Some Wisconsin residents will be trying to kick the fossil fuel habit on Saturday. From Milwaukee to Madison to Madison to Stevens Point, people will be trying to move forward with that message. Emily Miota with the Sierra Club in Madison says they’ll be taking part in ‘Moving Planet’, a global day of action for climate change solutions. “The event is taking place in over 180 countries across the word, 2,000 events worldwide, millions of people, and there’s really one unified message, it’s moving beyond fossil fuels,” Miota says.
In Wisconsin, when it comes to powering homes and businesses, that means coal: the state relies on coal for over fifty percent of its energy needs. Miota notes that coal plays a big role in the particulate pollution which results in so many air quality alerts being issued for southern and central Wisconsin on hot summer days. The worldwide effort is part of 350.org, with a the goal of reducing carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere.