The March to ReEnergize Iowa is under way and making quite a splash. Yesterday we had 50 people in Ames for our event kickoff to start the March. You may have seen us yesterday in the Des Moines Register, on the front pages of the Ames Tribune and Cityview or as the lead feature on Fox news at 9 PM.

The people marching with us are truly amazing. Yesterday we walked with Ben, an exchange student from China who marched all day yesterday despite the final exam he has today and will be back out tomorrow, with Randy, who runs a campus minstry at ISU that has been working to promote sustainability, and with scores of others. From pre-school through retirement our marchers come from a diverse background and the more the merrier!

Our lunch stop yesterday was touching. Black's Heritage Farm is several generations deep in family agriculture. Along with the best sweet corn I have ever had, the Blacks grow ahost of unconventional crops and are dedicated to sustainable farming and to stoping global warming. Over our meal, their pastor lead us in thoughts about how we can steward the earth.

With today's energy efficiency project in Alleman, coverage is expected to stay steady through the final Rally on Sunday. And this is all happening on weekdays. We expect tomorrow to be our biggest day yet.

Things are gearing up here in Iowa for the last few days before the March begins on Thursday. Today we saw our op-ed published in the Des Moines Register and had a half-hour spot on Iowa Public Radio.

Last weekend we were all systems go. On Saturday we hit our favoite farmers market in downtown Des Moines and walked away with tons of food donations from family farms looking to help out a good cause. It's not often that I have had a trunk full of free sweet corn!

We spent yesterday afternoon on the phones, calling Sierra Club members and other folks with whom we have spoken over the summer to make sure they plan to join us this week. We were joined by a host of great volunteers, like Scott, pictured here with me. Scott has been blazing through phone sheets with us and even adding his friends and family to our lists. Now that it is officially crunch time we are right where we need to be to make this week a huge success!

We have an exciting update!

Dr. James Hansen, one of the world's preeminent scientific voices calling for immediate action to fight climate change, will join us for the March to ReEnergize Iowa and deliver the keynote speech at the final rally. For those of you who are familiar with Dr. Hansen's work, his name says it all. Those of you who have never heard of Dr. Hansen need not go far on Google to see just why we are all so excited to have him join us.

Dr. Hansen was an advocate for stabilizing the climate in the first Congressional hearings on the issue. He has continued to be on the forefront of the scientific community in publicizing the reality of climate change and has been pointedly vocal in demanding solutions that meet the scale of the climate crisis. He is featured in An Inconvenient Truth, and if you watched Live Earth, you saw him address the crowd in New York before the Smashing Pumpkins came on. In short, we are being joined by a Climate Rockstar.

So why would such a world-renowned figure be coming to Iowa? For Dr. Hansen, it's a sort of homecoming. Raised in Denison and educated at the University of Iowa, he has deep roots here. Recently, he has also been trumpeting the student climate movement, arguing that halting the construction of all (dirty) coal plants “should be the rallying issue for young people. The future of the planet in their lifetime is at stake.” So a flagship event in Iowa to ratchet up public pressure for action on climate change and organized by students is right up his alley.

Help make Dr. Hansen proud to be back in Iowa. Register for our march, walk with a climate legend, and don't miss his speech at the rally.

The last few days have been a whirwind for me and Janie, Team Des Moines. In addition to going door-to-door we have been compiling and reaching out to the network of progressive organizations in Des Moines, looking for partners for the March to ReEnergizeIA. And what we have found is that other organizations are excited to make the March part of their focus for the summer.