Laurie David speaks about global warming.

Laurie David founded the Virtual March on Washington earlier this year. Her goal is to educate people about global warming and its affects on the environment. If you go to her website, www.stopglobalwarming.org, you can sign up to learn about how global warming is affecting our planet. TFK spoke with David about how her virtual march is going to make a difference.

Why do you think global warming is an important problem?
It's not so much what I think. It's the complete and total agreement by over 2,0000 scientists from over 100 countries. They say that the world is warming and we are doing it.

What are the biggest affects of global warming that you are worried about?
Here's one of the biggest effects that I'm worried about: That the way we expect the seasons to be - our expectations for what Christmas is like and our expectations for what summer is like - is going to change. And it's not going to change for the better. But the exciting thing about this problem is that we can stop it. There are things we can do right now to change this course that we're on.

Can you explain how your project, The Virtual March, is helping to stop global warming?
Here's the thing: Our leaders in Washington make the laws. But they won't change things unless the people demand it. The people, all of us, have to demand this change. And the virtual march is where we're going to do that. (...) We are marching on the Internet and we are going to get so big, and we're going to get so strong, and we're going to make our voice so loud, that Congress and the media are going to have to face this problem now.

What is the ultimate goal for the virtual march?
The ultimate goal of the march is to get this country to:
1) Admit that global warming is happening now.
2) Admit that we are causing it.
3) Start on a serious path to solving it.
Those are the goals of the march. And hopefully the kids of this world are going to be a big part of this. All you need is an email address. You can let your fingers do the marching. Kids are on the computer all the time. Now, they can use their computer for the ultimate act of activism.

How do you get people to care about global warming, especially if they can't see its effects on their local environments?
One of the ways that we get people to care about it is by educating them about it. One of the things that we are doing on the march is going to a different location every other week. So once you join the march, every other week you are going to get information. (Over the summer, we were) at Glacier National Park, Montana. And the glaciers are melting. (...) I think that one very interesting thing this summer is that we're starting to see reports of people connecting the dots between extreme weather conditions and global warming. They (some scientists) have now come out and said that the reason that these hurricanes are so fierce is global warming.

What can kids do to stop global warming? How can they get involved in the march?
Kids can join the march and send it (the link) to five friends. And then they can think of other ways to get people marching, like if they are in a Girl Scout troop, or a Brownie troop or a Boy Scouts troop, or if they belong to a Temple or a Church. They can really start talking this up and getting other people to join the march.

What is the most important message that you would like to tell kids about global warming?
Nothing is going to impact your life and your plans for the future more than global warming. And the time has come now to admit that we have this problem, admit we're all causing it, and seriously start solving it. And this is obviously about the future, but it's about today, too.

By Allison Berliner