I won’t bother retaliating to each of the points raised, as it’s not worth my energy.

The team of 20 were a diverse group, doing our best to save the climate in whatever way we know how, much like ASEN (Australian Student Environment Network). Each of the team members got a lot out of the experience. We met, learned, and shared perspectives with other activists, of all stripes, from across the world. We are individually taking back our experiences to our respective organisations – including ASEN – and we have learnt how the project could be better organised, more inclusive, and more radical for Copenhagen.

So long as this is the make-up and leadership of the “global youth climate movement”, the path is chosen, and it’s not “fearless”

The bike people already know this. Bicycle activism is booming, creating new classes of bicycles and attracting new riders who voluntarily refuse carnage. They do it by being visible and athletic and fun. Hall marching, suit wearing and power-phrased statements of intention reflect more on intentions to leverage careers than get anything done.

If the youth had any balls at all they would be all over Biochar conversion of urban green waste and conversion to Terra Preta nova gardens in odd places. You’d be raising figs, and prunes and bamboo to plant in median strips to raise awareness of food miles and paper industry deforestation. You’d be building cob shacks for homeless people in full knowledge that they will be torn down just to demonstrate that homes don’t mean 2K sq. ft. for two super-commuters.

Instead I see lame signs held up for the other conference hoppers before the trip back to the hotel room and the inevitable jet flight home. Losers.

I also think the youth climate movement has ignored a vital segment of the youth population — scientists and engineers. We’ve talked about “green jobs” to install solar panels and retrofit buildings, but from what Jesse Jenkins and I have seen, there’s been very little focus on the “green jobs” of engineering and laboratory research. We need a generation of innovators even larger than the Sputnik generation, yet we’re falling behind in STEM education. Andy Revkin wrote a great post about this yesterday on Dot Earth, “Are Chemists, Engineers on Green Jobs List?”

On the college campus level, this means organizing more students to advocate for greater education and research around low-carbon energy technology and science. Instead of asking college students to simply push for campus carbon neutrality, let’s help them push to establish new majors, new professors, and new centers for clean energy innovation. Knowledge creation, education, and research – these are the comparative advantages of our institutions of higher education, and we should be doing everything we can to leverage them for climate solutions.

We also need some sort of “National Energy Education Act” — modeled after the National Defense Education Act of 1958, which created the human capital necessary to win the space race and launch the world into the information age — that would provide billions of federal dollars to support the creation of these university research and education centers, to provide undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships in the energy sciences, offer grants for more energy research projects, and fund ARPA-E. Jesse and I proposed an idea like this over the summer in the San Francisco Chronicle and Baltimore Sun (PDF), and Chris Mooney featured it in Mother Jones. I also gave a short interview about it here.

So yes, let’s get more young people to advocate with fearless tactics, but let’s also make sure our generation is prepared for the energy innovation challenge. We’re going to be fighting this war for the rest of our lives — we’d better have the brains to win it.

The more we can respect each other (streets respecting suits and suits respecting streets), the better. And if we can coordinate our actions to make maximum impact, we’ll be set for strong progress in the months and years ahead!

Let’s see what we can do to keep emissions falling in the US and even China even when economic growth recovers (see details of ~2.5% US emissions drop in ’08 at:
http://setenergy.org/2008/11/13/a-banner-year-for-us-climate-research-sees-sharp-emissions-drop/

and China electricity generation falling 10+% in November at:
http://setenergy.org/2008/12/05/china-power-generation-falls-record-amount-climate-hope-alive/

Onwards,
Dennis

That said, I’m proud of the young people who bring our moral views into the board rooms and the negotiating rooms. Sometimes that requires a suit, but it doesn’t mean a person has sold out, and we need to resist the urge to demonize. If I had my way, youth would be leading these meetings inside the conference center and in the streets. There is a place for both in a good strategy.

That said, we are always at bigger risk of loosing our edge, and that is the tactic we should be most vigilant in protecting. Keep up the great work!

(1) EU ENVIRONMENT MINISTERS STRIPPED OF THEIR POWER OVER CLIMATE BILL
Wiesbadener Kurier, 5 December 2008

(2) EUROPE DEADLOCKED ON CLIMATE BILL
Deutsche Welle, 4 December 2008

(3) GERMANY’S IMPLICIT VETO THREAT: ‘NO EU CLIMATE BILL WITHOUT GLOBAL AGREEMENT’
AFP, 4 December 2008

(4) POLAND DEMANDS EXEMPTION FROM EU EMISSIONS TRADING SCHEME
AFP, 5 December 2008

(5) GRIM FACES AT POZNAN CLIMATE CONFERENCE
The Green Blog, 4 December 2008

(6) RICH, POOR IN DISPUTE OVER CLIMATE CASH AND CARBON OFFSETS
Reuters, 4 December 2008

(7) ROGER HELMER WARNS OF ‘DEVASTATING EFFECT’ OF EU CLIMATE POLICY
Freedom Association, 4 December 2008

(8) BARACK OBAMA BREAKS FIRST CAMPAIGN PROMISE BY DROPPING OIL TAX
The Daily Telegraph, 5 December 2008

(9) OPINION: OBAMA’S ENVIRONMENTAL TEST
The Wall Street Journal, 5 December 2008

(10) OPINION: TIME FOR THE BBC TO CHILL OUT
The Clamour of the Times, 4 December 2008

(11) ASIAN BROWN CLOUD
Andrew Hamilton [jahamiltonjr@gmail.com]

(12) AND FINALLY: ELECTRIC SHOCK & HOROR AS SALES OF GREEN CARS GO INTO REVERSE
The Times, 4 December 2008