The Second Annual Berkshire Earth Expo Environmental Action Fair is set for this weekend in Dalton.
What does climate change in the Berkshires look like?
“I think it’s probably more subtle in our area than it is, like, say in Florida or Virginia, where the coast is going underwater," said Uli Nagel. "But I think we’re noticing just weird weather patterns, and that’s why some people rather call it climate weirding than climate warning.”
Nagel represents Living The Change Berkshires, one of the groups putting on this weekend’s Berkshire Earth Expo in Dalton.
“We’re seeing the seasons shift," said Nagel. "The fact that we’ve had such cold winters can in some way be attributed to the arctic actually warming, and colder air being pushed down the globe, so to speak. We’re definitely seeing it in the rise of invaisive species, bugs and things like that that weren’t able to damage our trees because it was too cold in the winter now actually spreading and creating bigger damage. And that goes for ticks too, in some ways. Tick season is practically all year round now, almost.”
Organizers say the Expo, housed in a former industrial space in Dalton, will be an opportunity to learn about how the county can work toward a more sustainable way of living. Elizabeth Orenstein is from the Berkshire Environmental Action Team, another expo organizer.
“It is a daylong event, it runs from 10 to 5 also at the Stationery Factory, and we have been very lucky to work with Steven Sears, the owner there, so we’re using his entire event space which is over 100,000 square feet of space," said Orenstein. "And we’ve got vendors, workshops, presenters. We’ve got a spotlight conversation at 1 p.m. with former state Senator Ben Downing and Kris Rutman from Western Mass Labor Action. And they’re going to be talking about energy and environmental justice in Western Mass.”
“I’m going to be a part of a broader community conversation about how we build on the progress that Massachusetts has made over the last ten years, and continue our work to reducing and eliminating the need for fossil fuels and building a sustainable clean energy economy,” said Ben Downing.
Downing, a Democrat, now works as Vice President of New Market Development at solar energy company Nexamp.
“Participants can come and learn about what they can do in their community to get engaged and to benefit from the clean energy economy here in Massachusetts," said Downing. "So it’s about both learning and acting.”
“We have a workshop on fossil fuel-free investing, showing people how they can invest ethically without necessarily supporting an industry they don’t want to support with their money," said Nagel. “We have Citizens Climate Lobby present with a table who’s going to speak about their bipartisan work in Congress on passing a price on carbon legislation.”
But it’s not all going to be about policy.
“Aside from all these different conversations, people will just be able to wander around, hold chickens — they were a big hit last year," laughed Nagel. "The kids were sitting with those chickens all day! And we have goats, we have electric cars outside that people can look at. They are local owners that are showing off their vehicles, which will be a real fun event.”
“We have workshops throughout the day with Charlie Eiseman, he literally wrote the book on insects’ tracks and sign; with John Atwood, the head of conservation at Mass Audubon; with Doug Harris, who’s going to be talking about Native American sacred stone monuments; we have hikes at the boulders, at the BNRC boulders property,” said Orenstein.
The Second Annual Berkshire Earth Expo Environmental Action Fair kicks off at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Stationery Factory in Dalton. It is free and open to the public.
