Cape Town's 'Tread Lightly' parade will start at 10h30am at the Cape Town Staton Forecourt, and proceed an easy 5km through the central city. Everyone is welcome - on foot, bicycle, wheelchair, skateboard, pram, and any other form of low-carbon transport you can think of. Expect floats, puppets and other surprising 'non-motorised' vehicles en-route. 

The parade is part of international activist organisation 350.org's global Moving Planet Day of Climate Action. "We know that the only way to avert climate catastrophe is an emergency mobilisation to cut carbon emissions to zero as soon as possible,' says 350.org. 'That's why we're encouraging greater use of renewable energy and low-carbon transport wherever we can.'

In Cape Town, 40% of carbon emissions - an important cause of climate change - are from the transport sector, largely single occupant private cars. Yet there are other ways of moving: walking, car-pooling, cycling, travelling by bus, train or mini-bus taxi, or not travelling at all (with technology such as telecommuting, e-mail, instant messaging and simple better planning).

Parade participants will also raise awareness about other ways in which to tread lightly - from recycling, eating and purchasing locally, to solar power, indigenous gardening and water saving. 

Perhaps most importantly, though, the parade will show that treading lightly doesn't have to be done with a heavy heart: it's fun, it's cool, and it's the the only way to ensure that we have a heritage left to celebrate.

When: Saturday, 24 September 2011
Where: All over the world... but locally: Cape Town Station Forecourt (outside the station building itself)
Time: 10h30am to leave at 11am
Route: The parade will begin in the Cape Town Station, and will proceed up Waterkant St and turning left into St George's Mall. Then another left into Shortmarket St and left again into Long St. and another left into Wale St. From there to return to St George's Mall and walk back to the Cape Town Station Forecourt. 

Some of the organisations involved in organising 'TREAD LIGHTLY'

• 350.org
• Project 90 by 2030
• City Climate Smart Campaign
• Greenpop
• Ecobuzz
• LitterAWEH!ness
• Ilitha Lomsa
• Fair Trade Network
• Fairtrade Label South Africa
• G&D Live
• Free Life on Earth
• Hear Heritage
• EcoDoc Africa
• Diocesan Environmental Church Group (Anglican)
• Hangberg Houtbay Garden of Peach and Hope
• Treasure the Karoo
• Ride Your City and the Cape Town Bicycle Map
• Mobility Magazine
• Skateboarders Association
• UNIMA South Africa
• Jungle Theatre & Mzansi festival
• Green Your Art
• COPART
• Bicycle Empowerment Network
• Earth Artist Collective
• UCT Green Campus Initiative
• Stellenbosch student societies
• UCT drama students