(OK, fixed! And oh yes, this is cross-posted at Ditch Crazy Dana, West OC’s refuge from the insanity and absurdity that is Dana Rohrabacher. : ) – promoted by atdleft)

Dana Rohrabacher may not believe that climate change is for real, but his constituents certainly do. Dozens upon dozens of people took time out of their busy weekend to show up at the Huntington Beach Pier yesterday to make a statement. They wanted to make the statement that Orange County does care about the climate, and both individuals and local governments need to take action to stop the coming climate catastrophe.

So how well did the message get out yesterday? Let me tell you all about it after the flip…

Yesterday, local activists from the Orange County Interfaith Coalition for the Environment and Democracy for America-Orange County headed down to the HB Pier to get everyone at the beach to pay attention to what’s happening with our climate. And they wanted to get Congress to pay attention to all this local demand for action, and to actually take action and agree to an eighty percent cut in carbon emissions by 2050. And they wanted local elected officials to pay attention, and to begin taking action in local government to reduce Orange County’s carbon footprint. And yes, they wanted to get everyone else in the community to pay attention, and to begin taking action at home and at work to reduce every one’s individual carbon footprint. So who was paying attention, other than me and all the other eco-conscious citizens who gathered at the pier?

Well, Gil Coerper was certainly paying attention yesterday. But then again, why wouldn’t he? The conveners presented the HB Mayor with an award for him and his fellow city councilmembers for their recent decision to sign on to the US Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement. “Surf City” is now the fifth OC city to do so, joining Laguna Beach, Aliso Viejo, Irvine, and Santa Ana on that distinguished list of cities taking action to stop the coming climate catastrophe.

So why isn’t more action being taken? That’s what we all had to ask. There are twenty-nine other cities in Orange County that haven’t yet signed onto the Climate Protection Agreement. There are members of Congress here who still refuse to recognize that there’s even a problem with our changing climate, including one from Huntington Beach who dismisses all of this as “dinosaur flatulence“. And yes, there are still many thousands of people in OC who still don’t understand just how serious this climate catastrophe is. That’s what motivated so many people to come to Downtown HB yesterday to get more people to be aware of what’s happening, and to begin taking real action.

Let’s hope that all of us in OC get the message soon. : )