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Climate March visits the city
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · August 28, 2014


Andre Nunez of Omaha, Neb., made a chopping motion and pointed at his throat — he was unable to speak to a reporter while participating in the Great March for Climate that passed through West Branch on Thursday.


Nunez, however, carried a sign that spoke for him: ClimateMarch.org — LA to DC.

Some 35 to 40 participants of the march stretched out for miles, from single walkers to one group of a dozen or so, passing through the city starting about 11 a.m. Thursday through early afternoon.

They ended a 13-mile leg of their March at Scattergood Friends School east of West Branch, where they were welcomed with “fellowship, food, farm work and monarch butterfly habitat renewal,” according to information from Scattergood.

The 3,000-mile trek began March 1 in Los Angeles, following a path that took them through Nebraska near the Keystone Pipeline project with the goal of reaching Washington D.C. on Nov. 1.

Ed Fallon served in the Iowa legislature for 14 years representing a portion of Des Moines and currently hosts a talk show called the Fallon Forum. He founded the march and was the first person to reach West Branch on Thursday.

Fallon said modern climate problems “are being ignored by the U.S. Congress, officials and citizens.”

“We’re trying to wake up America,” he said. “There’s lot of room for discussion.”

He wants to increase wind and solar energy and noted that Iowa is a leader in wind energy. He wants greater energy efficiency, greater conservation efforts and the imposition of a carbon tax at the federal level.

Fallon opposes the underground Bakken pipeline proposed to reach from North Dakota to Illinois, which will carry at least 320,000 barrels of oil per day.

“It’s a horrible idea to use more fossil fuels,” he said. “We need more energy from renewables.”

He said the amount of carbon dioxide in the air is “off the charts” and that the nation is in a “time of crisis,” comparing America’ attitude toward carbon pollution to its attitude toward Adolf Hitler and the Nazis prior to the German’s attack on Pearl Harbor.

“We couldn’t see the Nazi atrocities (until the attacked us),” he said. “The sooner America rises to the greatness it is capable of, the easier it will be to address the crisis.”

Fallon said he thought Hurricane Sandy would shake America into awareness, but it did not.

“The weather is becoming more extreme” due to carbon pollution, he said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agrees that increased carbon dioxide can affect the weather, though scientists are split on whether humans or nature significantly contribute to the increase.

Fallon said he hopes the march will draw attention to climate concerns and that people will educate themselves on the issues.

“Get involved, all over the political spectrum, to find ways to reduce our carbon footprint,” he said. “And tell leaders that we need to take this crisis seriously.”