Hundreds of Local Climate Activists Brave Icy Water to Take 'Polar Bear Plunge,'...

Hundreds of Local Climate Activists Brave Icy Water to Take 'Polar Bear
Plunge,' Largest Climate Change Event in Maryland History

Md. Event Part of Nationwide Action, Over 40 Plunges from Alaska to Virginia
to Massachusetts

ANNAPOLIS, Md., Dec. 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Alarmed and spurred on by
rapidly accumulating evidence of global warming, nearly 300 climate activists
from Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. are participating in the
Chesapeake Climate Action Network's Third Annual Polar Bear Plunge this
Saturday, December 8th, with the message: "Keep Winter Cold! Fight Global
Warming NOW!"

With extreme weather across the country this year, including massive wildfires
in California and the west, record flooding in the Midwest, and record heat
waves and droughts in the Southeast, approximately 300 climate activists will
be taking the Plunge into the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis to call attention
to this extraordinary crisis, with smaller "satellite" Plunges in Richmond and
Leesburg, Virginia, and across the U.S. The activists will be joined by Will
Baker, President of the prestigious Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and three
members of the Maryland General Assembly.

The Annapolis Plunge will be the largest of more than 40 Plunges happening
across the country on December 8, in conjunction with the International Day of
Climate Action and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change taking place
in Bali, Indonesia, from Dec. 3-14. The plunge comes at the same time that
Congress is considering two pieces of legislation that have the potential to
greatly enhance America's response to global warming -- the federal energy
bill and the bipartisan "America's Climate Security Act of 2007," introduced
by Senators Lieberman (I-CT) and Warner (R-VA).

Learn more at www.keepwintercold.org

WHO: Chesapeake Climate Action Network

WHAT: Third Annual Polar Bear Plunge

WHEN:December 8, 2007, 11 am

WHERE: Chesapeake Bay Foundation Merrill Center, 6 Herndon Rd., Annapolis, MD

LEARN MORE: www.keepwintercold.org

SPEAKERS:

Will Baker - President, Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Delegate Bill Bronrott - House of Delegates, Montgomery County

Mike Tidwell- Director, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and more

**PHOTO OPPORTUNITY**

SOURCE Chesapeake Climate Action Network

Mike Tidwell, +1-240-460-5838, or Anne Havemann, +1-240-396-2022,
anne@chesapeakeclimate.org, both of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network