May 30 – June 2 of this year, over 700 environmental leaders from all over the world will converge in Pittsburgh, PA in order to talk shop and uncover best practices for anything from water and energy conservation, habitat restoration and stormwater management to watershed restoration, green infrastructure, safe drinking water and water quality monitoring, as well as many other issues at the River Rally 2014, where River Network and Waterkeeper Alliance will team up once again to form the largest recorded gathering of water advocates ever.
2014 will be the second year for River Rally and the second time River Network has partnered with Waterkeeper Alliance. Those participating come from over 40 U.S. states, in addition to a vast number of locations around the world, such as Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Iraq, Mexico, Peru, you name it.
River Rally 2014 will take place at the Westin Convention Center Pittsburgh Hotel at 1000 Penn Ave., where more than 70 workshops, teach-ins, and field trips will carry forth, one of which will be the River Cleanup Service Project. Some of the highlights include Chinese environmental consultant and journalist Ma Jun speaking on “Engaging Citizens to Monitor and Address Increasing Environmental Pollution in China,” the “Fracking: Impacts, Science and Advocacy Plenary Panel,” U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell speaking on “The State of U.S. Waters,” and the “River Heroes Awards Banquet.”
Sponsors of the event include Turner Foundation, Coca-Cola Company, Toyota, Budweiser and the U.S. Forest Service. A full list of sponsors can be viewed here.
To register for River Rally 2014, click here.
For a glimpse of last year’s rally, check out the video below.
Edited/Published by: SB
Dylan Hock is a writer, professor, videographer and social activist. He earned an MFA in Writing from Naropa University in 2000 and has been an Occupier since Oct., 2011, both nationally and locally in Michigan. He is published in a number of little magazines and has an essay on the muzzling of Ezra Pound due out July of 2014 by Praeger. He is also a contributing writer for Green Action News and administers Essential Occupy Reading on Facebook.
