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Confronting the Climate Crisis: A Public Forum

Friday, August 5th, 6:30 - 8:30 PM

At the Old Schoolhouse Common, 122 School Street in Marshfield, VT

The unprecedented heatwaves across the US this summer confirm what climate scientists and activists have known for years: that the global climate crisis has arrived and is beginning to affect nearly everyone. We also know that people in less affluent parts of the world have been struggling with increasingly extreme weather for decades. The US has been the single largest source of climate-disrupting pollution, but Congress and the Biden administration have failed to take real action and their job has been further undermined by a Supreme Court decision constraining the EPA’s regulatory role. A panel of experienced activists will help us understand the situation and discuss what we can do about it.

Panelists:

Kali Akuno is the co-founder of Cooperation Jackson (Mississippi) and the Racial and Environmental Justice Coordinator of the Institute for Social Ecology (ISE). He co-edited the book Jackson Rising: the Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, MS and is the author of numerous articles and pamphlets on economic justice and community self-reliance.

Grace Gershuny is a leading elder of the organic food movement, a long-time ISE faculty member and a board member of the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition. She has written widely on organic agriculture and soil science, and is the author of Organic Revolutionary: A Memoir of the Movement for Real Food, Planetary Healing and Human Liberation.

Brian Tokar is a Lecturer in Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont and a long-time faculty and board member of the ISE. He has written and edited seven books on environmental issues and movements, most recently Climate Justice and Community Renewal: Resistance and Grassroots Solutions.

Mollie Wills is the Grassroots Organizing Director at Rural Vermont, a clinical and community herbalist, and part of the Agroecology Team at the Marshfield-based Center for Grassroots Organizing. She has a background in food systems, water quality, and environmental and farm education for youth.