Chippewa Valley residents will have an opportunity on Saturday – Earth Day – to show their support for science and for action to slow down climate change.
March for Science and Climate-Eau Claire will sponsor a march starting at 10 a.m. on the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire campus. It has been planned to show solidarity with the People’s Climate Movement, whose members will demonstrate on April 29 in Washington, DC and around the world as advocates for the planet and its residents. A number of other local organizations are co-sponsoring Saturday’s local march.
A similar march is planned for 11 a.m. Saturday in Menomonie, starting at the University of Wisconsin-Stout Clock Tower Plaza, 712 S. Broadway St. This march was organized by UW-Stout students, with support from Sustainable Dunn.
Earth Day began in Wisconsin in 1970, under the leadership of former governor and then-Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-Wisconsin), and has become an international movement. Some 20 million people participated on the first Earth Day in activities that included cleaning creeks, recycling cans, learning about ecology and demonstrating in support of a sustainable environment, according to a story in The New York Times.
Earth Day and Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, Silent Spring, are often cited as major forces in sparking the development of the modern environmental movement.
The Eau Claire march on Saturday will start on the UW-EC campus mall, adjacent to Phillips Science Hall. It will cross the Chippewa River and proceed to the Planet Walk on the lawn just east of the Haas Fine Arts Center.
It will cross Water Street and continue through Owen Park along the Planet Walk to the Phoenix Park location of the inner planets, before concluding at the labyrinth amphitheater. Along the way, the marchers will pause at each planet location to hear from scientists, science supporters and climate activists.
March for Science and Climate-Eau Claire is a locally organized companion march of the People’s Climate Movement and March For Science. Those organizations are broad national coalitions of scientific, faith-based, labor, indigenous, civil rights, social justice, and environmental groups that work together to build solutions to climate change and to support science.