As climate change debate moves from the question of “Is it real?” to the “What should we do?,” and our decision makers begin debate on climate legislation, the tactics taken by the youth climate movement are also expanding. Activists are simultaneously engaging in intense policy and value debates, summer training programs, pieing, and tons of stuff I don’t even know about.
We’re also starting to run into what I would unceremoniously call mid-term or mid-scale actions: those actions that lie in between short-term strategies and goals (organizing, communication, the development of a shared system of values and language, recognition of a “movement”) and the long-term vision (a sustainable, just, prosperous, climate positive, clean energy economy and society). To me, mid-term actions highlight the need to challenge and apply our values by taking a direct role in creating and demonstrating the future that we want to see. It’s moving off campus and into the community, starting a business or nonprofit, engaging with traditional environmental orgs across age divides, challenging the power of decision-makers, educating ourselves and others on a mass scale in a new way, collaborating on a local, regional, and national scale, and being creative in our view of the world.
Mid-term actions are process-oriented, experimenting, questioning, and applying our values. They are capacity-building; not only will mid-term actions reduce our carbon footprint and give us experience in reforming institutions, but they will grow our movement, cultivate an ecological consciousness, chip away at the power of the opposition, and scale-up to meet the challenge.
They’re also tough. They require a lot of thought, dedication, conviction and work. Mid-term actions have no clear “victory,” no sweeping legislation that will be passed or clear end of the road.
Nevertheless, mid-term strategies are crucial – and youth have the power and creativity to start them now. And so I offer to you some theory and practice from my own experiences here in Minnesota. These examples shouldn’t be viewed as isolated actions or demonstrations of what works; youth across the country are creating similarly creative projects. We don’t have everything figured out, (by any means!) and are constantly reassessing and challenging our plans. But we’ve got some inspiration, creativity and hope that I’d love to share and discuss.
Politics and Policy
Past movement approaches to political institutions seem to function in a couple of ways – special-interests advocacy (voting, lobbying) or direct action. Within the youth climate movement, both of these approaches have been, at times, unbelievably successful. However, there is another approach – a movement for coalition building and collaboration between citizens and government. Rather than tolerating pandering from politicians and apathy from citizens, we are entering a new era of political participation based on real action.
About six months ago, Republican Governor (and potential VP candidate) Tim Pawlenty approached the Will Steger Foundation and our state network, TEAM MN, about the prospects of a Youth Forum on Global Warming Solutions. We held Pawlenty’s feet to the fire and drew a little bit of attention in the process - the forum achieved enough success that the Governor’s office asked us to advise them through a youth advisory board. Our federal senator, Amy Klobuchar, and climate scientist James Hansen also contacted the WSF, asking to participate in similar forums. A coalition of thirty-eight state congresspeople devoted to “green solutions”, many of whom we had built relationships with through lobbying and internships, approached students for another partnership. With support from the Sierra Student Coalition and RE-AMP (a coalition of 60+ Midwest nonprofits and foundations) we built a student position into RE-AMP’s five working groups that aim to influence the Midwest Governor’s Association. We formed a Midwest Climate Declaration (a work in progress) to respond to the Governor’s Climate Agreement. And this is just the beginning!
Surprise, surprise - our politicians do not have all of the answers. This isn’t to say their intentions aren’t well meaning, although sometimes they’re not. Rather, many politicians often don’t know what to do or are afraid to reach far enough. In response, youth across the country are not only lobbying, but in some cases, proposing and writing legislation. We are reaching beyond the individualized/atomized actions of voting by changing political possibilities with collective efforts like PowerVote, regional actions influencing executive institutions and collaboration with city governments to change the face of clean energy and city design. Youth advisory panels and political actions are building the bridge between our current political culture of reticence to the future of deliberative, participatory, and localized democracy. True democracy is governance by the people, and if we really want strong legislation, we shouldn’t be afraid of building it ourselves.
Business and economics
Many arguments on IGHIH as of late have focused on the destructive nature of “capitalism,” an institution that eludes definition but is almost universally loathed among radical groups and activists. I’ll be the first to admit that the value-system tied in our economy is out-of-whack and crushes institutions and people that refuse to acknowledge its universality or standards of success. However, these generalizations are only moderately useful when we consider the vast changes necessary to get us to a climate positive society.
Rather, it’s time we start thinking about what values our new economy should have, by democratizing businesses and changing the value systems within “capitalism” itself. Minnesota has led in this area in the past, beginning with worker cooperatives (co-ops) formed by Finnish miners in the early 1900’s, food co-ops in the 60’s, and today’s farmer co-ops, community wind projects, and union-led green manufacturing efforts. Co-ops seek to challenge the hierarchy of business structure, elitism, and wealth by giving one vote to every member, providing open membership, and supporting member economic, democratic, and educational benefits.
Here in Minnesota, a group of community leaders, business entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, interested citizens, and innovative youth have founded Cooperative Energy Futures. Based on the model of a revolving fund, Cooperative Energy Futures builds global warming solutions through community organizing and provides returns to members by investing in energy efficiency improvements. We’re trying to insulate the thousands of homes in Minnesota that don’t have insulation. When combined with education efforts, efficiency improvements could exceed 50%! Energy efficiency has the power to be a trillion-dollar industry, and we are seeking to turn that trillion dollars in to a funding source for clean energy for all and green jobs rather than corporate positions.
Youth could be easily dismissed as uninformed, idealistic and naive, and our group is constantly battling the view that this is a “cute class project.” Yet our movement has the power to truly shift the way the business world thinks. Good development is coalition-based; Cooperative Energy Futures wouldn’t be working right now without the help of academics like Joel Rogers, government institutions like the Department of Commerce and our state legislature, willing citizens, investors, and religious organizations. Many youth (and non-youth) are challenging the assumptions of capitalism and traditional economics by building and demonstrating alternatives. It’s time to start thinking about institutionalizing the values that will take us from energy efficiency and clean energy to a society-wide reawakening of ecological consciousness.
