Chicago emits as many greenhouse gases as the entire country of Greece, and the organizers of Evanston's second annual Green Living Festival want to change that.
More than 1,200 people attended the event Saturday at the Evanston Ecology Center, where they bought green products, listened to speakers and connected with other environmentally conscious people.
While last year's festival introduced general environmental issues, this year's focused specifically on reducing the city's carbon footprint, promoting Evanston's Climate Action Plan and increasing environmental education.
"This year, it's more about walking the walk and actually implementing sustainable behaviors," said Fred Schneider, the festival's chairman and vice president of the Evanston Environmental Association.
The Climate Action Plan is a proposal to reduce Evanston's greenhouse gas emissions by 13 percent, the same level the Kyoto Protocol mandates, by 2012, said Celia Michener, a member of the steering committee for Citizens for a Greener Evanston.
"It's more pressing now, because we can see the changes that are happening in Antarctica and in the Arctic," Michener said.
The festival featured five speakers who discussed green living and climate change.
Bill Sweitzer, an environmental activist trained by former Vice President Al Gore, put a local spin on his presentation's main points during his keynote address.
Chicago will experience 30 days a year of temperatures that exceed 100 degrees by 2030, Sweitzer said. Today, four days a year experience this kind of heat.
"Climate change and global warming are real," he said during the presentation. "So putting off doing something until tomorrow is not an option anymore."
Several student groups represented Northwestern, one of the festival's sponsors.
A solar-powered car built by NU students was on display. In July, the car took 13th place in the North American Solar Challenge.
McCormick sophomore Tyler Johnson, the outreach and mobile operations coordinator for the Solar Car Team, said he doesn't think solar-powered vehicles will enter the mainstream, but he sees other options for more environmentally friendly cars.
"Through the solar car, I definitely see the potential for more hybrid cars and entirely electric vehicles," he said.
Students for Ecological and Environmental Development also came to provide information on environmental issues.
Weinberg senior and SEED co-chair Jesse Sleamaker stressed the importance of education.
"People are overwhelmed with the doom and gloom of environmentalism," said Sleamaker, a former DAILY columnist. "They need to know that there is a lot of positive stuff that can happen."
About 50 local vendors sold everything from green roofs to eco-friendly school lunches.
"Everyone wants to be green," said Anne Weber, the president of Green Bag Lunch. "But they don't know how to, so it's cool to see people going and listening to all the different vendors and learning how they can change their habits."
But the message might not be widespread.
"People who are already green like to come to these things," said Andersonville resident Sally Edger. "But people who haven't made the switch over to jumping on that bandwagon aren't really coming yet."
laratakenaga2007@u.northwestern.edu
Be the first to comment on this article!