Read This: It's time to take to the streets to fight global warming

On Monday, writer and activist Bill McKibben, NASA scientist James Hansen and a host of other folks will resurrect some Civil Rights and Vietnam-era tactics to demand action on global warming. In what's being called the Capitol Climate Action, they plan to block access to the Capitol's own antiquated, carbon-belching, coal-fired plant.

The action's FAQ reports:

In general, our intent is to block off access to the Capitol Power Plant by surrounding the entrances, peacefully refuse to leave when asked, and safely disrupt its operations for the day. If by doing so we risk arrest, so be it. We will reflect the growing global movement that is not quietly asking for, but demanding, climate justice.

McKibben argues that it is more important than ever to take to the streets.

Barack Obama was a community organizer -- he understands that major change only comes when it's demanded, when there's some force noisy enough to drown out the eternal hum of business as usual, of vested interest, of inertia.

Hansen explains here.

Today's Sobering Read: It's already too late on climate change

To anyone who has been paying attention to the science of climate change, today's news about a distressing report from climate researchers at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Switzerland and France isn't, um, exactly NEW. As I've interviewed scientists for various pieces on climate change, they've been telling me this for quite some time.

The report's not-so-new news is that it's already too late to stop some of the nasty consequences of our ever warming climate. The problem, as one researcher says, is that carbon dioxide is the equivalent of a toxic waste.

"I think you have to think about this stuff as more like nuclear waste than acid rain: The more we add, the worse off we'll be," NOAA senior scientist Susan Solomon told reporters in a conference call. "The more time that we take to make decisions about carbon dioxide, the more irreversible climate change we'll be locked into."

This is why the foot dragging of George Bush's administration hurt all of us in a deeply profound way as writer/activist Bill McKibben noted in his conversation with me. This is also why McKibben, scientist James Hansen and others are now arguing that CO2 emissions must be limited far more than anyone has suggested before.

Bill McKibben sings the Climate Change Blues

My interview with environmentalist Bill McKibben is up on the Progressive web site and also out in the magazine's dead tree edition. McKibben is a fascinating, driven and somewhat gloomy fellow. Talking to him was both exhilarating (as he looked forward to a post-fossil-fuel era) and downright terrifying as he talked about how far we have to go to get there. In honor of the soon-to-be inauguration of Barack Obama, here's one quote about our outgoing prez:

The Bush Administration was precisely the wrong thing at the wrong time

McKibben's climatological bottom line? The human race must change now, as in right this minute, or face a truly lousy future.