SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) – It’s a movement that has often pitted scientists and environmental groups against some politicians. But members of the Climate Reality Project of Georgia say make no mistake, the earth is warming and they believe more people are now “warming” to their ideas that the climate crisis is real.

“We’ve got 10 years left to really make meaningful changes,” says Kevin Ionno a member of the Climate Reality Project of Georiga. Ionno and three other members of the group met me at Forsyth Park where a rally is planned on Saturday.

“For those people who are on the fence or don’t really know about climate change yet we just hope to spur them into learning more, give them information, educate them so they can understand the seriousness of the climate crisis,” says Ionno.

Longtime environmental activist Steve Willis tells me he thinks the tide is changing in terms of people believing they are being affected by climate change. He says he had been close to losing hope. “But in the last year partly because of the hurricanes and the fires and everything else it’s really changed,” said Willis. “But they’ve got to get started. Every day that we waste doing nothing or even going backward – doing counterproductive things is just going to make our work harder and harder.”

James Masino, one of the younger members of the group says the crisis has gone beyond individuals just changing their habits “It’s definitely not just going to be recycling and that’s the issue that gets it solved – that’s impossible, it’s going to take government action,” he told me.

Masino says the message to politicians is “believe the science.”

Maddie Foster, who’s also a group member is still in college and says “This is kind of like Saturday is my way to kind of spark the truth in the youth here and I feel like this is kind of an opportunity for people to get out and learn and become active.”

Despite the obstacles, i.e. that the latest word is that carbon emissions need to be cut by half by 2030, Ionno says he is motivated to keep trying to find solutions.

“I’m motivated because more and more people are now waking up to this and I’m really motivated by the young people in the world because they’re the ones who’ve inherited this mess that we’ve left them,” said Ionno.

The rally begins at 11 a.m. at Forsyth Park in Savannah.