Polar Bears happen to be Bowdoin's mascot, so a few clever people here have taken up the plight of the polar bear as a cause to raise awareness about climate change. For those of you who didn't see the animation of the sad polar bear in the middle of the ocean in An Inconvenient Truth, here's the deal: rising temperatures and melting ice sheets mean that polar bears have fewer surfaces to live/rest on and their numbers are dwindling. There's a movement to get them on the threatened or endangered species list.
And so, for Step It Up Day 2007, the day created by Bill McKibbon to tell Congress to "step it up" and commit to cutting back carbon dioxide emissions 80% by 2050, the Bowdoin Polar Bears got together to take action. In the course of about an hour, we signed letters to Congress representatives and pledges to do our own part to cut back on emissions. House Representative (and Bowdoin alumnus) Tom Allen spoke, urging us to "Believe!" in our cause, and a representative from Sen. Susan Collins' office read us a letter from her. Donning our "Polar Bears Against Climate Change/Keep It Cool" T-shirts, we took a group photo outside around our polar bear statue.
(Interestingly enough, there was probably snow in the picture... in April... yes, we are in Maine. You can argue that global warming is disproved by this, but climate change also means increased volitility, more storms, and cooling of the Gulf Stream, meaning colder temperatures for eastern North America and Western Europe.)
I can't wait to see responses from our elected leaders. We want to see change, and it feels good to do something about it.
If you have any accounts of your own Step It Up Day adventures (or anything else to say), please comment!
