Bellingham’s fifth annual Climate Action Week will kick off Friday, Sept. 22, with a slate of climate-related activities.
Between Friday and Saturday, Sept. 30, dozens of events designed to raise awareness about climate-related issues will take place around the region, including educational presentations and seminars, walking tours, film showings and e-bike demonstrations.
Events will include Transit for the Trees (Whatcom Transportation Authority planting one tree for every 100 bus rides), a Community Work Party at Birchwood Park on Sept. 23 and a Community Wildfire Resilience Night on Sept. 28.
The theme for Climate Action Week this year is “Leading with Collaborative Solutions.”
“We can make the greatest impact when we work together, whether by partnering on projects and events locally or sharing knowledge and inspiration with communities across the world,” the city wrote on its Climate Action Week site. “The most meaningful climate change solutions result from collaborating with and learning from one another.”
The goal of the week is to raise awareness about the city’s climate action goals. They include improving energy efficiency in buildings, emphasizing renewable energy in the city, transitioning to cleaner transportation and protecting habitat, among others.
So far, the city is on track to meet many of those goals.
In the last two years, the city has taken steps to improve buildings’ energy efficiency, added dozens of new electric vehicle charging stations, and in 2022, the Bellingham City Council voted to ban natural gas for heating in all new commercial construction and residential buildings more than three stories tall.
Several local nonprofits, organizations and institutes are hosting events throughout the week, including Whatcom Million Trees Project, Sustainable Connections, Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, RE Sources and Western Washington University, among others.
At the end of Climate Action Week, the city will host a closing celebration with live music, circus acts, trivia and more at Kulshan Trackside Beer Garden.
This story was updated at 10:20 a.m., Sept. 25, 2023, to indicate that WTA will plant one tree for every 100 bus rides, not bike rides. Cascadia Daily News regrets the error.
