Environmentalists 'connect the dots' on climate change

CEDAR RAPIDS - Indian Creek Nature Center Director Rich Patterson pointed to the bridge outside the center in southeast Cedar Rapids.

“If you would've been there on June 13, 2008, you would've been under water,” Patterson told a group of Cornell College students participating Saturday in a climate change awareness event.

Floodwaters reached 12 feet higher that year than they ever had previously, he said, citing one of the ways climate change has become evident in Iowa.

Patterson also pointed to poke weed, a southern plant that has become abundant in Iowa in recent years, as another way of “connecting the dots” between climate change and real-world impacts.

State Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, organized the local event at the Nature Center and on May's Island in downtown Cedar Rapids as one of numerous Connect the Dots activities happening worldwide.

The day, sponsored by 350.org, draws attention to the effects of global warming and is a call to action, said Hogg, who coordinates Cedar Rapids Climate Advocates.

Events also were held Saturday in Iowa City, Decorah and Independence.

Hogg encouraged members of the Cornell College Environmental Club and other participants to contact Iowa's Congressional delegation about stopping the Keystone XL pipeline; ending billions of dollars in fossil fuel subsidies and extending the federal production tax credit for wind power.

“We know these changes are happening,” said Hogg, citing a warming trend in this year's U.S. Department of Agriculture Plant Hardiness Zone Map. “This in my view is the challenge of our generation.”

FYI

For photos of Saturday's events, see: www.climatedots.org

For more information about Iowa Climate Advocates, see:

www.iowaclimateadvocates.org