Speak-out for Earth & Environment

NEWS RELEASE 10 APRIL 2007
FOR MORE INFO, CONTACT CRYSTAL OSMAN 715-497-2090 or PAUL WOZNIAK 920-265-2623 [ riverhistory@yahoo.com ]
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GREEN BAY TO HEAR WITNESSES ON GLOBAL WARMING, SATURDAY APRIL 14
Green Bay, WI
Citizens of several nations will speak to Green Bay area residents this Saturday about damage in their homelands due to global climate change. They will be joined by local activists promoting changes in the way Wisconsinites use fossil fuel energy.
The noon gathering is scheduled for the south patio of the Brown County Courthouse in Green Bay . The 30-minute event will be one of 1,200 nationwide to educate on the need for changes in our individual and collective behavior.
The naming of April 14 as a day of action was originated with author Bill McKibben. Details can be found at www.stepitup2007.org.
Speakers from several continents will report on the human and economic damage happening in their homelands. Their statements will give a human face to a report released last week by the world’s largest body of climate scientists.
“The lifestyles and technologies used by Wisconsin businesses and households are damaging families and communities around the planet,” according to UW-Green Bay student Crystal Osman, age 22. “That’s what I saw in Costa Rica during my first travel outside the United States . The changing climate is harming poor families who have no alternatives. We are not saying Wisconsin deliberately wants to do harm, but as adults, we have to face the music about the consequences of our energy choices. The courthouse is the right place to meet, if only because it creates a serious, solemn mood.”
“We were warned on the first Earth Day in Green Bay was 1970,” said Paul Wozniak, one of the rally’s sponsors and a local historian. “Local television carried many hours of warnings by experts about the need for less-polluting transportation and the need for new energy sources. We can’t go back and change history, but we can learn from it. This means avoiding climate-harming changes---like a switch to oil shale or expansion of fossil fuel use without carbon controls. We in Wisconsin can help slow global climate change, or we can speed climate change up, making life everywhere more unpredictable. It’s a choice we are making, consciously or unconsciously.”
Starting at noon, brief comments and performances will be delivered by a series of speakers, poets and musicians. The program is expected to last 30 minutes, so interested members of the public are encouraged to plan for an early arrival. Expected to speak are visitors from Nepal , Vietnam , Nigeria , Kenya , Ecuador and India .
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PAUL WOZNIAK