Beginning at noon on Sunday, Nov. 22 in the SURC, multiple community-driven groups, including Our Environment, Central’s Environmental Club and the Kittitas Audubon society, are joining together to start a climate walk.

According to Our Environment members Lyn Fuller and Sylvia Shriner, along with Central’s Environmental Club member James King, the climate walk is a public march all about raising awareness for climate change issues.

The climate walk will begin on the west patio of the SURC at noon and continue downtown to Main Street and Third Avenue.

At 1:30 p.m. in the Hal Holmes Community Center a guest speaker, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientist Steve Gahn, will be speaking about how carbon emissions can be lowered by 50 percent whilst maintaining job opportunities.

The climate walk is well-timed, as world leaders will soon be discussing environmental issues on a global scale.

At the end of November and beginning of December, the United Nations (UN) is sponsoring global climate talks that will take place in Paris.

Shriner said that more than 80 heads of state from many different countries will be coming together to decide on limits for carbon emissions.

Fuller said that the climate walk that is going on Sunday, Nov. 22 is a way to raise awareness about the climate talks that will be happening in Paris.

King and Fuller agreed that no permits were needed for the walk because they decided to walk on the sidewalk rather than on the street.

King said if they chose to walk on the streets, they would have needed a permit and to purchase an insurance policy that would cover $1 million in damages and injuries, which they didn’t feel they needed.

Shriner said that the walk is being done to get more people involved, to bring more awareness of the seriousness of climate change and to say that “we’re here [and] we’re watching what’s going on in Paris.”

Currently, King said they’re expecting 50 people, but that they’re hoping for at least a couple hundred.

The Kittitas Audubon Society, an organization dedicated to the appreciation and conservation of birds, is paying for Gahn to come speak.

D&M coffee is donating beverages and the Ellensburg City Library and Central’s Environmental Club are acting as additional sponsors.

Fuller expects people from local churches, high school students and Ellensburg’s roller skating derby team, the Rodeo City Roller Girls, to attend the event.

Shriner said she hopes the younger generation will come support the walk because they are the people that will have to live with the impacts of climate change.