A rally and celebration expected to include local organic food, environmental speakers, music and dance performers, and carbon-reduction petition booths will flood the Green on April 14 when community members and students will gather to protest current carbon emission levels in the United States.
Hanover and the surrounding towns of Norwich, Thetford, Hartford, White River Junction Lebanon and Lyme are some of the 1,000 towns nationwide that plan to participate in 2007's "Step It Up" campaign against climate change, which will be the largest day of rallying and citizen activism against carbon emissions to date.
Citizens participating in the campaign will sign petitions demanding that Congress cut carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Local participants will converge on the Green at 1 p.m. after a series of morning events occurring in each town.
Denis Rydjeski, the political chair of Vermont's chapter of the Sierra Club, described this event as a snowball that will continue rolling, picking up speed and support, into the future.
"The goal is to keep the snowball rolling and growing, with growing public awareness," Rydjeski said.
"April 14 isn't just saying, 'Okay now we did it, let's go have our coke and pizza.' It's not just trying to get the federal government to make changes, but also the state government and the town of Hanover. We're encouraging them to do something, but it's also necessary for people to change."
In the past, the Sierra Club, in conjunction with local residents, has been active with climate change initiatives like the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which has bound the town of Hanover to comply with the Kyoto Protocol.
The local Sierra Club chapter was initiated 10 years ago, but, according to Rydjeski, it has been strongest in the past three of four years.
As the rally approaches, local Sierra Club members, community activists and student groups -- including the Environmental Conservation Organization, Sustainable Dartmouth and the Progressives -- will prepare the Green for environmental justice and activist speakers, booths of local businesses and farmers and performances.
The planning group, which defines itself as more of a "disorganization" than an organization, has recognized the importance of a three-part relationship between students, faculty and community members when planning this event and when addressing carbon emission reductions in the area.
"The relationship has been beneficial, and the three parts are bigger together than they would be alone," Rydjeski said. "Hanover and Dartmouth College [are] ... a beautiful, special case because they're well educated and willing to take a stand against things."
Bethany Fleishman, a "Step It Up" organizer and Medical School employee, said she views the event as a "populist movement."
"I think that there are so many people out there who don't have that background of being a liberal from Norwich, but who are interested in this," Fleishman said. "Everyone is going to be affected by climate change, so basically we want to frame this [more broadly] because everyone is going to be affected. We all live in the environment so we all have to care about this."
Dominic Winski '09, a member of Sustainable Dartmouth and ECO, said working with the Sierra Club and local residents has been beneficial.
As his first coordination experience with local residents, "Step It Up" has exposed Winski to the opportunities provided by the environmental activism in the Upper Valley.
"So many Dartmouth things are so exclusively campus," Winski said. "This is a good way to get the community involved."
The underlying purpose of "Step it Up" is to gain thousands of petitions to be sent to congress.
According to Rydjeski, personal initiative rather than legislation is crucial to the effort towards carbon reductions.
Comparing environmental legislation with prohibition, he explained that regulations are not sufficient because, like the lack of compliance to carbon regulations, "prohibition didn't stop people from drinking alcohol."
