7gen Bloc

On the list of critical issues facing the human race and the planet we call home, global warming is at or near the top of my list. Yet, as Al says, the facts surrounding the climate crisis present us with a host of inconvenient truths. Many of us (me included) are unwilling to give up air travel, commit to the exclusive use of public transportation when we’re on the ground, eat an exclusively local diet or do the hundreds of other things necessary to dramatically reduce our CO2 footprint.

There is a strange disconnect between what we know and what we do. Changing a few light bulbs unfortunately isn’t going to save the world. US policy to prevent the construction of new coal plants, dramatically raise auto mileage standards and invest heavily in alternative energy would go a long way toward helping solve the problems that we as individuals can’t do on our own -- exactly the type of policies that President Bush has pledged to ensure we never adopt.

So when presented with the opportunity to join a Greenpeace protest against the Bush Administration’s meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change last Thursday and Friday, I decided that I had to be there.

This conference was much too little and way too late. The President was staging it only to stall the progress already made by the United Nations and create the appearance that he actually understood and cared about the issue. The conference was a fraud.

Wednesday evening about 20 members of our staff had gathered for dinner before the beginning of the Expo East in Baltimore, the most important trade show for our business and industry. After I announced that I would be absent from the show the following day to attend the demonstration, almost two hours of impassioned debate ensued. Some felt the whole company should join me, and that we should shut down our trade show booth for the day with communication to explain why we would all be missing the meetings and appointments we had set up. Others argued passionately that we needed to let everyone decide for themselves. Still others felt we should tie a ribbon around the booth to close it off from visitors, and have some staff standing in the aisle to explain that we decided to not conduct business that day in honor of our fellow staff members who attended the demonstration.

In the end, a small contingent left with me at 5:45am to take the train down to DC for the protest. We posted a letter from me at the entrance of the booth explaining what some of us had gone to do. I went with no hope of changing Bush’s mind. Instead I wentto communicate to anyone who would listen that this issue is much more dangerous and important than many people know or understand, a point I was more than willing to be arrested for in order to make.

I hoped that some would react with a “Wow, imagine that! The CEO of this cool company thinks this issue is so important he was willing to go to jail. Maybe I should reconsider what I’m willing to do.”

Well, I did end up in jail, along with 50 other protestors including John Passacantando, the Executive Director of Greenpeace. It had been a long time since I’d felt the cold concrete of a jail cell. Greenpeace had us out in about 6 hours. My record will reflect only a misdemeanor charge.

Sometimes we have to stand up and be counted.