It’s Getting Hot In Here

cross-posted from the Solutionaries blog

To the restless young person who wants to spend their summer collaborating with a community to usher in solutions for our planetary woes,

You are invited to join Summer of Solutions Asheville for a summer of extraordinary possibility. Unique to the city of Asheville, and yet tied to the other Summer of Solutions programs, SoS Asheville will work within our community to strive towards sustainable community development. This summer program, led-by and geared towards youth, will offer different levels of participation with some participants living together, while others work on projects for short term or part-time durations. Projects will focus on things, which are, or can become, solutions to the underlying global, regional, and local challenges we face, whether that is our fossil fuel dependency or our fractured local communities.
As this is the first year of the program in Asheville, every participant can have a hand in shaping the outcomes and creating the projects that will define our Summer of Solutions. We will live and work together on at least one large-scale project and several smaller projects through the summer that will challenge us to develop new skills.

Asheville has played host to adventurers, artists, and visionaries throughout its history and provides a fertile ground for a program like Summer of Solutions to emerge. Building on generations of this experience we will collaborate with partners from city council to art collectives. We are initiating SoS Asheville with a listening project in order to become more keenly aware of the possibilities for our place within the community. As the listening project continues we suspect that projects will come out of the countless conversations and public dialogues we have. Currently though, we are beginning to develop potential projects that will support an integrated understanding of the community, alternative economic models, and energy efficiency and conservation. Continue reading ‘Asheville Summer of Solutions: An Invitation’

One of the spoken word artists was performing at Power Shift 2007 and I stood captivated.  “There is something in the water.  But my melanin will not protect me from my fears.  There is something in the water…”*  It was one of the first times I truly understood the connection between art and activism.  A year and a half later I wrote and performed my first piece of spoken word at the Energy Action Coalition Power Vote training.

Art (spoken, visual, musical) communicates the emotion and passion and values behind the work that we do in a way that sticks in our memory.  On a daily basis organizers in our movement face the weight of global problems, widespread injustice and a system tilted against us, yet we persevere in large part through support and encouragement of this community. Sometimes that is best communicated through art.

Recognizing the importance of creative expression in our movement, It’s Getting Hot In Here is hosting a month-long series called “Create Our Climate,” which will feature video, poetry, prose, visual art and music from this community.  If you have already created such a piece and want to share it, sign up!  If you want to specifically create a piece for this series, sign up!

Even if you’ve never posted anything before, we want your contribution.  We are all artists and have something to share.

*To this day I still can’t find the video of that performance.  If anyone knows where I can find it, please share!

Originally published on Youthradio.org, the premier source for youth generated news throughout the globe.

By: Caitlin Grey

As a high school senior and an ardent environmentalist, I have mixed feelings about new legislation in various states that would change science curricula to include “other views” on climate change, the way some school districts have tried to open the theory of evolution up for debate. I know the goal of such legislation–to downplay the severity of climate change and to cast doubt on its manmade causes–is against everything I stand for as an advocate for all things green. And yet there’s something pretty convincing about how lawmakers have framed these bills: as catalysts for “open discussion” and “intellectual freedom.” I mean, who’s against that?

Indeed, often the most memorable parts of my classes are the fiery debates about contentious topics. It’s when I learn the most. Like when my environmental science teacher led my class in a discussion about the pros and cons of nuclear energy. I’ve always been against building nuclear power plants, which got me into ideological tiffs with some classmates. But being forced to use facts and data I had read in my textbook to hold my own is probably the only reason I remember so much about something I was once so opposed to. Continue reading ‘A Classroom View of Climate Deniers’

Spring has sprung and, on campuses and in communities across New England, thoughts are turning to summer.  It’s time to dust off that bike and hop on for the ultimate climate organizing experience for two months this summer, as we build student power and connect with active communities around New England to build a genuine peoples movement to solve the climate crisis.  In 2009, three intrepid teams of students gathered and biked through the Bay State with Massachusetts Climate Summer.  Building on their success at training leaders and reaching out to local communities, we’re going to make it bigger and better.  This summer Students for a Just and Stable Future, the folks behind the Leadership Campaign (you might have heard about the sleep-outs), is creating an opportunity for you to take up the call in New England Climate Summer, and we need you to join us.

What are YOU doing this summer?

Across the region and across the nation people are creating local solutions to address the climate crisis.  This summer teams of youth will pedal their way from town-to-town raising the profile of this important work and focusing energy and attention on the need for systemic changes.  They’ll be trained in first-rate organizing, and put it into practice for two months stitching together communities and campuses to build a bigger, better climate movement.  Join them!

Continue reading ‘On The Road In New England’

Five activists with Northern Rockies Rising Tide (NRRT) shut down a meeting of the Montana State Land Board in Helena, MT last Thursday, temporarily halting the leasing of 572 million tons of state-owned coal reserves. Following over two hours of public comment regarding the leasing of the Otter Creek Coal Tracts and Secretary of State Linda McCulloch’s move to accept the bid, the five activists staged a sit-in, disrupting the meeting as they chanted “You’re not listening! Hands off Otter Creek!” Rushing the front of the Land Board meeting room and locked down to each, the activists refused to leave until the decision to accept the bid was tabled indefinitely (or they were arrested). After halting the bidding process for nearly an hour all five were finally arrested and taken to the Lewis and Clark County Jail with charges of disorderly conduct. All five posted bail and were released Thursday evening.

Unfortunately, after the sit-in was broken up by the police the Land Board proceeded to award the lease to mine the Otter Creek coal tracts to Ark Land Company, a subsidiary of mining industry giant Arch Coal Inc., for just under $86 million, or 15 cents per ton of coal.

