Atlanta Climate Week will kick off a week of community-led climate programming across Atlanta on Oct. 8. Attendees can expect events ranging from outdoor hikes at Lake Allatoona to free tours at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

To kick things off, there will be an outdoor screening of “A Different World” at the Wren’s Nest on Oct. 8, but the main week of events begins on Oct. 10. The events are designed to leverage the city’s unique cultural influence to ignite local sustainability advocacy.

Michael Hawthorne, a clean energy advocate who created Klean Lifestyle and serves on the City of Atlanta’s Climate Resilience Board, also emphasized the flagship networking event on Oct. 12. This event will host major local brands and elected officials, including U.S. Representative Nikema Williams.

“We’re highlighting some of Georgia’s top companies like Coca-Cola, Rivian, Delta, Mercedes-Benz, and Cherry Street Energy,” Hawthorne said. The events are not just for Atlanta residents and local stakeholders. People from Alabama, Mississippi, and the rest of the state are expected to attend, as they share many of the same climate challenges.

Climate Challenges and Culture

Locally, the city faces problems with high energy burdens in vulnerable neighborhoods. Additionally, the American Lung Association ranks Atlanta as the third worst in ozone pollution and fourth worst in year-round particle pollution in the Southeast.

In the face of these growing concerns, local efforts led by the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and Resilience (OSR) have pushed to reach 100 percent clean energy by 2035.

While local efforts to address sustainability problems are essential to mitigating climate change, local efforts alone are not enough. Internationally, humanity seems to be losing the war on climate change.

“I think…folks are losing hope, given that the UN has announced that we reached a point of no return in terms of, you know, scaling and staying under the 1.5 degrees [warming threshold],” Hawthorne said. “But what I would say is we still have the opportunity to mitigate the impact.”

People may be losing interest and hope in addressing climate change, but one area people are not losing interest in is local culture. Over the past couple of years, Atlanta has grown as a cultural hub.

In the past three months alone, DC filmed its upcoming show The People Vs. Gorilla Grodd on Georgia Tech’s campus, Chinese giant pandas arrived at the Atlanta zoo, and a World Cup Semifinal was held in the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Atlanta’s role as an entertainment and cultural hub is part of the reason why Atlanta Climate Week is so crucial; it extends to non-traditional environmental audiences.

For instance, the Grammy-nominated hip-hop duo EARTHGANG are joining Atlanta Climate Week on Oct. 12. By tapping into Atlanta’s culture, Atlanta Climate also hopes to prove that discussing sustainability need not be gloomy.

“It doesn’t have to all be doom and gloom,” Hawthorne said. “It could just be… a great vibe and a willingness to just enjoy being a part [of Climate Week] and making a difference.”

If you are interested in participating in any of Atlanta Climate Week’s events, visit atlantacw.org to see the full schedule of events.

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