--By Assemblymember John Laird

The turnout was inspiring for the recent Saturday morning screening I hosted for Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.” The overflow crowd actually necessitated running a second screen for the movie (many thanks to staff and management at the Nickelodeon Theater). Most movie goers seem to agree: the movie does a good job explaining the problem of global warming, but the challenge is to translate the message into action. The community discussion that followed the movie screening provided a good jumping off point for taking action personally and locally.

The audience was a great cross-section of Santa Cruz, including parents and their children, community activists and business owners, as well as members of the City Council, Board of Supervisors and Santa Cruz City Schools board. The discussion was lead by a distinguished and visionary panel of experts:

Dr. Lisa Sloan, Professor of Earth Sciences, Director of the Climate Change and Impacts Laboratory at UC Santa Cruz (www.es.ucsc.edu/~lcsloan/)

Jennifer Smith Grubb, President, Sustainable Silicon Valley (www.sustainablesiliconvalley.org)

Gine Johnson, Executive Director, Ecology Action (www.ecoact.org)

There was consensus during the discussion that each of us can make an immediate impact in myriad ways. Here are several resources from the Web to help build momentum:

www.assembly.ca.gov/laird -- Visit the newest section of my Website, which focuses on global warming and climate change.

www.climatecrisis.net – Official Website for An Inconvenient Truth.

www.stopglobalwarming.org – The name says it all for this non-political effort bringing Americans together.

www.sharethetruth.us – Dedicated to offering free tickets to the movie, and allowing people inspired by it to sponsor others to go.

www.cool-it.us -- The Cool It! Campaign (a collaboration between Acterra, 3 Phases Energy, and the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club) gives an easy and affordable way to reduce your environmental impact.

www.environmentaldefense.org/home.cfm -- Environmental Defense finds practical ways to solve the most urgent environmental problems, including global warming.

www.apolloalliance.org – Inspired by the "can do" spirit of the Apollo moon launch, the Apollo Alliance asks for your help to challenge our nation's leaders to achieve energy independence.

Legislatively, the most important bill in Sacramento right now is AB 32, by Speaker Nunez and Assemblymember Pavley. The bill, which I co-authored, establishes a mandatory reporting system to monitor greenhouse gas emissions and set limits, requiring California emissions to be reduced to 1990 levels by 2020. Opponents of the bill call it a “job killer.” But, as has been said, if the planet shuts down, wouldn’t that be a “job killer?”

I know that in isolation we cannot stop global warming. But our actions and leadership locally can have a meaningful and lasting impact in California and around the world.