Knobe: Come to Dec. 2 meeting on climate and sustainability to listen, learn and offer your insights

We all want to be heard. It’s a basic human need.

If you want your voice to be heard on climate change and what to do about it, I have a place for you.

On Saturday, Dec. 2, Community Conversation on Climate and Sustainability will be held at The Gathering Place inside Our Savior’s Lutheran Church at 909 W. 33rd St. in Sioux Falls. Entrance is at the south side of the building.

You are invited. It’s free, but registration is required.

Doors open at 8:45 a.m. We will start promptly at 9:30 a.m. We have set aside two and a half hours for this conversation. The room holds 240 people. We want to fill it.

There is going to be plenty of time for talking and listening.

Aside from your voice, we have four people whose careers involve climate change:

South Dakota State University Extension Climatologist Laura Edwards, Stacey McMahan, an architect with Koch Hazard Architects, Meghann Jarchow, a University of South Dakota sustainability professor, and Joan Franken of Costello Investments LLC, whose company built and manages one of the first affordable and sustainable apartment buildings in South Dakota.

The room will have round tables. This is one place your voice will be heard.

Near the end of the event, there will be time for you to be heard in front of the entire group. No long speeches, please!

There is a need for us to both speak and listen to each other on this issue. 

We can find common ground and with individual and group action can make a difference.

I hope you will join us.

Rick Knobe is a former mayor of Sioux Falls and a longtime radio talk show host, now retired.