2009 Jul 24 - 7:00pm
Climate Change:
Arguably the most critical issue of our time!
followed by discussion of climate activism
--John W. Andrews, Maggie Zhou, with comments by Victor Wallis
Moderator: Thomas Ponniah
E5 Forum is generally a monthly event, going on for the last two
years, that aims to build
relationships among different activists. In order to do this we
encourage people to bring snack or drink to share with others. Also,
E5 Forum is very comfortable with having as few as five and as many as
fifty people at an event. The point of the event is not the numbers
but, in the spirit of the Social Forum process, building productive
social relationships across political and thematic differences - hence
the comfort with a small audience. After the event - at around 9pm -
we usually all go out for dinner at a nearby restaurant.
Panel:
John W. Andrews,
John Andrews is the President of the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities, as well as the new Communications Director for the Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts. He has been active for many years in support of environmental and pro-democracy initiatives. He has served as president of Citizens for Lexington Conservation, chair of Sierra Club's Thoreau Group, and state political chair for the Massachusetts Sierra Club. He founded the Lexington Stewardship Committee and co-founded the Beaver Brook Watershed Coalition. He has served as chair of the Lexington Pest Control Advisory Committee and the Solid Waste Action Team. He was one of 250 environmental leaders invited to the White House by President Clinton in 1996 to participate in White House Environment Day. He has served as a member of the state steering committee for Mass Voters for Clean Elections.
Maggie Zhou
Maggie Zhou is a biologist by training, and a climate scientist by inclination, coordinating the Secure Green Future climate project of the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities. She has immersed herself in the scientific literature on climate change and has taken up advocacy for urgent action to get atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations to a safe level. Maggie helped to get the Secure Green Future ballot question (calling for 80% greenhouse gas cuts by 2020) on all three State Rep. district ballots in Arlington, where it received landslide support of 85% YES votes. Maggie continues to up the ante for the social, economic, and political change needed to prevent climate chaos.
Victor Wallis, editor of the journal Socialism and Democracy,
Capitalist and socialist responses to the ecological crisis:
What do capitalist and socialist systems offer in response to the ecological crisis? Can a model of unending growth in production and consumption ever really address the crisis?
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