The group Step it Up is spearheading the National Day of Climate of Action on Saturday. Tens of thousands of Americans are gathering across the country in the largest-ever demonstration against global warming. Over thirteen hundred rallies, demonstrations and actions are being held in all fifty states to call on Congress to cut carbon emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050. We speak with Step it Up organizer Bill McKibben. [rush transcript included]

This weekend, tens of thousands of Americans are gathering across the country in the largest-ever demonstration against global warming. Over thirteen hundred rallies, demonstrations and actions are being held in all fifty states to call on Congress to cut carbon emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050.

The actions range from a rally of thousands in New York City, to a handful of scuba divers off the coast of Key West, to several hundred pounds of ice being left melting on the sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. April 14th is being billed as the National Day of Climate Action. It is being spearheaded by a group called Step It Up. Bill McKibben is one of the organizers of Step It Up. In 1989, he wrote the book “The End of Nature” one of the first books to describe global warming as an emerging environmental crisis. He writes frequently about global warming and alternative energy and is author of eight books. His latest is called, “Deep Economy: the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future.” Bill McKibben joins us today in our firehouse studio. Welcome to Democracy Now.

• Bill McKibben. Environmentalist and writer who frequently writes about global warming and alternative energy. He is author of eight books his latest is, “Deep Economy: the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future.”

More information at Stepitup2007.org