For Immediate Release
October 1, 2015
Media Contacts:
Kate Madigan, Michigan Environmental Council
kate@environmentalcouncil.org/ 231-633-5353
David Holtz, Sierra Club Michigan
david@davidholtz.org/ 313-300-4454
DETROIT, MI—Michigan’s first statewide
coalition of citizens to advance climate change solutions was announced today
with the new Michigan Climate Action Network preparing to kick off its first organizing drive at Saturday’s
Detroit March for Justice event.
“Michiganders want action on climate change. By coming
together we will build a stronger movement in Michigan to confront the defining
issue of our time,” said Kate Madigan,
Michigan Climate Action Network
Coordinator. ”Climate change solutions mean cleaner air, cleaner energy, and
community-based efforts to prepare for theimpacts of climate disruption. Our
future is at stake. Michigan needs to lead.”
Leading citizens groups from throughout
Michigan—including Detroit, northern Michigan, west Michigan and statewide
organizations—formed Michigan Climate
Action Network to strengthen grassroots organizing and public education
efforts around climate change in the state.
“We are excited to kick off our first major organizing drive
at the Detroit March for Justice this Saturday,” said Kimberly Hill Knott, Project Director of the Detroit Climate Action Collaborative (DCAC). “In Detroit, and around the world, low-income and minority
communities are the most vulnerable, but least responsible, for carbon
emissions and other dangerous pollutants.” Our homes are flooding now,
increases in asthma attacks due to extreme heat are happening now. We need our leaders
to ACT on climate change now!
Membership in Michigan Climate Action Network is open to any individual or group
with a commitment to the network’s mission.
Current network members are Citizens Climate Lobby Michigan Chapters,
Concerned Citizens of Cheboygan & Emmett Counties, Detroit
Climate Action Collaborative, Ecology Center, Food
& Water Watch, Groundwork Center, Kalamazoo
Nature Center, Michigan Environmental Council, Michigan
League of Conservation Voters, Sierra
Club Michigan Chapter, TC350 and West Michigan Environmental Action Council.
Rev. Deb Hansen of Concerned
Citizens of Cheboygan and Emmett Counties said northern Michigan residents
are ready to act on climate solutions.
“Our
communities, our businesses and our families are so tied to the health of the
Great Lakes. Pure Michigan must be more than a marketing slogan,” said
Hansen. “Our love for the beauty and quality of life we enjoy will help
us to make wise choices. We need our elected officials to
understand that time is not on our side when it comes to climate change."
Rachel Hood, the Executive Director of West
Michigan Environmental Action Council, said cities will lead the way to climate resiliency in
Michigan.
“Grand Rapids is often seen as a model in the state and among
mid-sized cities in the US. But each
community has a unique context in which to work and from those unique
viewpoints, innovation for climate change will begin. Michigan’s cities need to stick together and
learn from each other to thrive.”Rachel
Hood of West Michigan Environmental Action Council said. “Hats off to the organizers
of Michigan Climate Action Network for bringing us together to put a spotlight
on climate change solutions in Michigan.”
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About
Michigan Climate Action Network
The Michigan Climate Action
Network is a network of groups and individuals working to build and mobilize a
powerful grassroots movement in the Great Lakes state to call for local, state,
national and international policies that will put us on a path to climate
stability and climate justice. We support citizen actions that bring urgency
and advance progress to slow climate change. More information is at www.miclimateaction.org.
