Virginia Participates In Climate Impacts Day

Environmental activists around Virginia are holding up dots in honor of Climate Impacts Day, to show residents the connections between extreme weather and climate change. The effort is part of a project called Connect the Dots, which aims to show how weather is affecting our climate right now.

"In Larchmont, a neighborhood in Norfolk, there will be folks holding up a big dot and taking a photo of residents in the neighborhood by their houses, which are right on the water," says Beth Kemler, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

In Northern Virginia, the Vienna Farmers Market will be highlighting the impact on farms. And in another part of the state, a vineyard owner will express concern about crops failing because of more frequent extreme weather. In southern Virginia, activists will highlight the cause of climate change's burning of fossil fuels.

"There's a new coal-fired power plant that Dominion is building in Wise County, what will likely be one of the last coal-fired power plants in the country, and it will be releasing billions of tons of CO2 into the air," she says.

In each place, a photographer will snap pictures of dot-holders and post them to the project's website. The goal is to connect the dots to press for changes in public policy and individual actions that are putting more carbon into the atmosphere.