By Joan Ward
Special to The PREVIEW
This Saturday, Sept. 8, is the Rise for Climate Walk and Talk at 3 p.m. at the Geothermal Greenhouse Partnership (GGP) Amphitheater by the San Juan River downtown. It will be a walk on the main street, followed by a talk by Kirsten Skeehan, a board member of La Plata Electric Association, about renewable energy.
This is an international event, with more than 632 published actions (there are 400 more draft events in the system and not all events are registered either) in 83 countries listed on the riseforclimate.org website.
The Rise for Climate website notes that in Europe interest is rapidly growing for big rallies in Paris, Copenhagen and Lisbon. There are now 382 Rise for Climate partner organizations across the globe. The aim of the event is to support the change to renewable energy sources.
Following the Sept. 8 events, the Global Climate Action Summit will take place in San Francisco on Sept. 12-14. As the Rise For Climate website says: “Its stated goal is to showcase climate action taking place around the world, and inspire deeper commitments from each other and from national governments. It will be the largest gathering of its kind to take place, and we believe it’s an opportunity to pressure local leaders to step up and do much more to stop the fossil fuel industry and build 100 percent renewable energy for all.”
Our event is sponsored by the GGP, the Southwest Organization for Sustainability, the Pagosa Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, the Archuleta County Democratic Party and the Weminuche Audubon Society.
