PUTNEY — Area residents will join a coalition of grassroots groups and nonprofits from around Vermont to gather at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Thursday, Feb. 3, in a collective call for bold and comprehensive statewide action on climate change.
A community bus will leave Brattleboro at 7.50 a.m. (from the Elliot Street Café, which will open at 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 3) and Putney at 8:10 a.m. (from the Putney Food Co-op) to take community members to Montpelier in time for the Vermont Climate Action Day rally at the Statehouse at 10 a.m. The bus will will leave Montpelier by 4 p.m., and be back in Putney and Brattleboro by 6 p.m.
Contact Paulina Essunger at 802-310-8473 or celebrate350@gmail.com to reserve seats. Generous community members have already covered some of the cost of the bus, so the suggested donation is $10-20 per person, with any surplus to go toward a Transition Putney bus stop community art project.
Gov. Peter Shumlin has said he intends to take on climate change as part of his legislative agenda. Organizers says the Feb. 3 event will serve as the first step in building a powerful statewide movement calling for immediate and sweeping state climate action.
From 10-11 a.m., there will be a rally with speakers, music, and a surprise gift for Shumlin, followed by a press conference.
At noon, participants are encouraged to take their legislators to lunch and share the climate-related work they've been doing in their communities.
At 1:30 p.m., the group reconvenes for an open strategy session around collectively building a long-term statewide climate action campaign. Topics for discussion include developing a statewide climate and peak oil response plan; forming a climate change cabinet or agency to implement state plans; putting a stronger focus on developing funding sources for clean energy solutions; and placing a higher priority to green jobs in state economic development programs.
Organizing supporter David Stember, a volunteer with 350.org, notes that “this coalition is uniting around a shared belief that regaining and preserving a naturally stable climate is the most important step we can take to sustain healthy life on this planet. And,” Stember adds, “the time is now to build up the effort to match the scale of the challenges and risks we face.”
Actor and Transition Town Charlotte member Kathryn Blume is also one of the event's organizers, and will be serving as MC for the rally.
“Vermont can be an important national model for visionary, effective climate action,” says Blume, “and a wide range of people recognize that fact. Which is why we're so fortunate to have such a diverse cross section of leaders speaking at the rally. When you've got everyone from business leaders to health care professionals to musicians to high school students to organic farmers to state legislators to town planners - all throwing their passion and commitment behind helping to make Vermont cleaner, greener, and more resilient, then you know you've got a bold and rising social movement on your hands.”
For more information on Vermont Climate Action Day, please visit www.vtclimateday.org.