You’ve heard of everyone in a community reading the same book at the same time. How about many communities discussing the same issue on the same day?
A “national conversation” on the matter of global warming and climate change is set for Thursday, Oct. 4. Among the local communities directly participating are Atherton and Portola Valley, according to the Web site www.climateconversation.org.
Menlo Park and Woodside will not be left out, however, said Atherton Councilman Charles Marsala. Delegations from these towns are expected to convene with Atherton at a public meeting at the pavilion in Holbrook-Palmer Park between 7 and 9 p.m., Mr. Marsala said.
Meanwhile in Portola Valley, the Town Council is planning a special 8 p.m. public meeting at the Historic Schoolhouse at 765 Portola Road that will include members of the town’s environmental task force.
The meetings are intended to raise public awareness of global warming’s causes and impacts, and provide options for individuals and groups to mitigate climate change locally.
A show-and-tell element of the Atherton, Menlo Park and Woodside meeting will include a garbage truck that runs on bio-diesel — fuel derived from vegetable oil — a hybrid electric vehicle from Pacific Gas & Electric Corp., and a 20-minute presentation from a venture capitalist who specializes in “clean” technology, Mr. Marsala said.
The venture capitalists who provided funding for the Tesla all-electric sports car may also be on hand, Mr. Marsala said. The socializing after the presentations might also be a chance for community residents to exchange best practices, he added.
“We want to maintain the enthusiasm in the community toward continuing progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Mr. Marsala said, adding that he hopes to attract “200 to 250 people” to the event.
In an e-mail message, Portola Valley Councilman Steve Toben asked members of the town’s climate protection task force to “bring all friends of a cool planet” to the Thursday meeting. “My hope is that we can accelerate the normal pace” of climate change mitigation, he said.
To that end, he said some fundamental questions may come up at the meeting, including whether this issue is meaningful to the community at large.
“What we need to do now is find the right levers to pull,” he added.
How national a conversation?
The www.climateconversation.org Web site listed, as of Sept. 26, some 58 communities planning to participate in this conversation, including six in California.
Connecticut trounces California with 15 participating towns, perhaps a consequence of one of the event’s three sponsors being in New Haven: Yale University’s School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
The other two sponsors are the Toronto-based Local Governments for Sustainability U.S.A. Inc., also known as ICLEI, and the Association of Science-Technology Centers, based in Washington, D.C.
