Climate question needs our time and efforts

Last month’s International Climate Agreement ended with 196 counties agreeing that drastic action is needed cutting coal, oil and gas emissions to have a livable planet. We have already seen effects from past emissions. The Paris Agreement has little enforcement ability and it will be up to us to see our communities move to alternative energies and halt coal and oil consumption and emissions. W

e are seeing movement in the opposite direction with proposed coal ports near Bellingham and Longview and oil ports in Vancouver, Hoquiam and Anacortes expansion plus Methanol refinery in Tacoma.

So what is it that ordinary people can do to get us back on the right track to ensure global temperatures do not rise to catastrophic levels?

This is the question that Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation and 13 co-sponsors will explore in a community discussion following a showing of Naomi Klein’s new movie “This Changes Everything” Sunday Jan. 31, 1-4 p.m.; North Thurston High School's Koval Performing Arts Center, 600 Sleater-Kinney Rd. NE, Lacey.

In this hopeful movie on climate crisis and opportunity, Naomi Klein interviews grass roots people from Native American communities in US and Canada to efforts in Germany and Greece and India that stop fossil fuel exploitation and provide community protection. The discussion that follows aims to build a larger network to take local action to get us to just and livable communities and planet. The event is open to the public.

This question needs our time and efforts.

This story was originally published January 15, 2016 at 11:36 AM with the headline "Climate question needs our time and efforts."