By Ashley St. Michel
Staff Writer
    Most of the time, Kennebunk resident Jen Niese is a stay-at-home mom, but for more than a year Niese has been planning an awareness rally to inform and advise residents about the impact global warming could have on Maine’s coastal towns.
    “I want people to change their own light bulbs,” Niese said. “But I am also trying to make some changes in congress as well.”
    Niese, who is a former biology teacher and cites her interests as ecological issues, conducted a citizens’ meeting on global warming Oct. 20 in the Perkins House of Graves Library in Kennebunkport. Niese said the agenda for the meeting included planning for a Step It Up rally on Nov. 3, a day that Step It Up has declared a National Day of Climate Action.
    “It isn’t just a matter of bringing awareness to communities,” Step It Up National Coordinator Jason Kowalski said. “It’s a unified call to action.”
    Step It Up, a non-profit organization, is a campaign organized by people throughout the country and calls for leadership and action on global warming. According to Step It Up’s Web site, their goal is to empower the grassroots climate movement to take action locally by calling for national change.
    “The groups organizing rallies are all asking for the same thing,” Kowalski said. “We are asking for what the science demands.”
    In September 2006, the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) identified 20 “most at risk” communities along Maine’s entire coastline. The study gave the percentages of specific towns that would be affected if the sea level rises more than six meters. Thirty-one percent of Cranberry Isles and 30 percent of Arrowsic would be under water if the sea levels rise. The study found that 17 percent (or 2,272 acres) of Kennebunkport would be under water including the Cape Porpoise Library and Fire station, President Bush’s family home on Walker’s Point and the Kennebunkport Consolidated School.
    In total, 20 Maine coastal towns, 32 municipal buildings and 128,000 acres would be affected if the sea level rises more than six meters.
    “It’s a crisis and we need to buckle down and do something about it,” Niese said. “If we work on this global issue together we won’t be driving little tiny cars, we’ll be driving big pleasant cars. We need to concentrate on low emission vehicles.”
    Niese said larger, low emission cars are always an option. She said there are many family sized vehicles that are eco-friendly and spacious.
    Niese said some of her goals include 80 percent reduction in CO2 emission, no new coal plants and more green jobs.
    “What I want to try to do is to get people to take responsibility for calling officials,” she said.
    “I want people to start participating in democracy and saying that this is really important to our communities and the whole planet.”
    Niese said one climate change that has concerned her is the 1 million square miles of open water, equal to six times the size of the state of California, that scientists recently discovered in the Arctic Ocean.
    The study had the help of NASA satellites to track the progress of floating and melting ice caps in the Arctic.
    “We are trying to take these environmentalist groups and unify them into the social movement we need to effectively help prevent global climate change,” Kowalski said.
    “After you have a short term event, it builds communities that hadn’t been there before.”
    Kowalski said Step It Up will dissolve after Nov. 3. He said Step It Up hopes that the organizers will use what they learned and take the next action.
    “I want to come up with a concrete product,” Niese said. “I want to produce a petition for officials that states what we want to see happen at all levels. It’s about energizing more people to call congress when they see a bill coming. It’s about raising awareness and to motivate people to cause a change in government.”
    For more information about global climate change or how to get involved visit www.stepitup2007.org or contact Jen Niese at 985-1656.