For over two decades, Steve Bacher, environmental activist, has devoted his time to bringing attention to the adverse effects of climate change on our environment and the need for government action to bring about a lasting change.

Bacher, who is part of Bucks’ Sustainability Team and Wesleyan University alumni, is an active member in attracting awareness to the damages caused by climate change.

Bacher traces his roots of environmental safety back to 1992.
“I stumbled on Al Gore on C-SPAN on a show called Book Notes talking about this book he had just published called “Earth in the Balance,”” Bacher said. “And I thought what he was saying seemed to make sense.”

After reading the book, Bacher volunteered for the Clinton-Gore campaign in Austin, Texas and eventually became assistant to the state campaign manager.

Bacher is on the steering committee of the Bucks County chapter of the global network group 350.org, a non-profit organization that coordinates mass public actions in over 188 countries to hold world leaders accountable for climate safety.

“We meet once a month at Newtown Friends Meeting, usually the second Saturday of the month.”

The night generally includes a potluck dinner, guest speakers, movie showings and discussions on the matter.

“Sometimes new people come and it helps raise awareness of various aspects of the problems and spread the word.”

“97% of climate scientists around the world agree that climate change is happening and it’s affected by human activities.”
Bacher continued, explaining the heating of the planet makes storms like Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy more likely.
“What we stand to lose as a planet is our modern way of life. Climate change means more frequent big storms.”

Bacher frequently cited the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was established by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization in 1988.

The IPCC’s mission is to objectively assess the most up-to-date information on climate change, submitted voluntarily by scientists around the world. And then present their findings to the world. Currently 195 countries participate in the IPCC.

According to Bacher, global warming is causing more extremes in the Earth’s weather patterns.

“When there’s a drought, the drought is worse. When there’s a downpour, the floods are worse.”

Elaborating on the world-wide worsening of storms and natural disasters Bacher explained, “It’s happening in Europe, it’s happening in Asia, it’s happening in Australia. It’s happening all around the world and the people who are paying attention are climate scientists.”

“We’re very rapidly approaching a tipping point that will be a point of no return in terms of the planet being a friendly place for humans to live,” Bacher said.

When asked what he sees for the future in regards to the movement against climate change, “It’s going to take people in the streets demanding change,” said Bacher.