Iowa City Moving Planet Celebration to Take Going Green to Government

Iowa City will join 10 cities across Iowa and hundreds around the world this weekend in a Moving Planet rally, sending a mandate to politicians and business leaders to reduce carbon emissions.

The rally kicks off at the Pentacrest in Iowa City with a bike ride and march Sunday, Sept. 25, at 1:30 p.m., ending at the Riverside Festival Stage in Lower City Park with speakers, musicians and information booths from 2 to 6 p.m.

“We hope to inspire action and a lot of that needs to happen at the policy level,” said Co-Coordinator Ryan Gourley, a member of the Iowa City Climate Advocates. “We can all change our light bulbs but that doesn’t mean a hill of beans if we don’t have any broader action at the government level.”

Specifically, that means asking the Iowa legislature to adopt a stronger state renewable electricity standard and increase the percentage of electricity coming from renewable energy sources in Iowa.

“We produce 20 percent of our electricity in Iowa with wind, but the vast majority of that clean energy is sold out of state to meet those states' Renewable Electricity Standards (RES),” said Mike Carberry, owner of Green State Solutions and another Moving Planet organizer, “If Iowa had a stronger RES, we could keep more of that clean energy in Iowa.”

The Moving Planet committee also wants a state CLEAN (Clean Local Energy Accessible Now) Contract law, in which utilities would “buy back” the electricity replaced with alternative energy sources “so it could go into the grid and power other homes and businesses,” Gourley said.

The 3.5-mile rally bike ride will travel past some of these alternative energy sites, like the wind turbine and solar panel recharging station at University Services Building.

Besides speakers, music from local bands and a children’s art and essay contest, booths from local organizations will offer up information like how to reduce carbon emissions and how they are contributing to climate change.

“A lot of people say that climate change is already beginning to happen and we can already see some of the extreme effects like flooding and the melting in the arctic, “ said Co-Coordinator Giselle Bruskewitz, the co-president of the University of Iowa Environmental Coalition. “In Iowa, we’ve seen a six percent increase in precipitation in the last decade.”

Bruskewitz, a University of Iowa senior, said scientists note 350 ppm (parts per million) of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere is the safe upper limit, yet the present concentration is 392 ppm.

“We need to get down to 350 and were at 390, so we need to get that down as soon as possible,” Bruskewitz said. “It has to be a collective effort. It’s an international effort.”

The sponsoring organization of Moving Planet, 350.org, has organizers in 188 countries and reports there are 2,000-plus scheduled events worldwide, with 500 in the U.S.  

Bruskewitz added the event is also intended to rally people together.

“This is a fun event,” she said. “It’s important to realize you need to get out and vote, but this doesn’t have to be scary – it can be a positive, collective thing. It’s a celebration of being outside.”

Speakers will include former Hawkeye and NFL star Tim Dwight, also the owner of iPower; Liz Christiansen, director of the University of Iowa Office of Sustainability; State Senator Rob Hogg; Sheila Samuelson, President of Bright Green Strategy; Jim Throgmorton, UI Professor Emeritus of Urban and Regional Planning and Iowa City Council Candidate; and David Osterberg, UI Professor of Occupational and Environmental Health and Director of the Iowa Policy Center.

Music will be provided by Dave Moore, Chasing Shade, The Awful Purdies, The Emilees, and Bree Nettie and Marty Letz. 

Booths from local environmental groups include: The Sierra Club, University of Iowa Environmental Coalition, UI Sierra Student Coalition, I-Renew, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Engineers for a Sustainable World, Iowa City Landfill and Recycling Center, ECO-Hawks, Echollective CSA, Plains Justice, Backyard Abundance, Johnson County Heritage Trust, Summer of Solutions, Food and Water Watch, the Green Party and Iowa City Climate Advocates.

For more information, visit the Moving Planet committee’s Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=159046300843087.