After spending months submitting public comments, writing letters to the editor, testifying in front of the Land Board, and taking all possible action within official channels, opponents of the lease (ranchers, high school students, environmental justice advocates, and other Montana citizens) realized what they had suspected all along: the supposedly democratic process for leasing state lands in Montana is far from democratic. Continue reading ‘Fight Against Coal Moves West: Five Activists Temporarily Halt Leasing of Montana Coal Tracts’

Defining Our Future

Last week, President Obama met with a bipartisan group of 14 Senators and four cabinet officials to talk about climate legislation. To those of us involved in multi-issue progressive organizing, this meeting brought back daunting memories of the fabled  ’bipartisan interest’ that stalled healthcare reform for many months.

At the same time as this high-level meeting was going on, young people across the nation were logging on to ourdecade.org/define to share their vision for how our country’s energy use needs to change in the upcoming decade.

Both President Obama and the youth climate movement are on the same path: both are interested in moving our country away from our dangerous addiction to fossil fuels, in cleaning up our air, in strengthening our national security, creating jobs, and, reducing the terrifying effects of the climate crisis. Both can’t do it alone: the youth clean energy movement needs the insight, creativity and energy of its growing base, and President Obama needs 60 Senators to endorse his plan.

The similarities between the two groups  end there.  Continue reading ‘President & Young People Define Our Decade In Different Ways’

By Shreya Indukuri – ACE Youth Advisory Board Member

Last Monday, I had the great opportunity to go listen to our country’s Secretary of Energy, Steve Chu. After a brief overview of climate change and the reality of global warming due to the human race’s contribution of GHG emissions to the atmosphere, the secretary of energy laid down his thoughts for how the US can transform energy to combat the effects of climate change along with numerous other benefits.

Chu believes that “tens of billions of dollars as a minimum per year [should be] invested [to develop new energy technologies that will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.]” The US is only allotting 3 billion dollars TOTAL to be invested in these technologies compared to China, who is investing 9 billion dollars MONTHLY to revolutionize their energy industry!!! Talk about scale.

When asked what students can do to resolve energy issues, he suggested “putting your computer to sleep”, “becoming better informed” and here’s my favorite “turning off the water tap!”

YES, I agree we must all do those things but seriously, there is SO MUCH MORE that we can do! He should be inspiring students to take leadership and discover and implement already existing energy solutions that can transform their school and community. Does he really expect a catalyst for change among this generation if the only suggestion he can give us is to “turn off the water tap and put your computer on hibernate mode?”

Continue reading ‘Turning off the tap is not enough!’

Sunday night’s passage of health care reform was a tremendous victory for the progressive youth movement.  We must seize the momentum and continue to fight for the change we need.
As the last votes came in, the chant of “Yes we can!” on the House floor marked not only a historic legislative achievement, but a return to that moment on November 4, 2008 when the potential for bold action seemed boundless.

We cannot let that feeling slip again. Starting this week, we are calling Congress daily to remind them that when it comes to our clean energy future, only one answer is acceptable: Yes we can!

Can you pledge 2 calls a day? Two minutes a day can secure clean energy for our lifetime

All it takes is two quick calls to your Senators each day to let them know we are paying attention and we won’t let them sell out our future to special interests.

2 Calls a Day is quick and easy — you can do it on your way to work or class — and it is the best way to make your voice heard in Washington.

Make the pledge at 2Calls.org: it’s our clean energy future and there’s no time to waste.

Also, make sure you share the link on facebook, twitter and other social networks! www.2calls.org

This week, California will host the Asilomar International Conference on Climate Intervention Technologies. The conference follows hearings last week in the US House of Representatives and a report from the UK Committee on Science and Technology, as well as a recent report from the Government Accounting Office, all following on the heels of earlier reports from the Royal Society.  In short, there is a lot of high level interest in the topic.

Given the failure of Copenhagen, the sellout of US Congress to special interests and the stalemated international negotiations, the “last resort” of geoengineering is gaining support. This is especially true as many are either in a state of panic or paralysis following recent announcements of methane seeping from the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, on top of the ongoing reports of emissions rising, ice melting, and temperatures reaching all time highs.

There are good reasons to be quite worried. But there may be good reasons to be even MORE worried by the climate geoengineering proponents and what is going on at Asilomar this week.

The conference holds as its intent to develop “voluntary guidelines” for further research on climate geoengineering technologies. Voluntary guidelines are most often designed to fend off “involuntary” regulation. The conference is organized by Margaret Leinen, who happens to be the mother of Dan Whaley, founder and CEO of Climos, a company with patents currently pending for methods to profit by selling carbon offsets from ocean fertilization, one proposed geoengineering technology. Other major players in geoengineering, some of whom will be at Asilomar, similarly have vested interests in ensuring cash flows for funding, experimentation and commercialization of their pet technologies. Continue reading ‘We Cannot ‘Techno-Fix’ Our Way to a Sustainable Future’

That’s right, on Friday 22 Senators wrote to Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) asking for the climate crisis to be the next big issue to be addressed by the Senate.

Unfortunately, so far it looks like the Senate climate bill won’t look anything like it needs to if we hope to have a prosperous and healthy future. As usual conservative democrats (including some in this list) seem to believe that the only good subsidies are subsidies to dirty energy.

So click on your Senators’ name and give them a call to thank them  for prioritizing our future and let them know about how you Define our Decade!

Continue reading ‘It’s Almost Our Time!’