by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
A bicycle group calling itself “LowCarbon Crossing” will make a stop at St. Joseph’s Minnesota Street Market from 7-9 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 13 to initiate a discussion about climate change.
All are welcome to attend and to bring concerns, questions and suggestions about how to deal with climate change on a local level.
St. Joseph will be the first stop on an eight-day, 350-mile trip by the LowCarbon Crossing bicycling team throughout central Minnesota. The biking team is comprised of Mindy Ahler and Paul Thompson of Citizens Climate Lobby, and Michael Orange, a regional planner and energy-efficiency advocate. Ahler and Thompson are co-directors of a group called Cool Planet. Both are activists on issues related to climate change and have lobbied for a healthier climate at the Capitol in Washington, D.C.
They will bring their bikes on the Northstar commuter train from Minneapolis to its northernmost Northstar stop at Big Lake. From there they will bike the 41 miles to St. Joseph, the first of six cities along their trek. The other cities are Alexandria, Fergus Falls, Brainerd, Little Falls and St. Cloud. They will spend one night of camping between Brainerd and Little Falls.
The bikers are eager to hear from residents of those areas about what they think about the climate-change issue and local things that can be done to help prevent negative effects on the climate. Among those solutions are energy-efficiency programs, non-carbon energy sources like sun and wind, energy conservation, and walking or biking as good ways to stay healthy while not expending carbon forms of energy.
Participants in the conversations are welcome to join LowCarbon Crossing bikers for part or all of the rest of their journey.
“Connecting people to one another and their shared concerns is a more effective way of maintaining action for the long-term,” Ahler said. “as well as combatting the despair that often accompanies discussion of the climate challenge.”
Mindy Ahler and Ryan Hall are two LowCarbon Crossing bikers who biked to Washington, D.C. to lobby for changes to protect the world’s climate. Ahler and others will bike to St. Joseph from Big Lake Sunday, Aug. 13 to meet with local residents and to discuss local solutions to climate change. They will be at Minnesota Street Market from 7-10 p.m. that day. Everyone is welcome.
