Beyond that, we are ready to work hard to build the future we want to see. Honestly, if you want to see change in this country, put youth climate leaders in positions where they can start implementing ideas.

Zo: great poem, for sure going to remember that one

Reading your account of the forum and your moment of frustration and deepened commitment in the snow, I’m feeling ever-more stirred, fired up, and ready to go.

A dear friend, Omar Zubaedi, recently wrote a mind-blowing poem I’d like to share called “Each and Every One”:

Like pine cones masterfully
shaped
for protecting and releasing

Or Jay’s beak and tongue masterfully
shaped
to extract
the feather winged seed

We are Masterfully Shaped to ride the currents
of These Times

The great waves of cataclysm and reformation

The mires and tangles of confusion and cruelty

The blessed pulses of new life, new ways, new mind

Trusting and becoming your own particular
deep nature
again and again, Attune to
the Unimaginable. Like those ancient ones
who became infatuated
with sparkling warmth
shafting through
their watery home and,
Unforeseeable, began to harvest photons.

Like Sojourner Truth, Albert Einstein, Desmond Tutu,
like the first ancient potmakers, first ancient seed planters:
Strive for and Expect the Unforecastable.

Like Gazelle shaping Cheetah shaping Baboon
shaping Grass Seed shaping Soil shaping Gazelle
in the richness of relations co-arising,
each and every one of us Masterfully Shaped
for These Times.

As we celebrate, we have to get serious about strengthening the Senate bill. This is the most important piece of legislation in the world that will determine the course of the clean energy economy, and it has major problems that must be addressed (I mentioned some here).

Gabriel Elsner hit the mark at the event when he told Secretary Chu we aren’t doing enough and asked, how are we going to achieve the new Apollo project for clean energy? I’ll expand on that: how are we going to achieve a new global climate framework based on large-scale investment in immediate technology development and deployment, as opposed to binding emissions caps based on distant future targets? And how are we going to train the tens of thousands of young energy scientists and engineers we need to drive this revolution and keep America competitive? These questions have led several students and me to launch a new group called Americans for Energy Leadership, and we’re excited to work with Energy Action to advance Obama’s clean energy education proposal in the months ahead.

Again, thanks for your leadership and keep up the good work.

Godspeed,
Teryn