2021 WALK FOR OUR GRANDCHILDREN & MOTHER EARTH:
ELDERS AND YOUTH ON THE ROAD TO CLIMATE JUSTICE
KEEP FOSSIL FUELS IN THE GROUND
SOLAR, WIND AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY NOW
March 26, 2021
We are not protesters. We are protectors.
We are not people protecting nature. We are nature protecting herself.
Why We Walk Now?
President Biden has repeatedly emphasized his love for his children and grandchildren. He has also promised bold action to address Climate Change. However, some of his proposals are inadequate to address the present climate emergency. And there is opposition within even the Democratic Party to some of his initiatives. By Walking in the summer of 2021 we want to ensure that the Biden administration and others recognize that his and our love for our families requires a very rapid uncompromising transition away from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels and an embrace of renewable energy, especially solar and wind power. ]
Who Will Walk?
In 2013 a hundred or so young and elder climate activists walked for a week from Camp David, Maryland, to the White House to dramatize the dangers of Climate Chaos. At the White House a thousand other people joined us. Now, eight years later, when the realities of climate chaos are even more obvious than they were in 2013, more and more young people, parents and grandparents (and great grandparents too) realize the dangers faced by future generations. We walkers are those young people, parents and grandparents.
We welcome people of all generations, faiths and cultures to walk the entire route, or any part of it, for a few hours or for the entire route. We will join hearts and hands in a Beloved Community of meditation, prayers, and action to protect Mother Earth and all her living creatures. As we arrive in Wilmington, we expect our numbers to swell. We will have a special vehicle following the walk so those who tire during the day have transportation.
When We will Walk:
Our Walk will be 7-10 days in late June, when the sun is highest in the northern hemisphere’s sky and provides most energy to our mother earth. We will start walking near to Sunday June 20 which is both Fathers’ Day and the Summer Equinox, enabling us to bring together our love of family with the natural celestial forces which make life on the earth possible, and which ultimately must underlie our energy systems and our solution to the climate chaos challenge..
Where We Will Walk:
We plan to do some combination of walking and riding from Scranton, Pennsylvania, which is President Biden’s birthplace and a site of large-scale hydro-fracking operations. We plan to walk to Wilmington Delaware, which has been President Biden’s home for decades. Along the way we will meet with community groups, activists, journalists and others committed to keeping fossil fuels in the ground and embracing renewable energy. There may also be feeder marches from other directions. These details are to be worked out depending on interest and numbers.
Who Will Host Walkers and where will we eat?
We will arrange with places of worship, campgrounds and community groups along the route to provide overnight accommodations and meals for the walkers. We are encouraging groups to plan public forums each evening. The walk will require dozens of support people each day, providing water, bathroom facilities, medical services, gear carriers, parking and shuttles for day walkers, lunches, support vehicles and communications.
Seeds of Peace, which has the best mobile kitchen for activists in the world has expressed an interest in supplying healthy food during the walk.
Covid Considerations
Safety and health are central to our concerns in planning this event. Because of the pandemic, we will remain both flexible and creative in our planning and timing of the Walk, and will update our plans as needed. Participants in the Walk must be vaccinated, unless they cannot get the vaccine. For example, adolescents less than 16 years old will likely not have access to vaccine by June.
Organizing:
Fifteen to twenty of us from around the east coast have been meeting weekly to plan and organize the walk. We have formed a number of working groups which will focus on specific tasks, like fundraising, art, social media, messaging outreach, route planning, food and lodging, etc. Please contact us if you are interested in helping in any way with the planning.
Plans for the Walk are till being developed. This proposal is not final and will likely change in some ways.
For more information,
contact Steven Norris,
828-777-7816, earthsun2@gmail.com