The Second Annual Port Orford Water Festival was held on April 17 and 18, 2009.

The theme was Think Ahead! Preserving our Resources Today for a Brighter Tomorrow.

Attendance at the 2009 Water Festival was astonishing. Our best estimates put the total attendance around 450. Of that total, 146 were in grades 8 and under. Fourteen organizations hosted booths or activities and 34 volunteers were engaged.

The Festival’s Keynote speaker, Cindy Deacon Williams, delivered the Keynote Address entitled “Facing the Risks of Climate Change: Chance Favors the Prepared Mind.”

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) declared that the evidence now is "unequivocal" that the earth's atmosphere and oceans are warming. The IPCC concluded that human activities, including the emission of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases along with land clearing and development, are responsible for most of the warming. Left unchecked, rising global temperatures and the changes in climatic patterns they cause will affect ecological health and undermine economic and social prosperity and security. Although much attention appropriately is being focused on reducing U.S. Greenhouse gas emissions to restabilize the climate, emissions already built-up in the atmosphere will continue to force climate changes for the next fifty years or more. Ms. Williams will discuss the likely consequences of climate change on natural, human, built, and economic systems in southwest Oregon and describe a suite of strategies and policies that will help government, the private sector, and households withstand and adapt to the now unavoidable impacts of climate change.

Be sure to look at the pictures from the Second Annual Port Orford Water Festival.