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BY SCOTT MONROE
Staff Writer 11/16/2008

enlarge Staff photo by Scott Monroe

CLIMATE CHANGE: Afsan Chowdhury, an Oak Human Rights Fellow at Colby College, speaks to a crowd of about 30 people Saturday afternoon at The Center Building on Main Street. "I'm trying to give climate change a human face," Chowdhury explained.

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That was the message at a rally Saturday afternoon at The Center on Main Street. Organized by a Colby College human rights and global perspective class, the event drew about 30 onlookers, most of whom were Colby students.

"Our number one goal is talking about climate change as a violation of human rights, not just how it's affecting polar bears," Amelia Swinton, a 20-year-old junior at Colby who was a top organizer of the rally, said afterward.

Speaking to the crowd were Afsan Chowdhury, the Oak human rights fellow at Colby; and Colby Professor Emeritus Tom Tietenberg, a noted environmental economist.

Chowdhury, who is teaching at the college until December, warned that climate change threatens to destroy Bangladesh and other impoverished countries with rising sea levels, floods, drought and food shortages, creating about 125 million refugees.

"I'm trying to give climate change a human face," Chowdhury told the crowd, adding, "We're really locked together."

Climate change, if left unabated, will have profound consequences for Maine and the rest of the Northeast, Tietenberg said. For instance, weather forecasters predict that severe storms that normally occur once every 100 years soon could happen every four years, he said.

Tietenberg urged attendees to "take action now," saying they should not feel complacent even though President-elect Barack Obama is likely to support tougher climate-change legislation. The United States is the largest per-capita emitter of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which comes from fossil-fueled vehicles and other sources.

"It's not a done deal," Tietenberg said of U.S. action on climate change. "The time is right ... but the outcome is far from a foregone conclusion."

Tietenberg encouraged people to use their "many points of leverage": voting for elected officials who favor climate change action, purchasing products that release little or no greenhouse gas emissions, and reaching out to neighbors, businesses and organizations. Attendees also were encouraged to take part in a letter-writing campaign to Maine's members of Congress.

Scott Monroe -- 487-3288, 861-9253

smonroe@centralmaine.com

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