The Lively family joined the People’s Climate March in New York City in 2014 — a trip that helped birth the Michigan Climate Action network.
Michiganders will march on the nation’s capital and rally in Traverse City and other cities around the state on Saturday, April 29, to call on elected leaders to take bold action now to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
Here in Traverse City, the People’s Climate March will meet at noon at the Open Space on West Grand Traverse Bay and last until 3 p.m. The event is organized by the Michigan Climate Action Network, TC 350, Citizens’ Climate Lobby, the League of Women Voters Leelanau County, the Michigan League of Conservation Voters and FLOW for Water. Speakers will include Traverse City Mayor Jim Carruthers, Percy Bird of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Glen Lake High School student Annie Lively and Lisa Wozniak of the Michigan League of Conservation Voters. Musicians will include Blake Elliott, Brotha James, Chris Winkleman and Interlochen Center for the Arts students Claudia Mintz and Lizzy Marella. For more information, visit the Facebook page of the Traverse City People’s Climate March.
Don’t miss the official afterparty and ensuing celebration at the Oryana Food Coop’s first ever Community Block Party and Grand Re-opening from 1-6 p.m. Admission to the Block Party is free; food samples will be plentiful, and the music will be rockin’. More information is available on Oryana’s Facebook page.
National Climate March
Buses will carry activists to the People’s Climate March in Washington, D.C., from Ann Arbor, Detroit, Flint and Traverse City. Those traveling from Traverse City include Groundwork program director Jim Lively and his family. Sister marches are also slated for Bay City, Detroit, Ferndale, Holland, Kalamazoo, Marquette and Newaygo.
“At a time when we need serious action on climate change, the Trump administration is rolling back climate protections and slowing down our transition to clean, renewable energy,” said Kate Madigan, director of the Michigan Climate Action Network and climate and energy specialist for the Michigan Environmental Council. “Scientists and the rest of the world’s leaders tell us that we need to be rapidly moving off fossil fuels right now to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, and doing so will reduce pollution, save lives, create jobs, and bring many other benefits. We cannot allow the Trump administration—with its deep ties to the fossil fuel industry—to delay our progress toward a cleaner, safer future.”
Groundwork partners with the Michigan Climate Action Network on the effort to push the State of Michigan to decommission the Line 5 oil pipelines under the Straits of Mackinac and on the Green Team working with the Traverse City Commission to achieve its goal of using 100% renewable energy by 2020.
The Michigan Climate Action Network (MICAN) was formed by activists — including the Lively family — who took buses to the People’s Climate March in New York in 2014. Since then the group has worked to build and mobilize a strong climate movement in Michigan, and has been working to grow the list of Michigan communities committed to 100 percent renewable energy, among other priorities. MICAN helped spread the word about the marches, and provided travel stipends for Michigan buses to the Washington march.
Michigan is already feeling the impacts of climate change, including reduced Great Lakes ice cover, more frequent and dangerous heat waves, increases in tick-borne disease and flooding caused by more extreme rain events. The groups point to scientific consensus that these impacts will get much worse unless there is a rapid shift off fossil fuels.
In Detroit, climate justice activists, organizers and families will gather at noon at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History for a march to the trash incinerator.
“The incinerator is a source of pollution and illness in our community, and it dumps greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that threatens human life,” said Tawana Petty with Detroit People’s Climate March.
