It’s Getting Hot In Here

Cross-posted at The Leadership Campaign Blog

Today, An Act to Create a Repower Massachusetts Emergency Task Force — written by Students for a Just and Stable Future (SJSF) and others in The Leadership Campaign — was released from the Senate Ethics and Rules Committee during the 6th Day of Climate Court Hearings for the Boston Common Sleep-out.

Each day last week, citizen-activists marched from the Court House after paying their court fees to the State House to show legislators the depth and breadth of support for the bill.  Well over 100 people faced the courts last week for sleeping out on the Boston Common after the park had formally closed (a misdemeanor trespassing offense).

After scores of people visited his and other key legislator’s offices indicating their support, Senator Frederick Berry, Chair of the Senate Ethics & Rules Committee (and Senate Majority Leader) released the bill from his committee and moved it along to the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy.

“We are extremely thankful to Senator Berry for releasing our bill from committee, opening debate to legislators across the state and allowing us to focus our energy on gathering the votes needed to pass it this spring,” said Martha Pskowski, Hampshire student and Western Massachusetts Legislative Coordinator for SJSF. Continue reading ‘MA Bill Leaves Committee as Climate Court Hearings Continue’

Today, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Sit-Ins that kicked off the Civil Rights Movement, 20 citizen-activists from across Massachusetts woke up early to make their way to the Boston Municipal Court, to face trespassing charges for their participation in the Sleep-outs on the Boston Common last fall.

Over the next two weeks, close to 200 residents of Massachusetts – joined by renowned climate scientist Dr. James Hansen and journalist/activist Bill McKibben – will face the courts for demonstrating their disagreement with their dirty-electricity-powered homes.

Because the citizen-activists’ numbers have overwhelmed the court system, the trials are spread out over the course of two weeks, with 20-30 people appearing before the courts each day.  Yet the district attorney and court magistrate were not unsympathetic, allowing students studying abroad to appear in court in May or September (with approximately two-dozen people appearing between these two later court dates). Continue reading ‘200 MA Citizen-Activists Start Facing Court; March to State House’

An update from the front lines of Massachusetts

Last night, I slept in my bed.

Normally, such an action is not newsworthy, but for me, it was the first time I had slept in my bed since the night of October 23rd, 2009.  Like hundreds of other students, religious leaders, and community members across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts participating in The Leadership Campaign, I have been refusing to sleep in my home powered by dirty electricity until the state implements a policy before December 7th (the start of Copenhagen) to Repower Massachusetts with 100% Clean Electricity by 2020.

100% Clean Electricity is an ambitious goal, or so I’m informed. I invariably reply that sometimes the impossible is necessary. And the necessity of passing legislation, or actually beginning the transformation that will let us live in a just and stable world is understood by a staggering amount of people, both students and community members. At last Sunday’s Sleep-Out  on the Boston Common, we had well over a hundred people there. While that number may not be staggering, the fact that 120 people stayed to receive citations from police, even when explicity told they could leave, staggers me. Here are people who understand the seriousness of the crisis we are all in, people willing to stand by there values. Continue reading ‘Turning the Tide: Principled Determination in a Time of Crisis’

Posted on behalf of Jay O’Hara of the Leadership Campaign

Copenhagen looms like Russia over Sarah Palin’s horizon, and it is easy to get discouraged that negotiations aren’t going to accomplish what needs to be done: our federal government will not pass laws that will meet the demands of physics and chemistry, our President is making speeches full of rhetoric and bereft of policy, and the tops of new mountains are being blown off.

Now is the time for serious actions and strategies that advance our goals.

In Massachusetts, students and community leaders have joined together to lead us out of the wilderness and off the road paved with good intentions. The Leadership Campaign is demanding their state show the nation and the world that it is possible to implement sound policies based on the science of 350. And, they are putting their bodies on the line to do it, working to Repower Massachusetts with 100% Clean Electricity in the next decade. They hope to move legislation forward before international talks begin in Copenhagen December 7.

