It’s Getting Hot In Here

So as I sit at a desk in San Francisco CA, about 3,000 miles away and almost a year out after the expert panel I participated in on Oil, Security, and Climate Change, I have reflected on my experience and figured in light of recent events in Virginia, namely the “handing off” of the State Climatologist Title, it was now time to publish this draft that has been collecting virtual moths in my account.

Now, the people that know me, can attest to my procrastination; I’ve refined it over the years and only empowered it more after reading that one of my great hero’s, David Brower, was also a hard-working procrastinator. But something was a little different a year ago, because this was serious, I was going to be on a panel with Patrick Michaels.

Recently, Patrick Michaels, who was a Professor at UVA and deemed State Climatologist, was actually stripped of his title because of his views around global warming; the issue and office became too politicized. You’ll see why below… thanks for reading.

Michaels is a well known climate skeptic, well at least not anymore, his argument, like most skeptics, has shifted over the years. However, he was mentioned on CBC’s “Denial Machine,” a news-cast on skeptics, their views, and their wallets, as most of these “scientist” are covered with Big Oil and Big Coal money.

I sat on the train, lap-top out, research files strewn across my lap, coffee resting on the tray in front of me. I look out the window to the right of me and notice the trees as they dance by the train. Back to work…. I pull together my last couple slides on corruption and smile nervously to myself. I just wanted to slip in subtly where Michaels finds his support.

Rush through the next couple hours and it’s time for the panel. I feel the coffee coursing through my veins as I step up on stage and realized I am the only woman, young person, and person of color on the panel. I take in a few deep breaths and the panel begins.

Dr. Fox, a professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University, gave his presentation. Then Michaels, rose to speak and surprised everyone by stating very strongly that yes, in fact global warming is real AND we as humans are contributing a great deal; HOWEVER, subsidies and restrictions should NOT be placed on greenhouse gas emissions. What? He says that Kyoto is a waste of money that could either be spent on renewables or elsewhere.

Now I’ve always said Kyoto was a weak document and didn’t necessarily always agree with Kyoto but I would hardly call the purpose of the COP “useless.” We need to go beyond Kyoto.

I then did my presentation regarding the Campus Climate Challenge and how our generation is leading the way, while Michaels talked to Dr. Fox most of the time. Although, I did manage to capture his attention span, when I mentioned what his friends at Exxon had been up to.

Now, I’m not about to go through the entire question and answer period but as the students asked questions, challenging his science his aggressive answers made the caffeine rush through my veins, my heart pounding in my ears. How do I intervene? I remembered my voice. See, I grew up, the youngest of six children and you learned to be quick on your feet and loud with your voice if you had any chance of being heard.

Next question… Angie De Soto, working on the challenge at Virginia Tech, stood up. Her hands shook a little and as she opened her mouth her voice quivered, but her question rang out and remains in my ears, “You guys are talking about markets and subsidies…. but this is my future. What are you going to do about it? We have ten years left, what are you going to do about it?”

I thought she had Michaels, but he mainly focused on the “controversy” around the number of years she said and James Hansen, from NASA, says we have left. He couldn’t answer her question of what he was going to do about global warming because what he is doing, is creating uncertainty. That’s his job.

I stepped up, “Well, actually Dr. Michaels, I would actually like to answer Angie’s question. Angie, the markets CAN work for you. There is special interest and the public interest, they don’t always align. But our job, in the next ten years, is to organize on OUR campuses and in OUR communities to make sure that they do align.”

As the panel proceeded, the familiar privileged discussion took place around global warming. The kind of discussion that makes me sick. We sit up there, the air thickly unaware of what the actual “heat” of global warming feels like as my people in the middle-east - with the wars for oil, or as the folks on the Navajo Res that can’t find their traditional medicinal plants any more, or as the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

I tried to bring it to this level and realized from the responses I received from the panelists (minus Mike Town Sierra Club), that what we are calling for is a societal shift. Not only in our lifestyle patterns, but in the way we speak- so we are not oppressive, in the way we think- so that we see each other as equals- so we look for solutions that are JUST for ALL OF US.

We need to start asking the hard questions as Angie did. We need to go further and ask questions like, “Mr. Michaels, where do you get your funding?” or “Mr. Michaels, you say you don’t believe in subsidies, yet you receive funding from one of the most subsidized corporations in the country, I don’t understand.” We also need to bring it to a personal level, a human level. What are we going to do about this, this, and this?

So what are we going to do? WE, the youth movement, what are we doing? We need to be thinking strategically and critically. We need to take time to consider our next steps. We always get caught up in the urgency of things and are willing to sacrifice meaningful inclusion of major stake holders. Yes this issue is urgent. The only way to truly make the impact WE, as a movement want, is to slow down, evaluate where we need to be, who NEEDS to be at the table, and move from there. We CAN’T operate the way we have in the past, we can’t afford it because as Angie said, this is our future, what are you going to do about it?

I know where I’ll be, join me.