This video is of and by my friend and co-worker Matt Kazinka. He’s making the case why you should join the Summer of Solutions. The youth-led grassroots program is already growing rapidly – we had 1 program in St. Paul, Minnesota – last year it blossomed to nine nationwide. Dozens of grassroots activists have jumped on board the process of “making it happen“, and are generating climate and energy solutions that also build economic opportunity and social justice all across the country. As one of our grassroots leaders wrote last spring as the 2009 wave of solutions was ramping up – this is just the beginning. Its a grassroots movement led by young people who are creating solutions with their communities while building careers growing the green economy. We know you have the solutions, so please join in!
APPLY HERE to design and lead a Summer of Solutions program in a community you know and love!
Priority deadline is Wednesday, November 11th, so please act fast.
Seeking solutions? We’ll meet you there. Let’s make it happen.
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A Call To Action For Our Planet
This recent upsurge in press from the corporate denier camp isn’t the best of timing considering the Copenhagen Summit is happening so soon. This shows we must work even harder to spread our message of caring for our planet that we all share. The deniers are now becoming openly vocal so please remember these key points for saving our planet for us and our children’s children:
1-We must be doing “something” to our planet. Nobody can deny that.
2-The scientists say it is happening, so why would we question them? These are dedicated climatologists who devote their entire lives to solving the problems of climate change. The majority of all scientists share the consensous of global warming’s dangers.
3-Addressing CO2 emissions can’t possibly be a bad thing. Either way, it’s going to help the planet one way or another. Why wouldn’t anyone want to do a good thing for the planet? It’s our one and only planet that we must leave for future generations.
The crisis of Climate Change, however it unfolds in the future, could at least be a launching point to help bring the people of the planet together so we can peacefully regroup and finally spread harmony throughout the world and not gluttony, greed and war.
So tell us, how can peace possibly be considered wrong? Let’s keep working together at least for our children’s sake.
Why the big “search” for solutions? Is it because the obvious solutions are unpalatable? There have been countless economic analyses that show that energy is being wasted on a grand scale by the auto and sprawl system. At the same time public policy is to continue subsidizing this system with taxpayer bailouts.
So now we want the kids to come up with “plant a garden”, “change the light bulbs”, and “buy a hybrid” and because it is youth-inspired it must be the wave of the future.
You can put up all the windmills and solar panels you want, but as long as you subsidize car-only-accessible houses that have to be heated and cooled individually, and connected by six-lane highways, you will never make a dent in the problem.
STOP the SUBSIDY first. Don’t expect the kids to know this. We need some honest grown-up economists to tell the truth: the auto is killing the human race.
So continue your organizing, but be honest about what is real, and what is greenwash. Don’t pretend this is a free market of ideas. It is not. It is a struggle between vested interest and the survival of the human race. Putting this responsibility on the kids is a dereliction of duty.
Hi fpteditors (and all),
Clarifying that I totally agree:
#1. That this is about power and systems. The program I’m describing is not about little service projects, it is about young people working WITH communities to create (and recreate) new ways of development, community, economics, and politics.
#2. That “leaving it to the kids” – though referring to the youth generation as kids feels a bit dismissive – is a dereliction of duty, and totally unfair to us. We need all the older generations to join in too, and the Summer of Solutions is not about letting them off the hook.
#3. Cars and suburban infrastructure is a big part of the problem, but it’s not the only part. Let’s remember that personal transportation is responsible for about ~20% of our carbon emissions (transporting stuff – food, products, etc – for another ~13%) while our electrical system is responsible for around another ~40% – which with heating ties into the buildings you mentioned – and almost ~20% from agriculture. So we need to solve the systemic problems with the whole thing. And part of searching for the solution is figuring out how to get other people to participate in the big obvious shifts we know need to happen.
Yes, we must live with less, consume less, acumulate less, purchase less, need less, want less, be less, useless.
Think global, demand handouts and always look for someone to blame or envy.
Some day if we all just sacarifice and underachieve ourselves, the climate will be right again, like the inside of an indoor shopping mall, safe, controlled and predictable.
This is some of the best work being done in the country. It is inspiring to see young people creating solutions for their communities and their generation. It’s become all too clear that solutions aren’t coming from the top, so spread and proliferate summer of solutions, and maybe even turn it into “Generation of Solutions.”