Another update from the Climate Hero Tour « It’s Getting Hot In Here

(Author’s Note: We are still working to post videos of the Climate Hero Tour, check back during the weekend!)

Guest post from CALPIRG State Board member, Jenn Engstrom.

So it’s 10:00pm on the Thursday of my spring break and I’m in a church in Los Angeles with twenty other college students staking out spots on the sanctuary floor and spreading out sleeping bags. It is the end of another
packed day on the Climate Hero Tour and students are debriefing today’sevents and preparing media materials for tomorrow. We woke up this morning in San Diego and headed for the County Administration Building for
a press event with a representative from San Diego State Senator Christine Kehoe’s office. Kehoe’s staff member accepted a Climate Hero Cape in honor of the Senator’s work to fight global warming including authoring a
bill last year that requires California’s largest utilities companies to purchase renewable energy produced by any customer.

After doing cheers, singing songs, and generating our first Spanish media hit, students hit the pier to gather photo petitions. Passersby posed with our very own “Captain Cool Down” to show their support for strong global warming legislation and to thank our Congressional Climate Heroes for doing their part. Not only did we succeed in getting 55 photo petitions but we also took pictures with a global-warming fighting pirate and his pirate ship! After spending an hour at the beach doing what most people do on spring break, we then hit the road for LA for an evening of trainings on messaging and how to talk about our very important issue.

Tomorrow’s event in LA will be the last stop on our tour but of course not the end of CALPIRG’s efforts to build the Congressional Climate Heroes we need to pass comprehensive global warming legislation this year. We need you to join our efforts, and invite all of your Congressional representatives to an in-district meeting during the April Recess. Go to the Energy Action Coalition website to send an invite!

About

Gabriel Elsner is currently the Global Warming Solutions coordinator for the Student PIRGs, a network of state-wide, student-run and student-funded organizations working in 25 states on over 200 campuses. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in May 2009 with High Honors after writing a Political Science thesis entitled "Energy Security Policy in Brazil and the United States: Lessons from Success and Failure." Before graduation, Gabe worked in the United States Congress as an policy intern with the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. He also travelled to Bali, Indonesia with SustainUS in December 2007 to represent young people of the United States at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Before Bali, he was the Fundraising Chair on the Student Planning Committee for Power Shift 2007 and helped coordinate the Campus Climate Challenge at UC Berkeley with the California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG). When he's not advocating for clean energy or fighting global warming, Gabriel enjoys camping, music, soccer, and politics.