a stage at the Capitol's west front.

"What we want people to know is that there is this mountain of evidence [for] global warming, and there are people who are seeing its effects from across the country," said Becky Wynne, a spokeswoman for the Alaska Wilderness League, a Washington-based group that is helping to organize the event. "It is time for this legislature to take the steps to curb global warming."

Specifically, Wynne said, the groups want Congress to pass legislation that would drastically reduce U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases and another measure that would prevent oil exploration in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The rally comes at a time when climate change seems to be gaining new momentum as a political issue. Last month, a U.N. report found that it was "very likely" that the Earth was warming because of emissions from power plants, cars and other sources that trap heat in the atmosphere.

Then, former vice president Al Gore won an Academy Award for his documentary film on the topic, "An Inconvenient Truth." This winter has brought new levels of activity on the topic in the Democratic-controlled Congress.

"I believe that the American people and the Congress now understand that we have to move forward in a very dramatic way," Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a telephone interview Friday. Sanders is a sponsor of a greenhouse-gas reduction bill and is scheduled to speak at the rally.

Other scheduled speakers include Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), Reps. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), and Mayor Stanley Tocktoo of Shishmaref, Alaska. His island town is one of several villages in Alaska threatened by erosion and rising sea levels, which are products of warming temperatures.