"April is the activist month," poet T.S. Eliot could have said of the month just past, when movements for environmental change were almost as active as the environment itself.

On April 2, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency does indeed have the power to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, as mandated under the Federal Clean Air Act. For years, especially under the Bush administration, the EPA has been claiming that it has no authority to do anything about CO2, one of the guiltiest greenhouse gases.

Senator Barbara Boxer of California has declared that she will now bring EPA administrators before Congress to explain how they're going to do what they didn't want to do before. Internal combustion engine manufacturers are most responsible for CO2 emissions, and notoriously the most sluggish to change.

Speaking of sluggish internal combustion engines, the world's 1.5 billion belching, farting cattle emit a hefty 18% of the greenhouse gases causing global warming, according to the December 2006 issue of The Independent. That's more than all forms of human transportation pollution combined.

Fresh cowpies account for more than a third of all the methane in the atmosphere, and methane has 20 times the greenhouse effect of CO2. The livestock industry also by-produces scores more pollutants, including more than two thirds of the ammonia floating free, a chief cause of acid rain.

April 14 was the National Day of Climate Action: Step It Up, Congress! Cut Carbon 80% by 2050. A rally was held locally at the Community Christian Church on the Plaza in Kansas City, sponsored by the Thomas Hart Benton Group of the Sierra Club, Ozark Chapter.

About 500 people attended, along with aides from Congressmen Emmanuel Cleaver and Dennis Moore and Senator Claire McCaskill. Following the rally, there was a protest march that led through the Plaza.

Identical rallies were held the same day all across the U.S., hoping to drive home to lawmakers the necessity of drastically reducing carbon emissions before the air gets thick, ice caps melt, and polar bears drown.

In Washington, protestors formed a human message on Capitol Hill which read "80 percent by 2050." The humans were photographed for use as a postcard, which is being sent to members of Congress.

The first Earth Day was held April 22, 1970, and the tradition has held strong all the way through to this year. In 2007, most schools and parks in Kansas City found ways to focus attention on the state of the earth.

Bridging the Gap, an environment-conscious community action group, hosted the Earthwalk and Earthfest, which took place in Shawnee Mission Park. Powell Gardens in Kingsville gave free Chinese Raisin Tree seedlings to visitors.

There were also several benefit activities last month in Kansas City, held to raise funds and awareness.

The Kansas City Walk for Autism Awareness at Unity Village was April 14, sponsored by the Autism Alliance of Greater Kansas City (http://www.autismalliancekc.org/). The 2007 MS Walk was the same day in Shawnee Mission Park, and April 21 on the Plaza (http://www.nationalmssociety.org). And the 2007 AIDS Walk was held April 28, beginning at Theis Park (see our story).

Copyright 2007 Metropolitan Community College