climate change

Kalamazoo resident Joetta Carr says the Southwest Michigan chapter of the Extinction Rebellion wants candidates for mayor and city commission to develop a climate policy for Kalamazoo. She says they are also working at the state level, and planning to go to the debates in Detroit for candidates running for the Democratic nomination for President. 

Carr was interviewed for a story in Southwest Michigan’s Second Wave. It’s part of the On the Ground Series telling stories from Kalamazoo’s neighborhoods. The project is now focused on the Vine Neighborhood. On the Ground Kalamazoo Project Editor Theresa Coty O’Neil says political activism, including around global issues is one of the things that stands out about the Vine Neighborhood.

Southwest Michigan’s Second Wave On the Ground Kalamazoo Project Editor Theresa Coty O’Neil says the Vine neighborhood is different in many ways from the others featured so far. Over the next several weeks, O’Neil will report on the people, business, non-profit groups and more in the Vine Neighborhood.

As Earth Day 2019 arrives, there are dire warnings about climate change. Western Michigan University History Professor David Benac says “the problems are so big, and to be perfectly honest one person can’t solve it, and we have to recognize that.” But Benac says Earth Day in Kalamazoo is an opportunity to organize events around sustainability and activism.

Western Michigan University History Professor David Benac says the solutions to climate change have to be innovative and big. He says Earth Day is a good time to think about the future of communities and neighborhoods. 

Benac says every great change in the country was thought to be impossible “until people made it happen.” Kalamazoo’s Earth Day celebration will run from noon until 5:00p.m. on Saturday April 20th in Bronson Park. 

When the Kalamazoo Nature Center moved its annual Maple Sugar Festival from the third weekend to the second weekend in March, it wasn’t because organizers had tired of the old date. Instead, they were trying to stay ahead of increasingly warm winters and a shorter sugaring season.