Structural movement support
Traditional networks of grassroots movement support have sometimes fallen to hierarchical leadership, controlled by funders and entangled in capitalism. This process has been labeled by some as the “nonprofit industrial complex,” but also manifests itself in many other nongovernmental organizations. Some orgs have become so focused on making money for their own cause that they become willing to cave to the interests of donors, make poor investments, and actively compete with like-minded groups. Just think: how many colleges and universities claim to uphold sustainability while investing billions of dollars of their endowments in dirty energy? It’s nonsensical, hypocritical, counterproductive, and just plain stupid.
The support network of the Sierra Student Coalition, emerging state networks like TEAM-MN, the Cascade Climate Network or Re-Energize Texas, and emerging regional collaborations are challenging this model and redefining how our organizations interact. But at the same time, many youth are often still dependent on summer jobs to put food on the table, and too stuck within the “go to college to get a job” paradigm.
A number of endeavors in Minnesota are challenging these assumptions. Students have incorporated a nonprofit, Grand Aspirations, (currently with fiscal agency through Global Exchange) that empowers, connects, and supports people as they create innovative, self-sustaining, and inter-dependent initiatives that build capacity for the climate movement, like Cooperative Energy Futures, alternative summer programs and think-and-do tanks like the Summer of Solutions, and other unfunded innovations. But beyond the jargon, Grand Aspirations is trying to help us sustain ourselves as full-time activists.
I’ll be honest – we’re not sure where we’re going to get money yet. Some might come from a “sponsor-a-climate-innovator” option, giving us a chance to (at least) tell our stories to as many people as possible. Successful projects might be able to raise money, and we’re toying with the idea of building a partner foundation and/or holding a nationwide Funder’s Conference. Honestly, I’m sick of writing grant applications. But by simply institutionalizing these seemingly disconnected endeavors, we are establishing credibility and demonstrating the success of our projects to a world that doesn’t quite understand how serious we are.
True empowerment
Generally speaking, the youth climate movement is doing some seriously kick-ass and revolutionary stuff - and we’re mostly doing it on volunteer time! It’s about time we start imagining
how to be activists for the rest of our lives (or at least until we can get some more green jobs up in here). Breaking through the nonprofit industrial complex is difficult, but the movement is in a unique position to rethink how to successfully work for change without begging for spare change.
Understanding that we (youth, activists, everyone) are global warming solutions means taking our power, responsibility, potential, and ourselves very seriously. Thousands (and dare I say millions?) of youth are redefining what it means to be citizens, humans, even living beings. We’ve already done some amazing things: inspiring direct action, lobbying institutional and political “leaders”, canvassing, stopping coal plants, turning out voters, phonebanking, and changing the role of our educational institutions. But the fun doesn’t (and shouldn’t) stop there!
The movement has an opportunity, almost a mandate, to expand our repertoire and to broaden our horizons. We need to begin redefining how we interact with each other and with the organizations that we belong to. It’s time for a deep discussion on how we coordinate our efforts and strategically focus our strengths. It’s time we start thinking about how we can network the nation, glocalize our actions, and make sure that everyone knows about it. It’s time we claim Richard Branson’s $25 million prize for the “technology to solve global warming” because we are the technology that will solve global warming. It’s time for a movement emergence party. It’s time we’re visible - at the polls, for sure - but also within our communities, states, and regions. It’s time to push the boundaries, to challenge assumptions, and to really acknowledge our collective knowledge, power, and responsibility. What does that look like?
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Kai, well said. There is some incredibly innovative and exciting activism going on, and it often doesn’t look like your grandma’s activism. We’re pushing boundaries and expanding what it means to be an activist, what it means to be a political act. On the surface, something like the Cooperative Energy Futures, Summer of Solutions, or the Northwest Institute for Community Energy may not look like activism. They look like implementation of climate solutions. They look like a (non-profit) business. But political? Activism?
But when we put these actions into the context of our larger movement, when we realize the need to actually show people with their own eyes what climate solutions look like, when we recognize how creating real, tangible examples of a climate positive future helps us advance our political agenda (indeed is critical to it!), then this kind of “mid-range” action IS activism.
This summer is going to be amazing. My friends in Oregon are starting to call it the Summer of Climate Love! Head to the Summer Opportunities tab to see just a taste of what young people are spending their summers doing.
Kai, you make a really good point about needing to connect the dots. We are doing a lot of things that are awesome, innovative and seemingly disconnected acts. We need to be able to tell the story of our actions and our movement. Yes, youth traditionally have very limited access to the traditional media. Screw tradition.
I want to challenge every activist out there to tell their story - write it, film it, compose it, paint it, sculpt it, sing it. Tell it in whatever way resonates with you. Our stories inspire, so don’t keep them to yourselves.
This blog is an incredible resource, but don’t stop there. Take your stories to local newsletters, discuss it in your everyday conversations, pitch it to the traditional media, find new media outlets, create your own youTube channel. Let’s challenge ourselves to tell our stories as often as we can. Some may not think that what they’re doing is all that impressive, but you never know who you might inspire to join the action through your story.
So here’s my question: will you challenge yourself to share your stories, your experiences with new people in new ways?
Kai,
This is a great piece. We need new forms of activism to deal with this new problem. Infighting isn’t going to solve it, and neither are traditional organizing models. Cheers to the creativity and passion of young people, who refuse to be patronized and written off because of current so-called “political realities.” We always put the cart before the horse, try new things, and we should keep doing that, because it’s what we’re good at.
Phil