The Green New Deal is coming to Vancouver for a town hall forum featuring community leaders discussing why action is needed to counter climate change.
The event will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Friday in the Columbia Room at Vancouver Community Library, 901 C. St.
The event is being organized by the Sunrise Movement, a group of youth activists that formed to stop climate change. Sunrise gained national prominence last November by organizing a sit-in at then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Washington, D.C., office.
Organizers say Friday’s town hall is one of more than 250 similar events taking place across the nation this spring as part of the national Road to a Green New Deal Tour.
Speakers at Friday’s event include:
• Linda Garcia, an activist from Vancouver’s Fruit Valley neighborhood who received the 2019 Goldman Environmental Prize for her work opposing a proposed oil terminal at the Port of Vancouver.
• Don Orange, a small-business owner elected to the Port of Vancouver board of commissioners in 2017, with his opposition to the oil terminal serving as a cornerstone of his campaign.
• Don Steinke, who worked with wife, Alona, to derail the oil terminal.
• Temple Lentz, a community activist with a background in nonprofit management and private-sector marketing and communications who was elected to the District 1 seat on the Clark County Council in 2018.
• Lindsey Luis, a senior at Fort Vancouver High School Center for International Studies, national youth president for League of United Latin American Citizens and a candidate for Vancouver Public Schools board of directors.
• Donna Sinclair, an adjunct professor of history at Washington State University Vancouver and a member of the Washougal School District board of directors.
• Osvaldo “Ozzie” Gonzalez, director of sustainability and diversity at Howard S. Wright, a general contractor, and a member of TriMet’s board of directors.
• Kim Harless, board president of Slow Food Southwest Washington and a solid waste operations specialist with Clark County Public Health.
• Carmen McKibben, a first-generation Mexican-American and executive director of Southwest Washington Communities United for Change.
A Green New Deal has been loosely discussed for more than a decade but took firmer shape this year when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., introduced congressional resolutions to combat climate change, create high-wage jobs and counter social injustice.
House Resolution 109 calls for a 10-year mobilization plan to:
• Generate 100 percent of the nation’s electricity through clean, renewable and zero-emission sources.
• Build or upgrade power grids to maximize energy efficiency and affordable access to electricity.
• Upgrade all of the nation’s buildings to achieve maximum energy and water efficiency.
• Overhaul transportation systems to provide zero-emission vehicle infrastructure and manufacturing, clean and affordable public transit, and high-speed rail.
• Work with farmers and ranchers to remove greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture sector as feasible.
• Guarantee jobs for all Americans that provide family-sustaining wages, family and medical leave, paid vacations and retirement security.
