Greenpeace protestors pressure Hill to support eco-friendly legislation

Looking to put pressure on politicians to support global warming legislation one year before the 2008 elections, local Greenpeace and Step It Up organizers hosted a rally and information workshops Saturday at the Harmony School, 909 E. Second St.\nGreenpeace organizer Edyta Sitko presented Ninth District Congressman Baron Hill with more than 100 letters from voters in southern Indiana calling on him to support legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The event, held in conjunction with Step It Up, a group dedicated to cutting the U.S. carbon emissions, also educated attendees on environmental activism. \nHill, who serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, said his committee is working on legislation to address the domestic output of greenhouse gases from industry and vehicle emissions. \nBut Hill said he is unsure if any global warming-related bills will pass by the end of the year. \n“There’s not any one solution to this,” he said. “We can’t put all of our eggs in one basket because there are many parts to this equation. ... I’m only one elected official and Congress is a big body. It’s hard to get it to move in any one direction.”\nSitko said signs of man-made climate change are starting to appear locally. \n“This year’s drought and heat waves have caused problems for Indiana’s farmers, for one,” she said. “They have lost crops and have had to spend much more on irrigation.”\nBut Sitko said Hill’s position on the The House Committee on Energy and Commerce is important because it gives local voters a chance to influence decisions in Washington. \n“We have to put pressure on him to use his position to get behind meaningful bills,” Sitko said. “And it’s exciting to know that our little corner, our district, has a stake in the global warming debate.”\nHe said Bloomington residents should continue to speak out about climate change and support environmentally-friendly legislation. \n“Now even the President has admitted global warming is real, and you wouldn’t have seen that a year ago,” Hill said. “People like you are the reason for that.” \nLocal resident Betsy Caufield said she appreciated Hill’s attendance at the event but that she thought he remained non-committal towards pursuing solutions to some environmental problems. \n“(Hill’s) speech was nice, but he just kept saying he’d think about the problem ... that he’d take a look into it,” Caufield said. “We don’t really have time for that. ... We need to do something now.”\nFollowing Hill’s speech, workshops opened in the school’s auditorium to educate attendees about activism, letter writing and other actions aimed toward influencing public policy. The event was the second rally organized locally this year as part of the “Step It Up” campaign, a movement that pressures the United States to cut its carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Last April, more than 1,400 Step It Up events took place in all 50 states – the largest global warming rally in U.S. history. \nStephanie Kimball, an organizer for Step It Up, said the rally also tried to stress individual responsibility in reducing climate change. \n“We need to think about what we buy – that everything we purchase has be manufactured, packaged and has waste,” she said. “Everybody has to keep an eye on their own energy consumption.”\nHill said one step he has taken to reduce his carbon footprint has been a switch in transportation. \n“I don’t have a car in Washington anymore,” Hill said. “Now I ride the Metro in Washington as much as I can ... It’s pretty efficient and even faster than taking a car.”