Pete Buttigieg is ranked first in recent Iowa polling so he is being targeted by groups promoting specific agendas. Friday some members of Sunrise South Bend – a part of the Sunrise Movement network – protested with a sit-in in Mayor Pete’s office in South Bend, Indiana.

The Sunrise Movement is powered by school children and college students who have fallen under the spell of climate change alarmism. They hold sit-ins in the offices of lawmakers on Capitol Hill and hold public protests around the country. This year the group has even protested a DNC meeting, at which the DNC refused to cave to their demands. Many of the 2020 Democrats running for the party’s presidential nomination have signed a No Fossil Fuels Money Pledge demanded by the organization.

Sunrise South Bend members, who looked to be college-age young people, entered Mayor Pete’s downtown office and placed letters on the front desk. They asked that Buttigieg improve his plan for climate action. You won’t be surprised to know that they demand the Green New Deal and they demand it now. The young socialists are consistent if nothing else. The protesters would like to help Mayor Pete implement their demands immediately because we are in an emergency, you see. Mostly they are asking for accountability for pollution. I’m not exactly sure what “accountability for pollution” means but the young people persist.

“We have a national platform that’s not available to everyone around the world,” said one protestor. “So I’m here today to take a stand to pressure to Pete, to pressure our common council to pass a more aggressive, a more ambitious common council plan.”

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Mayor Pete’s office pushed back, declaring that Buttigieg is one of them – he’s putting environmental activism into public policy in South Bend. Conveniently, the Common Council has a vote scheduled for Monday on a climate action plan put forth by the mayor.

“Under Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s leadership, the City of South Bend has prioritized sustainability and action to address the climate change crisis. From constructing the first LEED-certified South Bend city government buildings, to implementing green infrastructure in neighborhoods throughout the area, to responding to historic flooding caused by climate change, the Mayor has led from the front on climate. On Monday, the Common Council will vote on a climate action plan that sets aggressive goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in South Bend. The plan will be a living document responsive to changing circumstances, but includes near-term benchmarks to drive early action by local stakeholders.”

The protesters are not patient people and call his current climate action plan “lousy”.

We’re 4 hours into our sit-in at Mayor Pete’s office here in South Bend. As a candidate, Pete has said we need aggressive action to stop climate change. We agreed. Now when he can actually implement changes as mayor, he proposes a lousy plan to be carbon neutral in 30 years. pic.twitter.com/araO79AAka — Sunrise South Bend (@SunriseSouthB) November 22, 2019

I feel for the staff who had to put up with the protesters.

South Bend’s plan to be free of carbon emissions by 2050 isn’t aggressive enough for the Sunrise Movement members. Protesters also did their thing at the base of the County City building on Monday night. They, too, demanded Mayor Pete move forward with a South Bend version of the Green New Deal. Some protesters were the same people protesting Friday in the mayor’s office.

“I’m scared about what the climate crisis would meet for my family,” Garrett Blad, a local climate activist said. Just four floors above them, the council’s health and public safety meeting was discussing South Bend’s Climate Action Plan. “We are in a climate crisis and we need to act now,” Therese Dorau, South Bend’s Director of Sustainability, said. South Bend’s plan would have the entire city emitting zero carbon, by the year 2050. They plan to do it by developing mass transit and getting people to use their cars less and their feet more. “We need the business community we need residence we need everybody to chip in if we’re really going to make a dent in reducing emissions” based loosely on the landmark Paris Climate Accords that the US entered during the Obama administration,” Dorau said.

Mass transit if fine but it isn’t a practical solution in many places. In my own city – the nation’s fourth largest – there is a bus system and a limited rail system but little to ease auto emissions of those commuting into the city from the suburbs and outlying areas. Carpool lanes on the city’s expressways and highways only service those who are willing to pay for it. Texans aren’t giving up the freedom that automobile ownership offers any time soon. Walking and riding a bicycle also aren’t practical unless a person lives and works in the same immediate area.

Even AOC has had to admit that her Green New Deal is aspirational, not a blueprint for carbon emission elimination. It’s easy for the climate alarmists to lecture about the subject but much more difficult to actually come up with practical solutions.