Step It Up is a national, voter-driven grassroots effort to urge Washington to support bold climate change solutions for the 21st Century. On April 14th of this year, over 100,000 Americans gathered in locations in all 50 States to send Congress a clear message: cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. To build on the momentum of the campaign’s initial success in galvanizing public, media and political attention, citizens across the country are organizing a second day of national action on Saturday November 3rd.
The event will be one of hundreds scheduled on the same day, many of them in places that honor great leaders of the American past – from the top of Mt. Washington to the site of the Lincoln Douglas debates. The New York City Step It Up event held in April was the largest in the country, attracting over 3,000 participants and extensive media coverage. This time around we expect no less. In addition to restating the 80% by 2050 imperative, the November campaign demands that our federal leadership impose an immediate moratorium on the construction of new coal burning power plants, as well as make extensive investments in ‘green collar’ job development across the country. Absent such commitments, we believe that the 80% by 2050 commitment would be seriously compromised.
