Desert Greens to participate in Earth Day celebration in Salt Lake City

Desert Greens/Green Party of Utah
www.GPUT.org 
www.desertgreens.org

April 20, 2007

CONTACT INFORMATION_: 801-201-0219, GPU@GPUT.ORG

SALT LAKE CITY -- The Desert Greens Green Party of Utah will be participating in the 16th Annual Earth Jam www.earthjam.org, a celebration to honor Earth Day. The event will be held at Liberty Park from 10am to 9pm on Sunday, April 22nd. The Desert Greens Green Party of Utah will be helping to run the Kiddie Village at Earth Jam.

"Earth Day began in 1969 to celebrate the beauty of our planet," states Deanna Taylor, Co-Coordinator of the DesertGreens. "The Green Key Values of Ecological Wisdom, Personal Responsibility, Future Focus and Sustainability call for us to demand accountability from our representatives by developing policies that promote alternative and sustainable energy. It is becoming increasingly crucial that we step up this accountability, in line with our party values."

Eileen McCabe, National Delegate of the Desert Greens states: "This is such a great fit for us. Here we have an opportunity to participate in a neighborhood event, educating both about ecological issues and how they affect us on a local level, and reaching out to  our children and engaging them in the great challenge of their  lifetimes, reversing climate change." 

The Desert Greens is affiliated with the Green Party of the United  States, which takes the position of its EcoAction Committee which put forth its 2006 Earth Day Report: 

As representatives of the people, it is critical for public officials at all levels of government to initiate actions that will  begin to address the damage done to the atmosphere and develop  comprehensive and realistic plans that can be implemented to construct  a renewable infrastructure alternative. The Green Party calls on the  government and people of the United States to aggressively support and  implement the following measures:

We, as individuals must make profound changes in our own lifestyles, demonstrating to elected officials our own commitment to and expectation of change in local, regional, national and global environmental policy; -- We must phase out all subsidies and tax breaks to fossil and nuclear energy industries; /

• We must move to full cost pricing starting with carbon taxes;

• We must provide incentives, legislation, and institutional reforms to bring renewable energy technologies on line and readily available to the consumer;

• We must encourage the export and expansion of these technologies into overseas markets to competitively displace fossil and nuclear power, and large-scale hydroelectric projects;

• We must research and implement interim, as well as long term offsets, such as reforestation, accompanied by measurable cutbacks in emissions

• We must reject biomass incineration and inefficient biofuels production as unnecessary, insufficient, polluting, damaging to ecosystems and a waste of energy;

• We reject the concept of "clean coal";

• We must put an absolute limit on CO2 emissions Nationally and work to facilitate a Worldwide CAP. This limit should be based on the amount we need to cut fossil fuel usage in order to aid in reversing the rise in average global temperatures.

• We must base our cutbacks in fossil fuel usage on this limit; this means stabilization as quickly as possible and an 80% cutback to be reached within ten years

The Desert Greens will be doing outreach to the community at Earth Jam 2007 to educate the public on environmental issues.



More information: Eileen McCabe, 801-201-0219, gpu@gput.org, www.desertgreens.org