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| Sister Martha Ann Kirk
reads a statement of concern over the president’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the climate pact. Photo: Billy Calzada /San Antonio Express-News. |
Dance at San Antonio Spring focuses on conservation, climate change
Several dozen San Antonians gathered at the dry source of the
city’s eponymous river Saturday evening, using a delicate dance and soft music
to draw attention to water issues while also criticizing President Donald Trump’s decision to
withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate
Accords.
The event, held at the Blue Hole on the campus of the University of the
Incarnate Word, was part of Global Water Dances, in which people on
six continents sought to draw attention to water issues. The dance and
percussion accompaniment were provided by URBAN-15.
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| Giselle Luevano of the group Urban 15 performs a dance. Photo: Billy Calzada / San Antonio Express-News. |
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| Deirdre Lacour of the Urban 15 dance group
performs. Photo: Billy Calzada /San Antonio Express-News |
Two URBAN-15 members stood in the dry riverbed and waved a white
and blue banner where the water would be running while others, dressed to match
the banner, danced slowly on the riverbank.
The event comes two days after the San Antonio City
Council voted
9-1 to adopt and support the Paris Climate Accord. Trump pulled the United
States out of the agreement earlier this month.
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| Sister Martha Ann Kirk performs a water dance by the
Blue Hole headwater of the San Antonio River. Photo: Billy Calzada /San Antonio Express-News. |
After opening remarks by Sister Martha Ann Kirk, chair of the
Incarnate Word Sisters’ Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation committee, and Alyssa Cook, an education intern
for Headwaters at Incarnate Word, the attendees gathered around the spring.
“With the global community, we join in the movement for water —
clean water for all,” Kirk said at the beginning of the ceremony.
After the dance was over, attendees recited in unison a statement
from the nuns, criticizing Trump’s action.
“This decision will only increase the negative impacts of climate
change already affecting vulnerable populations around the world,” the
statement reads in part. “As one of the industrialized nations most responsible
for climate change, the United States has a moral responsibility to continue
working with the global community to reduce our impact and support those
already affected.”
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| People sign a statement from the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word expressing concern with President Trump’s decision to remove the United States from the climate deal. Photo: Billy Calzada /San Antonio Express-News. |
After the recitation, the attendees were invited to take a
colorful marker and sign a large version of the statement, the top of which was
pinned to a table by a large candle holder that read “compassion.”
Cook, who educates people about water conservation issues, said it
is not abnormal for the Blue Hole to be dry. The reading at the J-17 well that
monitors the Edwards Aquifer stood at 663
feet above mean sea level Saturday, down from 685.9 just six months ago. It was
at 676.7 at this time last year.
“I’d really like people to know that the San Antonio River was
crucial to the beginning of our city,” Cook said. “And it’s still crucial
today. With tourism, a lot of people’s jobs rely on the San Antonio River, and
a lot of people’s drinking water and jobs rely on the Edwards Aquifer.”
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| The Blue Hole headwaters is currently dry. Photo: Billy Calzada /San Antonio Express-News |
One of the performers from URBAN-15 was Gloria Barba, 67, who said her
family is from Aguascalientes, meaning “hot water,” in Mexico and that concern
for water and the environment has been passed down for generations.
“Environment has no fences,” Barba said. “I think everybody in the
whole wide world should get involved.”
A statement from the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word expressing
concern with President Trump’s decision to remove the United States from the
climate deal and expressing solidarity with pro-climate stances of Pope Francis
was read.
The article appears in print: San Antonio Express-News, June 25, 2017, A-3
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