Environmental concerns took center stage in Goshen Saturday as members of Goshen College and the surrounding community joined together for a global call to action on climate change.
Part of the international “350” movement created by environmental activist Bill McKibben, the day’s events began at noon on the college campus with a community lunch, songs and speakers aimed at bringing awareness to what many see as an increasingly detrimental global environmental breakdown.
The event then migrated to the Goshen Courthouse lawn where the festivities continued despite chilly temperatures and rain with additional speakers and inspirational music.
“This is actually part of a global movement,” said Alana Kenagy, a Goshen College student and one of the event’s organizers. “There are 5,200 actions in 182 countries around the world today, all organized around the number 350, which is the safe amount of parts-per-million of carbon that we can have in the atmosphere. Right now we have 389 parts-per-million of carbon in our atmosphere, so the movement is to push leaders to decide on strong climate policy.
“It’s a really big chance for our world to make a change in the way we live, and the purpose of this movement is to show how many people care about this issue, because it’s the most important thing facing our world today,” she said.
Kenagy, a native of Albany, Ore., said environmental issues are something that have always been important to her, so much so that she is even putting her college career on hold a bit in order to devote more time to the cause.
“I’m actually going half-time in school right now so I can devote more time to organizing environmentally, because it’s really important that we do this now,” Kenagy said. “I can’t wait until I get out of college to try to do this, because climate change isn’t waiting on us.
“I feel that we have an incredible planet that can provide amazing things for us, but at the rate we’re going, we’re using more than our fair share. And in order for us to be able to create somewhat of an equal plane for all human beings in the world, we need to really look at our consumption and our ways of life,” she said.
Goshen College student Hannah Eberly, another of the event’s organizers, agreed, noting that by the size of the day’s crowd, there are quite a few in the area who are also of a similar mind-set.
“We started planning this back at the very beginning of the school year, not really sure what to expect, and we just tried to involve different areas of the community, whoever we could reach out to,” Eberly said. “Being a student-led event, I’m really happy with the turnout.”
According to Albany, the group had planned on about 100 people attending the event, but by day’s end nearly 200 people had showed up in solidarity to the 350 movement.
“We cooked food for 100 people, and we expected 100 people, and I think we got around 150 to 200 people, so I’m feeling pretty good,” Albany said. “A lot of people really stuck it out today. It’s a several-hour event, and it’s raining and cold, so overall I’d say it’s been a pretty good day.”
Goshen College students Melody Musser and Leah Yoder were two of the event’s many attendees who chose to stick it out despite the less than favorable weather.
“This event is just our way of coming out to the broader community, just trying to be a part of the worldwide event while also bringing it to our little town of Goshen and letting people know a little bit more about the issue,” Musser said. “We’re a big part of the problem, and knowledge is a big part of the solution.”
Yoder also saw the event as a great way to spread some awareness about what she’s as one of the most important issues of our time.
“I came out here because this issue involves everybody, and it’s quite the experience to go out and share with everybody what’s going on in the world, especially in a small town like Goshen,” Yoder said. “I wanted to be a part of that awareness. I wanted to be a part of this big change that might happen. Being a part of change is something that really needs to be advocated for, especially for climate change.”
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