CCAN activist fasting to protest Congressional inaction on global warming crisis

Ted Glick

by Kara Berger
Photo: Julie Wiatt

Hoping to pressure Congress to pass a bill addressing global climate change, Takoma Park-based activist Ted Glick has entered the second month of his hunger strike.

Glick, a member of the local non-profit Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN), is one of thousands who took part in the initial fast for global climate change on Sept. 4, 2007. He may, however, be the only one continuing to fast two months later.

Glick described fasting as a type of activism that involves the entire body, which makes it more effective. “A fast usually isn’t done unless it’s a very serious crisis or urgent situation” stated Glick. “We are almost imprisoned in a political system that has not responded to this huge, urgent issue. We need federal action and for the U.S. government to really give leadership … and just the opposite is happening.”

The long-time activist currently resides in New Jersey, but he spends much of his time in Takoma Park working with CCAN, for which he is the coordinator, on various issues regarding global warming.

He grew up in Lancaster, Pa. and attended Grinnell College in Iowa, where he studied the peaceful protestor Mohandas Gandhi before dropping out after two years to become a full-time activist.

Growing up in the 1960s, Glick was inspired by the Vietnam War protests and the Civil Rights movement “I decided that I wanted to become active on both of those issues...peace and racial justice,” he revealed, “I know exactly when I became an activist…on April 4, 1968 when Martin Luther King was assassinated…when he was killed, that moved me to action.”

In addition to passage of strong legislation regarding global climate change, Glick and the other members of CCAN have four other specific demands. First, the group is urging Congress to pass a bill imposing a moratorium on the construction of coal plants. Second, CCAN is calling for an “immediate” freeze on all greenhouse gases, which have been strongly correlated with global warming, CCAN and Glick’s primary cause.

Next, they hope to implement a “green jobs program” It is hoped that the program will employ “eventually millions of people,” all working in “a whole series of different kinds of activities for energy conservation and efficiency.” Some of those jobs would include tasks such weatherizing homes by replacing old or ineffective insulation. More effective insulation would reduce household fuel consumption, thereby also helping to meet the goal of reducing greenhouse gases.

Finally, the non-profit is calling for “25 billion dollars for the fiscal year 2008 for energy efficiency, energy conservation and renewable energy.”
Glick was recently arrested at a late October, “No war no warming” protest on

Capitol Hill “We accomplished our two objectives,” he said. “One was to disrupt business as usual on Capitol Hill, to let the Congress people know that many of us are very upset. And we wanted there to be media coverage” stated Glick in high spirits “This was a beginning of an ongoing campaign.”

Although he’s very driven, Glick admits that there have been moments of real difficulty in his campaign. “When I was only drinking water, probably in the last week of that...I was feeling the lack of nutrition. I was much weaker. That is partly why I decided to go on the liquids. My body was telling me that I needed some nourishment.” Still determined, Glick asserts “I’m going to fast either until Congress enacts some strong legislation on global warming or until they adjourn for the holidays.”

Congress is scheduled to adjourn Nov. 16 and Glick was not optimistic about the prospects for passage of significant environmental legislation this year “There is a good chance it will go longer,” he said.

Though Glick’s current fast had been said to have an end date in mind, he disclosed that plans are in the making to resume fasting when Congress comes back into session after the holidays.

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