Yet they all braved the chilly weather Saturday for the Rally for a Better Planet held on the City-County Building grounds in Salt Lake City - a three-pronged protest with the ultimate goal of social justice, organizers said.

"Today, the labor representative shakes hands with the feminist, the gay activist stands with the environmentalist and the Muslim makes friends with the Mormon," said Troy Williams, KRCL radio host and one of two emcees for the event.

Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson also spoke to the crowd. He railed against the war in Iraq, national and Utah news media that he said was complicit in covering up the Bush administration's wrongdoing and apathetic voters who foster what he sees as a defective political system.

"We cannot have change if we continue to elect different people from the same two political parties," said Anderson, who served two terms as a Democrat. And, he said, the only way to achieve change is to stop blaming others and act for change.

One symbolic act for change was the presence of 350 bike riders, led by an electric car, riding from Pioneer Square to 400 East and back several times.

It highlighted the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The number of riders represented the level of carbon dioxide that is considered sustainable in today's industrial world: 350 parts per million.

The current national average, event organizers say, is 382 ppm.

One of the riders, Kristina Heintz, said global warming and need to encourage renewable energy were serious enough concerns for her to mount up and ride.

Brian Moench of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, who spoke at the rally, said part of the opposition to global-warming reduction is a disdain for scientific knowledge by those in government and industry.

He said even though there is significant evidence that air pollution and global warming are threats to the environment, there are people who say no action is necessary because there isn't 100 percent scientific certainty on the issue.

"Our economy may be threatened by the subprime-mortgage crisis, but our environment is threatened by a sub-primate intelligence crisis," Moench said.

John Fleming, a Park City resident, was on hand to protest the war in Iraq, but he said the war and environmental issues are related.

U.S. dependence on oil rather than renewable bio-fuels is a factor in the Iraq War, he said, and the money being spent on the war could be used to clean up the environment and make universal health care possible.

dmeyers@sltrib.com