As clouds scudded across Burlington’s skies, about 50 activists gathered on Church Street Monday afternoon to “connect the dots” between weird weather and the fossil fuel industry.
The rally was sponsored by 350.org, a political-action group formed by Vermont author Bill McKibben to address climate change. About a dozen supporters of the movement stood on the steps of city hall holding signs with the logos of oil companies pasted at the center of the meteorological symbol of a hurricane.
The Burlington event took place the day after 350.org unfurled a giant circular banner in Times Square emblazoned with the demand to “End Climate Silence.” The New York action was organized on the eve of the onslaught of Hurricane Sandy, described as the largest Atlantic storm in recorded history ever to hit the northeastern United States.
Katherine Blume, a local leader of 350.org, told the Burlington crowd that Sandy is the newest dot in a series that includes record-high temperatures, “glaciers melting all over the world” and a growing death toll attributable to climate change. “We saw one of the dots last year with Irene and unprecedented flooding in Vermont,” Blume declared. “Why aren’t we hearing over and over in the media and in our schools that we’re facing a planetary emergency called climate change?”
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
Is this really the best day for a rally like this?
First, holding a “rally” to blame the oil companies for Sandy is like . . ., well, I don’t know what it’s like because it’s so stupid.
Second, blaming the oil companies for our individual, personal addiction to energy is like blaming a farmer for your obesity. Stupid.
Third, do idle Vermont trustafarians have so little to do, and are they so ill-informed, that they hold rallies in the middle of a hurricane to bash oil companies for all the world’s ills?
Fourth, for Zuckerman to take part in this feast of vague oil company scapegoating makes me have even less respect for him.
Two 100-year storms back to back is no coincidence. Turning the cultural premium the US places upon fossil fuels companies on it head is important to remove subsides, encourage alternatives, and move us away from climate change. The ocean is 5 degrees hotter than the average at this time of year. No coincidence.
Last night on NPR — not a bastion of right wing reporting — it was reported that no climate scientist will say that Sandy was caused by climate change. Not one. Yet here in Burlington we have an actress and her followers blaming Sandy on oil companies.
Student, are you a climate scientist? A statistician? A chance theorist? I’m no climate change denier, but, yes, two hundred-year storms in two years can be a coincidence. In addition to NPR saying yesterday that no climate scientist will blame Climate change for Sandy, an article in today’s Free Press makes the same point. You don’t have to be a climate change denier to know that the happening of Irene and Sandy proves nothing.