Public Citizen, which has launched a 20-day Climate Change Tour across Texas in an electric vehicle, will be in Laredo Wednesday, September 20 at 9:30 a.m. at the LISD Performing Arts Complex (formerly the Civic Center auditorium).
Believers and skeptics alike are invited to the event, which is free, open to the public, and focused on one of the most relevant issues of our time.
According to Luis Castilla, press officer in Public Citizen’s Texas office, he will have visited 23 cities across Texas from early September to mid- October.
He said his focus has been to engage with students, scientists, activists, elected officials and the general public to start a meaningful conversation around climate change and its solutions.
The tour comes as tens of thousands of Texans, clean up from catastrophic flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey – the third such “500-year flood” to hit Texas in three years
Climate change costs Texans billions of dollars every year in decreased productivity levels and increases in electricity costs and storm-related losses along the Gulf Coast.
Castilla said that despite the losses, there are many reasons to be hopeful — wind and solar energy prices are less volatile than dirty fossil fuels; LED lights and efficient air conditioners can dramatically cut carbon emissions and help consumers save money; and electric automobiles will soon will become cheaper to own than their oil-dependent counterparts.
Public Citizen’s Climate Change Tour encourages people of all ages to engage with their elected officials to request that sustainable solutions be adopted at the city, state, and federal levels.
At the tour’s kick-off in Austin on September 6, Adrian Shelley, director of Public Citizen’s Texas office, said, “As Hurricane Harvey has clearly shown, climate change will affect us regardless of whether we believe in it or not. We need to set our political differences aside and take decisive actions if we want our children and grandchildren to inherit a livable, sustainable Texas.”
“The window for action is closing rapidly,” added Castilla. “Business as usual is just not going to cut it.”
For further information on the Laredo stop of the Texas Climate Change tour, please call the Río Grande International Study Center at (956) 319-8001 or the Texas office of Public Citizen at (512) 477-1155.
