I joined about 60 to 70 other concerned South Bay residents over the weekend in a three-hour "Climate Crisis Public Forum" put on by the Environmental Priorities Network at the Pacific Unitarian Church in Rancho Palos Verdes.

The Saturday event featured representatives of several environmental groups as well as local officials, and was headlined by Climate Reality Project presenter Nick Karno, a Deputy L.A. City Attorney working in the Environmental Justice Unit.

Karno was trained by former Vice President Al Gore to give an updated version of Gore’s famous An Inconvenient Truth slide show and he did so with a friendly, engaging delivery.

The news he delivered on the deterioration of the planet’s climate wasn’t good, and the latest news included the unprecedented extreme weather events of the past few years: extreme pollution events in China and throughout Asia; record floods, drought and fires around the world; the highest temperatures ever recorded in cities across the globe, including July’s records set in all 50 states of the U.S.; and the accelerated melting of the Polar ice caps and glaciers.

Yet, Karno maintained a hopeful outlook. The last portion of his presentation focused on the technology that already exists to combat climate change. 

"All we lack is the political will," to take the necessary action, Karno said. He offered California and its AB 32 Global Warming Solutions Act as the shining example of the response necessary.

Even though I track climate change news and information on a daily basis, I still found Karno’s presentation well worth attending and I learned things I didn’t know. But I was disappointed that the audience included only other members of the green choir, none of whom needed any convincing that climate change is real, man-made and getting worse with each passing year.

Groups at the forum included the South Bay Environmental Services Center, PV Land Conservancy, Friends of Madrona Marsh, South Bay-PV Sierra Club, Transition South Bay LA, and South Bay Parkland Conservancy.

Many local leaders of the environmental movement also on hand included Environmental Priorities Network founder Lillian Light, who hosted the event; Plug-In America’s Dency Nelson and Hermosa Beach School Board member Ray Waters (both drove their electric LEAF cars to the event); Hermosa Beach Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Duclos; Marilyn Lyon of the Environmental Services Center; Bill Arrowsmith of Friends of Madrona Marsh; Al Shadbourne of the Torrance Democratic Club and Environmental Priorities Network (who drove his Chevy Volt); and Redondo Beach’s Jane Affonso, deputy director at Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice—California.

At the forum there were no undecided minds to sway among "the usual suspects," as I like to think of the South Bay's environmental community.

Until we get past the choir members and reach the more general public we’re not going to generate the pressure or political will to do what 97 percent of the earth’s climate scientists say must be done to avoid catastrophic climate impacts. 

It’s not easy to get the general public interested in giving up three hours on a Saturday morning to focus on a crisis that doesn’t rank among the more immediate priorities of paying the bills, getting or doing your job, and taking care of your family, but until we do then it’s going to be business as usual when it comes to burning fossil fuels—and that path puts us all on a road from which there is no return.