James Hansen spoke out against global warming twenty years ago. Now he’s raising a (peaceful) army. Hansen, head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and an adjunct professor at Columbia’s Earth and Environmental Sciences Department, has issued an invitation to “the largest mass civil disobedience for the climate in U.S. history.” On Monday, March 2, Capitol Climate Action will stage a non-violent demonstration at “Washington D.C.’s Capitol Power Plant.” The demand: stronger action on the climate crisis from the new president. 

The CCA’s website doesn’t give specifics, but it suggests participants carry at least $50 at all times. That’s the minimum cost to bail yourself out of jail for activist-related civil disobedience in our capital city.

Those who’d prefer not to demonstrate can attend the rally beforehand, or any one of the many events of Power Shift 09, the weekend-long youth climate conference preceding the march. Consider it the most civic-minded midterm-week study break you’ll ever see.