PDA chapters participated in a worldwide day of action on October 24, to stop global warming and support the upcoming climate conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, on December 7-18.
Winograd, along with "350" organizers Terrie Brady, David Troy and others, rode her bike down the coast, through the 36th Congressional District to the Manhattan Beach Pier where she joined with hundreds of environmentalists standing at the tide line, demonstrating how the shoreline will recede if we do not reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Before leaving on the bike ride, Winograd spoke to a crowd gathered at Crescent Bay Park in Santa Monica.
Excerpts from Winograd's speech follow:
"I am proud to participate in the 350 Day of Action, in which we call on world nations to set global standards for reducing carbon emissions.
"In order to do this, we need nations to work together at the Copenhagen climate conference in December, when discussion will concern the responsibility of more industrialized countries – those responsible for emitting disproportionate amounts of carbon – to address the dire consequences experienced by less industrialized nations facing receding shorelines, displacement of people and towns, drought, rising sea levels, floods, even famine.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DOROTHY RIEK  Participating in "350 Day," October 24, 2009, members of Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains and Los Angeles gather before riding from Santa Monica to Manhattan Beach with Congressional candidate, Marcy Winograd (CA-CD36). |
"Though parts of Africa and Australia may suffer the consequences first, those of us in Southern California are not immune. We must protect our coastal cities–Santa Monica, Venice, Marina del Rey, El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa, Redondo, our harbor–from rising sea levels that threaten the future of our shores.
"While it is possible to reverse the global warming trend, we know we cannot do it alone. It will take a global effort, with the U.S. at the forefront, and it will require us to do something the environmental movement has yet to embrace–calculate the carbon footprint of perpetual wars and occupations that create new enemies, undermine our security, and threaten to bankrupt our country. This is not sustainable.
"It is time to put the environmental, peace, and labor movements in the same room, because it is difficult, if not impossible, to speak to each other to solve problems, when you are lodged in separate rooms with walls that block the sound of collective change.
"Part of this effort requires a recognition that the earth belongs to us all, not to this or that corporation and that it is time to become signatories to important international treaties – The Law of the Sea, The Moon Treaty, The Outer Space Treaty – agreements which declare that the resources of sea and space belong, not to a corporation or a colonizer, but to all of humankind.
"On earth, we have work to do and we need to put America back to work. We need a Green New Deal that invests in both public and private works projects–installing a million solar panels on rooftops; developing wind farms; building rapid transit; repairing our aging infrastructure [of] ports, levees, bridges. Let the environmental, peace and labor movements coalesce around a demand for full employment in a new Green economy. Now, more than ever before, we need the engineering talent and skilled workforce of the aerospace and defense industries, anchored in the 36th Congressional District, to help us transition to a sustainable future. We are at the tipping point. It's up to us."
