It’s Getting Hot In Here

Great posts so far in the Climate Generation Series and it sounds like more to come in the next week.   I was very involved in the youth climate movement from 2001 to 2009, and now kind of like Meg, I’m trying to figure out what to do now.  I’ll talk a little about how I got involved, some of my observations about the movement and some of my thoughts on the future.

Some of my history

I worked with many others at the University of North Carolina to create a student-funded renewable energy account, which has since funded solar hot water panels and geothermal projects on campus.  It was one of the first Southern student initiatives for clean energy.  Then some of us from UNC joined with others from Duke and NC State University to put on a Southeast regional conference to help spread similar initiatives for renewable energy and energy efficiency to campuses around the region.  The South as a region uses some of the highest energy per capita and the dirtiest energy in the nation.

I was first inspired to take action at a student energy and climate conference in early 2002 at the University of  Colorado at Boulder, where I met a number of  students like Kassie Rohrbach, who had led a successful campaign at Connecticut College for renewable energy (and who I met up with later to start the Energy Action Coalition). I was further stirred to action by the fact that none of the students I met from the South and I eventually went on to start the Southern Energy Network and support regional networks around the US.

Through encouragement from my advisor at UNC, I ended up winning the Morris K Udall Scholarship in 2002 & 2003.  It was in 2003, at the Udall scholars gathering, where I met folks like Billy Parish, Jared Duval who I worked really closely with over the next four years or so on creating EAC.  A number of us decided that the biggest thing we could do to help the environment was to get someone other than George Bush elected in 2004, so we stayed up late one night trying to figure out how we could best do this.  I had never met Billy, but he looked at me and said “you know you want to do this.”  I agreed to help start Students for an Environmentally Responsible President (SERP).  SERP may not have been successful, but I learned a lot of helpful skills about organizing with others around the country.  I also counted on the support of many of the SERP folks around the country to help keep me committed and passionate about working to make change.

And there’s so much more including national days of action, the creation of the Energy Action Coalition, the creation of this blog at the UN Climate Negotiations in Montreal in 2005, climate fast in front of the White House, four more Southeast conferences and . . .

Some Observations and more history

My experience with EAC also brought me to my first anti-oppression (working against oppression) trainings where I started to understand my privilege and the privilege or lack of privilege of others in my life and in the context of my work.   This has made it a lot easier for me to understand different perspectives and to work in diverse coalitions.  I think the continued anti-oppression trainings and readings for all coalition partners participating in the funded work of the coalition helped keep the coalition together.  It wasn’t easy, though; once we spent a whole meeting that was supposed to be focused on budgeting on trying to work with one organization that refused to participate in doing one reading and discussion on anti-oppression per semester.  The coalition work also funneled down into some organizations.  The Southern Energy Network, for example, implemented anti-oppression trainings at most of our state and regional summits and many of our steering committee gatherings.  The steering committee also drafted anti-oppression principles and policies to better carry out these principles.  It has been a long, challenging journey, but I think it is well-worth it and I encourage everyone to continue learning about and exploring anti-oppression.  School of Americas Watch has some good resources on anti-oppression.

Being a white person from a middle-class family, I don’t feel like I experienced much oppression, but as a woman, I do feel that I’ve experienced oppression.  I’ve experienced that people are more likely to listen to and respect male voices than female voices and females often fall into roles doing logistics and behind the scenes work (versus males who are more likely to be seen and heard).  For example, I have been a youth climate conference where there were lots of male and few female youth leaders speaking, even though there were lots of strong women leaders involved in the work.  I’m writing about this not to call anyone out, but because I think most men and women are not aware of these issues, and I think we all need to be more aware of this especially in our work within the climate movement.  [On a side note, let me know if you’d be interested in helping me put together a longer piece on this in the future.]

Quick Thoughts on the future

In 2006, I made a gamble on a keynote speaker that I’d never heard of for the 4^th annual SSREC in early 2007.  Van Jones was that speaker and he blew everyone away with his vision of a diverse green movement.  Young leaders kept talking to Van and asking him questions until hours after his talk when the building had to be locked.  And in the years since, I’ve seen the youth climate movement help propel the green jobs movement to the national stage and vice versa. With our world now deep in a recession and on the brink of climate destabilization, there is a necessity to bring together labor, environmental, and social justice interests to create solutions.  We have the opportunity to create of tens of thousands of good green jobs that will improve environmental quality, pay living wages with good benefits, and empower people to create positive change in their communities!

So, my advice is: tell your stories (you’re likely to inspire others), keep doing what you’re doing, support and mentor other leaders as much as possible, learn more about anti-oppression, fight oppression in your work, and help create good, green jobs!

It’s Getting Hot In Here: Climate Generation is a month-long series reflecting on the state of the youth climate movement.  As we pivot into 2010, the series will provide a forum for discussion on the history of the youth climate movement, recent victories and setbacks, potential for growth in capacity and influence, and how to orient the movement in the post-Copenhagen landscape.  Please join youth leaders for posts on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and early evenings.