Students Step It Up for Global Warming
Changing light bulbs just isn't enough.
That's what students from a number of area schools will be saying through their multi-event, global warming festival in Brattleboro, Saturday, April 14, that will feature music by Dan, Megan, and Gary MacArthur, talks by State Senator Jeanette White and State Representative Daryl Pillsbury, a display of two electric vehicles, a large group picture, and a screening of the film, The Great Warming.
Led by the BUHS group, Preserve Our Planet (POP), students from Marlboro Elementary, School for International Training, and Compass have heeded the call of environmentalist Bill McKibben "to help start a movement--to take one spring day and use it to reshape the future" (www.stepitup07.org/). Along with groups on the levees in New Orleans, the melting glaciers on Mt. Rainier, and under the water at the endangered coral reefs off Key West, they will be part of more than 1000 rallies throughout the nation on April 14 in an effort to create "something that looks like the civil rights movement."
Their message is quite simple and to the point: Step it up, Congress! Enact immediate cuts in carbon emissions, and pledge an 80% reduction by 2050. No half measures, no easy compromises--the time has come to take the real actions that can stabilize our climate.
Assisted by Marlboro resident, Jason MacArthur, and Post Oil Solutions community organizer, Tim Stevenson, the student global warming festival has been organized to be held at three venues.
Starting at 11:00, at Pliney Park (corner of Main and High), there will be music, speeches, and a mini farmers' market showcasing area farms that have CSAs: Abenaki (Walpole, NH), Akaogi (Putney), Fertile Fields (Westmoreland, NH), New Leaf (Brattleboro), and Picadilly (Winchester, NH). With BUHS students, Fran Wilson and Chelsy Pillsbury, serving as mistresses of ceremony, the following is the schedule for music and speeches at Pliney Park:
11:00, music by Breeze Ver Dant
11:30, speech by State Senator, Jeanette White
11:45, speech by State Representative, Daryl Pillsbury
Noon, a large, group picture (EVERYONE WELCOME!) to be taken and put on the Stepitup website as part of our message to Congress
12:20, music by Dan, Megan, and Gary MacArthur
1:00, speech by Hampshire College student Katelin Wilton
1:15, speech by SIT student, Anom Wirnata, from Indonesia
1:30, music by Compass students Zach Bickford and Jacob Bradford
Running concurrently with the Pliney Park schedule will be a full slate of events down the street at the Church (corner of Main and Grove). These will include a solar panel exhibit, a CFL bulb display, exhibits by a number of area green businesses and organization, student displays on the effects of global warming, face painting, T-shirt making with the Step It Up logo (bring your own shirt), and a children's mural paint project.
As a special feature, there will be two electric vehicles parked in front of the Church. One is a privately owned plug-n electric truck, the other a new hybrid which is being brought by Lia Toyota of North Hampton, MA.
(NOTE: in the event of nasty weather, all the above events will be held at the Church).
The day will conclude with a 3:30 screening of The Great Warming at the Hooker-Dunham Theatre on Main Street. There will be no charge for this film, but donations will be sought, and refreshments sold, to raise money for local renewable energy projects.
Just as other generations spoke of a Great Plague and a Great Depression, the younger generation of today will be compelled to endure The Great Warming - and find a way to conquer its consequences. Narrated by Alanis Morisette and Keanu Reeves, filmed in eight countries on four continents, endorsed by dozens of the world's leading scientists, The Great Warming is the most factually accurate, visually stunning and wide-ranging production ever mounted about this complex, fascinating subject.
For the complete schedule and further updating of the student Step It Up global warming festival, go to www.postoilsolutions