| Chapter : | Introduction |
In the three months between McKibben's first musings and the National Day of Action on April 14, 2007, the national organizers used a Web site to organize local actions. Word-of-mouth and media coverage led people to the Web site, where they could join the national effort. For example, on April 9, 2007, “no-impact man” mentioned SIU on The Colbert Report; several days later, the SIU Webmaster reported that their site had never received more traffic (Step It Up 2007). On the Web site, individuals could read about the campaign and sign up to host a local action. Information for these actions would then be posted, and site visitors could sign up to attend an action in their community. To support local actions, the national organizers posted materials—banner templates, action ideas, media guides—that could be used to plan events and develop new resources. After a local organizer asked for help about how to attract media attention, the national organizers wrote a sample press release, e-mailed a copy to the local organizer who requested help, and then posted a copy on the Web site for everyone to use. Later, the team added a function that enabled local organizers to send a mass e-mail to all of the participants who signed up to attend a particular action. The Web site was the center of SIU; it made the call for action, offered people a way to join “the movement,” and provided support for local organizers. By April 13, 2007, over 1,400 actions were scheduled to take place across the fifty states. Though the events varied in size, complexity, and location, one message linked all the rallies: “Step it up, Congress! Enact immediate cuts in carbon emissions, and pledge an 80 percent reduction by 2050.”
In the early morning hours of April 14, thirty Middlebury College students in Vermont created a photograph of the phrase “Step It Up” using flashlights in the dark. This image was uploaded to the national index site, where it became the anchor for a dynamic digital slideshow of images from actions. Photographs displayed bike riders in Portland, Oregon; people bundled in coats at a morning rally at Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska; an aerial of people spelling “Step It Up” and “we hear your call” in Inuit in Park City, Utah; and scuba divers displaying posters underwater off Key West, Florida. In the following days, over 850