Whistleblower and writer to speak at ECO-Fair

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

By Lucille Rice

Jackson Hole, Wyo--As part of The Murie Center’s ninth annual Spring Earth Festival and the ECO-Fair’s sixth year, Rick Piltz and Terry Tempest Williams will speak about climate change, the politics that surround the hot topic issue, and the science at hand on Saturday.

The Murie Center encourages attendees to arrive in style, by alternative methods of transportation such as bicycle, skateboard, foot, or magic carpet. The theme of the day is going green and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

But the goal of Spring Earth Fest is to turn celebratory days like Earth Day and ECO-Fair Day and the environmentally positive thinking that they inspire in the community into a part of daily life.

As the title of this year’s ECO-Fair – Simple and Sustainable Living in the Tetons – implies, there will be plenty of educational opportunities for all ages to learn how to make such changes and apply them to daily life.

Terry Tempest Williams, a writer and naturalist who lives in Jackson Hole, has shown the correlation between environmental issues and their social implications, also relating them to matters of justice.

“Climate change is on all of our minds from the melting of ice in Greenland to the Arctic to Hurricane Katrina to the military’s recent announcement that global warming is the greatest threat to American security,” said Williams.

“And then there are those who still view climate change as a theory, yet to be proven. But what about ‘climate change’ as a vehicle for personal transformation? What is it going to take to create a climate change within American society and in our own lives?” she continued.

The questions she asks are relevant to today’s discussion of the reality and immediacy of the climate change problem, questions that Tempest Williams will tackle during her presentation “Climate Change – A Change of Heart” to take place 3 p.m. at the ECO-Fair.

Rick Piltz is the director of the government watchdog program Climate Science Watch. Prior to his work there, Piltz worked for a government agency that gathered scientific evidence of climate change in the United States.

Once the Bush administration saw that this information-gathering program was no longer in its interest, it imposed a blanket of silence on the federal agency to prevent it from discussing the matter further or carrying the process forward. Piltz blew the whistle on this scandal and has since been active in spreading the truth about misinformation and climate change. Piltz will speak at 1:30 p.m.

Demonstrations, workshops, organic foods, live music, and an eco-market will fill the Teton Science Schools’ Jackson Campus at 700 Coyote Canyon Road from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday.

Booth participants have been taking the necessary steps to “green their booths,” including simple steps like having one flyer on display rather than wasting paper by handing out numerous flyers that often end up in the trash, or using reusable mugs rather than paper cups to sample local organic teas.

Teton County Commissioner Ben Ellis is also doing his part in helping to make the ECO-Fair a green event. He is purchasing CO2 credits to offset the greenhouse gas emissions created by those that choose to drive to the event and the energy consumption at the fair.

Sponsors of the ECO-Fair include High Country Linens, Jackson Hole Grocer, Teton Science Schools and Old Bill’s Fun Run donors. 

Admission to the ECO-Fair is $5 for those who drive or $3 for those who take alternative methods of transportation (bike, walk, skateboard, hybrid or biodiesel vehicles, or carpool of 4 or more people). For more information, call 739-2248.

Photo by Andrew Wyatt. Jeramiah Park inspects a solar-powered water pump at the 2006 ECO-Fair. This year’s event will once again take place at the Teton Science Schools’ Jackson Campus.

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Whistleblower and writer to speak at ECO-Fair | Planet JH News Article: General Environment

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