A crowd of over 250 showed up for the first Corvallis Climate Summit last Sunday, taking the opportunity to network with other local groups in a collaborative effort to show Corvallis can be a national innovator in slowing climate change. The free event, which was led by 350Corvallis.org founder Kris Paul, featured well-known Oregon State University philosophy professor and author Kathleen Dean Moore as its keynote speaker. She said Corvallis is in perfect position to be a national leader, and its residents should feel a moral obligation to protect the planet.
Guests broke up into small groups to discuss “boundary-pushing, game-changing” ideas for the city to consider. Some of the noteworthy ideas included Black Out Neighborhood Nights, where neighborhoods would voluntarily turn off non-essential lights to save energy and choose one day per week where residents would be encouraged and rewarded for using alternative forms of transit.
Also discussed was how Corvallis can compete against communities across the country to win a $5 million prize from Georgetown University for creating innovative ways to save energy that can be replicated by others worldwide.
A planning meeting for the project will be held at the Avery House Nature Center (1200 SW Avery Park Drive) Wednesday, Feb. 19 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Two other follow-up events have been planned, starting with Working Together for Climate Action which will accompany the Transformation without Apocalypse symposium at OSU’s LaSells Stewart Center on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 6:45 p.m. All guests are encouraged to wear white clothing as a sign of solidarity between groups for climate action.
A Call to Action Network planning meeting, where local groups can collaborate on future projects, is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 27 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at Westminster House (101 NW 23rd Street).
For more information, visit 350corvallis.org.
by Patrick Fancher
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