Deborah Levoy at Forward on Climate Rally, Feb. 2013, San Francisco, CA. Over 5000 people at rally.
Dear Friends,
Over the past year I've become a deeply involved climate change activist with 350 Silicon Valley. I've also created an original song and music video, "The Time Has Come" about climate activism.
Here's how this journey started...
2012 was a hard year for me. I finally faced the truth that our planet is already on a path toward irreversible, serious climate problems within my daughter's lifetime. And there is no "Silicon Valley" type of magical contraption to help us out, which was my prior, sketchy hope. I also learned that there are even more calamitous effects of climate change that we can prevent if we demand the necessary changes from our government immediately. I looked into my daughter's eyes and it was obvious what I had to do. Everything I can.
During 2012 I veered between some sort of crazy survivalist notion that our family should be buying land with a plentiful water supply somewhere where climate change would not touch my daughter's future (yeah, right…) and feeling total depression and helplessness at the lack of political response to climate change. I realized that nothing an individual can do (changing lightbulbs, riding our bikes all the time) is going to be enough to solve this problem. It is a structural problem that our federal goverment needs to address with some big changes (ie carbon fee, conservation measures and support for infrastructure for alternative energy). We all know that that our federal goverment is not getting this done. What does one do when most of the federal government is bought out by the fossil fuel industry? Take to the streets. I've never been big on protests. Big crowds scare me. Yikes.
Pierre DelForge at Rising Tides rally in Palo Alto, 9/13
I'm not sure if it was his french accent or eloquence that convinced me to jump on board and I began to help plan a 2/17/13 Climate March in San Francisco. But I kept thinking, "what if only 10 people come to the march?"
I threw myself into the planning, I did what I could to get more than 10 people to the march, and I started meeting some very dynamic, inspiring folks all over the Bay area with similar concerns.
In the end 50,000 people marched in DC that day and 5,000 marched in San Francisco.
Deborah Levoy at Forward on Climate Rally, Feb. 2013, San Francisco, CA. Over 5000 people at rally.
Photo by Shadia Fayne Wood. February 2013 Forward on Climate Rally, Washington, DC
Climate change activism is for doctors, teachers, plumbers, lawyers, musicians, painters, immigration activists, real estate agents, students, baristas, house cleaners, parents, children, social justice activists, religious believers, atheists, computer programmers - it is about our health, our economy, our land and oceans, immigration, food resources, social justice. It is our future. I hope you will all join me in 2014 to learn about and speak out about climate change!
All the best to you and your families,
Deborah
