As we celebrate the recent climate victory in Australia, we’re reminded again here in the United States just how truly isolated we’ve become - we’re now the only nation on Earth to squirm over making the most basic commitment to emissions reductions. So where do we go from here? Simple: as the global will to confront this challenge grows, we turn our attention inward and pry the doors to our closets wide open.
That’s just what students, educators, activists, mayors, businesses and many others are doing in Texas, the biggest carbon-emitter in the Union, home to Big Oil and Big Coal. And with a little help from the media picking up on the trend, the change on the ground in the Lone Star state is beginning to sound encouraging. You know you’ve hit home on an issue when the best the naysayers can come up with is name-calling:
From NPR: “It’s actually really hard, especially in Texas, to kind of make this issue real,” says Beth McIlhaney, a 21-year-old education major. “They slough it off, just laughing it off, [saying] ‘Oh, you hippie,’ or something.”
It may not seem like much just yet, but Beth, we’re with you, and all other Texans standing up to common cynicism about what can be done. Already, some pretty savvy “hippies” gave the collective uh-uh to TXU’s plans to build eight new coal-fired power plants on their turf, and there are plenty more opportunities ahead, including 36 Focus the Nation events in Texas this January and counting. Maybe Governor Rick Perry, who has a little bit of catching up to do, could use a public invitation?
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