On September 25 Iowa City will unite for a less fossil fuel dependent lifestyle. The University of Iowa and Iowa City host the upcoming event, which consists of a day full of sustainable activities. These activities include a bike ride and march, a rally and a music festival.
The Daily Iowan reports that a major goal for the festival is to increase attention about using renewable energy at the University of Iowa:
“The area we are really concentrating on is building renewable energy on campus,” said Liz Christiansen, the director of the University of Iowa Office of Sustainability.
She said the event will focus on the communities of Iowa City and the university coming together to raise awareness. She said the UI has a commitment to achieve 40 percent renewable-energy consumption on campus by 2020.
This event is part of Moving Planet – a group sponsoring similar events all over the world.
For more information on Moving Planet, visit their website http://www.moving-planet.org.
Information on the Iowa City event in particular is available here http://www.moving-planet.org/events/us/iowa-city/1517.
Iowa Environmental Focus 
We were lucky when it came to Irene. We knew the hurricane was coming and had time to plan and prepare. We knew there was a good possibility that we would lose power and maybe even water. We took preventive measures and charged our cell phones and laptops. We made sure we had flashlights and batteries and knew where they were. We filled bottles with water and put away anything outside that could possibly “take flight”.