I’m new here, and was planning on making my first post later in the week, but this morning I saw the front page of today’s Independent (referencing the most recent study from James Hansen and his gang–a truly remarkable outline of the science behind the climate crisis in relatively simple layperson’s terms) and realized that just as we can’t wait to start making serious reductions in our global warming pollution, I can’t wait to start writing about it.
So, hi, I’m Ben. Here goes.
[Note: you'll have to forgive the sense of shameless self-promotion in the following missive; it's just that the project I'm working on, Focus the Nation, has become a bit all-consuming. I'll be writing here (sorry, I still have a hard time using the word "blog" without giggling) about Focus the Nation and sharing some stories from groups around the country. But I will probably inevitably also write some more personal stories--what keeps me going and what frustrates me--as these have become inseparable from this project.]
In case you haven’t heard about it, Focus the Nation is a national teach-in on global warming solutions scheduled for next January 31st. But it’s a lot more than a teach-in. In one day, over 1000 schools will simultaneously hold events involving thousands of faculty and with the potential to reach millions of students.
Teams at over 500 colleges, universities and high schools all around the country have already started inviting speakers, booking large rooms, and securing endorsements from deans, presidents, and student and faculty governments. This is going to be by far the biggest global warming teach-in. But with your help, and the thousands of people already working around the country, it can be the biggest teach-in of any kind. Ever.
Focus the Nation is also a lot more than just a teach-in, though. Participants will be discussing and voting on an agenda of solutions and bringing that agenda to their national elected officials and local decision-makers. The potential to combine interdisciplinary discussion about a problem with global consequences with civic engagement to solve that problem is compelling, and is one of the reasons faculty are getting involved at such a prodigious rate.
Nonetheless, we have a lot of work to do. Our focus right now here at Focus HQ is on forming organizing committees at every school in the country. To track our progress, we have an interactive map (Campus Climate Challenge style, boyee!) with virtual flags to represent groups organizing events around the country. We need to engage students all over the country, and to do that we have to fill this map with flags.
Sure, we have a flag at Dixie State College, named thusly because the county in which it sits, Washington County, is known as “Utah’s Dixie.” And, yeah, we have a flag at MIT, home to infamous global warming denier Richard “Dick” Lindzen. But what about a flag at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, home to another denier, John Christy? What about a flag at Bob Jones University (known primarily for another, less awesome flag)?
You can help! Are you a student? Get in touch with the Focus the Nation group on your campus (or if there isn’t one yet, find a faculty member to head an organizing committee and plant that flag!) Then talk to your friends at other schools in the area. Tell them to do the same.
Even if you’re not a student, you can check out our action map to find schools in your area that don’t have a flag yet and start hitting up professors and students to form a committee and organize an event. Think high schools. Think community colleges. Think law schools. Heck, think pre-schools.
One of the most exciting aspects of Focus the Nation is that it has the potential to reach hundreds of thousands of people who aren’t very concerned about global warming. Sure, they know it’s a problem, but not like finals are a problem. Sure, they say they support cutting carbon emissions, but not so much that they don’t drive an SUV 10 blocks to class. These are the people we have to reach if we want the climate movement to make the step from significant and vocal minority to large and powerful majority on campuses and in communities all over the country. Focus the Nation is a (pimped-out, plug-in hybrid) vehicle to do just that.
I strongly echo Ben’s comments: Focus the Nation has the potential to be a watershed moment in the movement for climate solutions. A nation-wide day of focus on January 31st, 2008 has the potential to utilize faculty expertise, rally activists and reach literally millions of students and community members – many of whom may not already be convinced of the urgency of the climate crisis.
If you’re a student thinking about what you can do on your campus or school when you return next fall to take action for climate solutions, I’d strongly encourage you to help make your school or campuses Focus the Nation event happen. Focus the Nation, like the successful nationwide Step it Up Day of Action back in April, is a volunteer-powered, decentralized effort, and it takes committed individuals all across the country to make it happen.
If you’re interested in finding out more, poke around the Focus the Nation website, see if your school or campus has already ‘planted the flag’ – if not, think about assembling a faculty, staff and student team and planting a flag yourself. Also consider joining the Focus gang for their bi-weekly half-an-hour conference calls focusing on how to set up and run a Focus the Nation event. The next call is tomorrow, Wednesday, June 20th, at 9 am Pacific Time/12 pm Eastern Time. Calls will be the first and third Wednesday of every month, at that time, so mark your calendars! Call in to 1-218-339-7800, passcode 1312008.
It’s time to Focus the Nation on climate change solutions – in fact, as James Hansen points out, time is running out!
p.s. Ben, we should connect in Portland soon and chat about Focus and other youth climate activism campaigns. Shoot me an email sometime…
Thanks for mentioning the conference call, Jesse.
I should actually add, if any of you are reading this before Wednesday the 20th, that Dr. David Orr will be joining us on the call tomorrow morning. This should be pretty exciting, and it’s the second call in a row that has featured a high profile guest (we had Ross Gelbspan on two weeks ago). Do call in if you can and join us!
I noticed that my alma mater (UC Santa Barbara) has one of the report authors. Did not realize UCSB was in the forefront in this research.