Los Altos’ Latest Moves to Stop Climate Change: Global Day of Action Slated for Sept. 24
10 Sep 2011 |
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By Peg Champion, GreenTown Los Altos Correspondent
They’ll be rallying in Annapolis, Md., to support offshore wind power. They’ll be flying message kites on Bondi Beach, Australia, to stop pollution. They’ll be reading poetry in Vancouver, BC, to resist the construction of an oil pipeline.
Los Altos joins this global effort of more than 1,000 events around the world on Saturday, Sept. 24, when GreenTown Los Altos hosts the Moving Planet Sustainability Tour.
“Our Moving Planet event will showcase four outstanding projects located right here in our town,” says GreenTown event organizer Gary Hedden. “We’ve set it up so you can either bike or walk to each stop where you’ll hear a short presentation.” View the tentative schedule.
The Almond School Native Garden, part of the Living Classroom Program, is one of four stops on the Sept. 24 GreenTown Los Altos Sustainability Tour.
Organized by GreenTown Los Altos with help from the Living Classroom Program, Bicycle Outfitter, and Chain Reaction Bicycles, the tour begins at 1 p.m. at Hillview Community Center and will last about two hours. The route includes stops at a Net Zero Energy building, an educational garden project, a solar energy system and the Los Altos History Museum for a discussion of the impact of climate change on future water supplies.
Moving Planet is a day of action developed by 350.org as part of its international campaign to slow the rate of global warming. The organization takes its name from data that suggests that, to avoid a climate “tipping point,” the upper safety limit of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is 350 parts-per-million (ppm). Today’s CO2 concentration, reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, stands at 392 ppm.
In 2008, Los Altos signed the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement that encourages local policies and actions to reduce global-warming pollution. The city has already inventoried municipal and community greenhouse gas emissions and is in the process of developing a sustainability element for its general plan. Mayor Ron Packard, who will speak at the event kickoff, says, “We appreciate GreenTown’s leadership in providing environmental education to our community at events like the Sustainability Tour.”
GreenTown Chair Margie Suozzo, says that when the community non-profit began in 2007 under the name Cool Los Altos, its primary focus was climate-change mitigation. “In the past few years, GreenTown has broadened its scope to include waste reduction, water stewardship, sustainable transportation and energy conservation. We want to make our community more environmentally healthy today and for future generations.”
To sign up for the GreenTown Los Altos Sustainability Tour visit http://www.moving-planet.org/events/us/los-altos/1153. For more information on the Moving Planet day of action, visit http://www.moving-planet.org/.
Peg Champion is a member of GreenTown Los Altos and the principal of Champion Organic Communications. Her work focuses on communication and education strategies to encourage sustainable behavior. For more information visit www.ChampionOrganic.com
