(I can’t make this (prior commitment) but it’s a good cause. Thanks for posting! – promoted by JulieWaters)
Vermont Climate Action Day is Thursday, February 3, and we’ve got a bus for the ride to the Statehouse in Montpelier!
Our community bus will leave:
Brattleboro at 7.50 am (from the Elliot Street Cafe, which will open at 7.30 on Feb 3)
Putney at 8.10 am (from the Putney Food Co-op).
We should get to Montpelier in time for the rally at the Statehouse at 10 am, with music and speakers. We’ll meet up with friends and neighbors from around the state.
The bus will leave Montpelier by 4 pm, and we should be back in Putney and Brattleboro before or around 6 pm.
Email Paulina at celebrate350@gmail.com to reserve seats or if you have any questions. Suggested donation is $10-20/person (we’ve got some of the cost covered already, and any surplus will go toward a Transition Putney bus stop community art project).
Vermont has an incredible opportunity to help create a future built on what we care about (justice, equality, community, health, respect, hard work, open minds), not just tweaks to the status quo. Let’s keep demonstrating the civic engagement we need to make the whole so much more than the sum of its parts! If you’re interested, bring excitement (and food, if you want!) to share and…Get On The Bus! Let’s fill the bus and lift every voice!
Click here for the full schedule: http://on.fb.me/VermontClimate… (schedule copied below, in case the link doesn’t work).
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Full schedule for Vermont Climate Action Day in Montpelier
Join Vermont’s Climate Champions as we build a powerful statewide movement for Climate Action. Our coalition – from grassroots activists to grasstops leaders – believes regaining and preserving a stable climate is the most important thing we can do to preserve healthy life on this planet, today and for all future generations. Vermont can be an important national climate leader, and 2011 is the year Vermont’s Climate Action movement gathers to support a powerful mandate for bold local solutions to our increasing climate-related challenges.
Vermont Climate Action Day, Thursday, February 3 Vermont Statehouse Room 11, 109 State St, Montpelier
8:30am – Registration opens
9:30am – Rep. Jason Lorber runs a mini-workshop on how to meet with our legislators.
10am – Rally with music, speakers, art, and a press conference.
Noon – Take your Representatives to lunch in the Statehouse Cafeteria.
1:30pm – Climate Community Schmooze and Strategy Session. Folks from all over the state get a chance to meet each other, share stories of their work, and strategize about how we create a diverse, effective, and unified movement.
Potential discussion topics include:
Statewide climate and peak oil response plan which matches the scale of the challenge
Vermont joining the United Nations Climate Neutral Network
Solutions that are equitable, universal, accountable, transparent and participative
Forming a climate change cabinet or agency to implement state plans
Environmental costs of fossil fuel use reflected in our economy
Stronger focus on developing funding sources for clean energy solutions
Higher priority to green jobs in state economic development programs
Bring your self, your art (Really! Bring your art to decorate the Statehouse!), your vision, your innovative ideas, your passion, and help make Vermont a shining beacon of hope and possibility.
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Vermont Climate Action Day Press Release
Vermonters set to pack the Statehouse for Climate Action Day
on Thurs, Feb 3, 2011. Vermont Statehouse, Room 11 9:30am-3:30pm
10 am rally with speakers, music and art calling for bold Climate Action solutions.
Numerous Legislative Representatives and Governor Shumlin are expected to
express support for strong state climate change solutions at this public forum.
A coalition of grassroots groups, nonprofits, and impassioned citizens will gather at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Thursday, February 3, 2011 in a collective call for bold and comprehensive statewide action on climate change.
Conscious that Governor Shumlin intends to take on climate change as part of his legislative agenda, and wanting to ensure that the scale of the state’s response reflects the magnitude of the risks posed by escalating climatic instability, this event will serve as the first step in building a powerful statewide movement calling for immediate and sweeping state climate action.
Registration begins at 8:30am, and at 9:30, Representative Jason Lorber will lead a brief training on How To Meet With Your Legislator. From 10-11, there will be a rally with speakers, music, and a surprise gift for Governor 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, the group reconvenes for an open strategy session around collectively building a long-term statewide climate action campaign.
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.”
Blume adds, “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.