Continue reading ‘Hope and Action in Massachusetts’

Posted on behalf of Dan Abrams, Boston Media Coordinator for The Leadership Campaign.

10/24 marked the International Day of Climate Action.  It was nothing short of spectacular: 4,000+ actions around the world all calling for 350PPM! However, the activism and work is not over.

We in Massachusetts recognize that October 24th was the beginning, not the end of our work.  After partnering with community groups in 350 actions during the day, we kicked off a series of state-wide Sleep-Outs.  Braving a torrential downpour, students from five colleges in Western Massachusetts joined together on the Amherst Common.  Students at Clark University braved the same rains in Worcester, while students at Tufts and Northeastern spent the night in soggy tents on their respective Boston/Medford campuses.

And then the real magic happened:  On Sunday, October 25th, over 100 students, clergy, and community members gathered on the Boston Common outside the MA Statehouse.  Over 70 of us stayed the night, refusing to sleep in our homes powered by dirty electricity, and instead pitching tents on the commons.  We will continue to refuse warm beds and a cozy night sleep until the state legislature has passed a plan to repower the Commonwealth with 100% clean electricity by January 1st, 2020. We, as Americans, and our brothers and sisters around the globe in developed nations, are involuntarily harming the planet and the people on it as we go about our lives in our homes, apartments, dormitories, and offices.  For most of us, we do not have the choice of what powers our homes.  We are pouring tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the only record we have of it are our monthly bills.  It is time that we step up and accept responsibility for what we are causing – Global Climatic Disruption.  We will not be subservient to the electric companies and we will finally take hold and choose how to run our lives.

Continue reading ‘MA Students Sleep-Out for 100% Clean Electricity Bill’

Posted on behalf of Dan Abrams, Massachusetts Power Shift Boston Media Coordinator and student at Northeastern University.

On Thursday, Massachusetts Power Shift (MAPS) officially kicked off our intense fall campaign – to re-power Massachusetts with 100% clean electricity within the next ten years.  We’ve named it the “Leadership Campaign,” to demonstrate that now is the time that we step up and answer the call to leadership which our politicians and those who represent us have failed to answer. The goal of the campaign is to make Massachusetts a leader in renewable energy and climate solutions by passing a bill to re-power the Commonwealth with 100 percent clean electricity in 10 years by Dec 7th 2009. By being leaders at home, the people of Massachusetts ensure the leadership of our state, of our Senator, John Kerry, and of our country in Copenhagen as it leads the world towards a future that preserves human life, heals our planet, and takes bold steps towards sustainability at home.

We kicked off our campaign with a line up of impressive speakers supporting our actions.  State Senator Marc Pacheco, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change, Dr. Kerry Emanuel, Atmospheric Science Professor at MIT, Craig Altemose, Mass Power Shift Coordinator, and Reverend Jack Johnson, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches all spoke on behalf of the need for strong climate leadership.

Sen. Pacheco reaffirmed the importance of every day citizens holding their elected officials – at every level – accountable.  We must ensure that our leaders act on our behalf.  Dr. Emanuel gave us the rundown on the most up-to-date climate science and what it means for the state of Massachusetts.  Rev. Johnson followed up with a moral perspective.  Climate change is more than just too much carbon in the atmosphere.  It is a political issue, economic issue, moral and religious issue and most importantly a human issue. We must work to protect not just ourselves, but our fellow man and fellow creatures that inhabit this earth now and in the future.

As we all are aware, the current federal bill (ACES) is basically a joke.  Under a best case scenario, the bill will reduce our emissions to around 1% below 1990 levels by 2020.  It is imperative we do more than this inadequate piece of legislation.  We at MAPS see Massachusetts having a great opportunity for bold climate leadership right within our state.  Massachusetts has a strong history been a crucial national leader. The Commonwealth was a battleground for the American Revolution and we championed progressive politics by legalizing gay marriage.  It is not unreasonable then to expect nothing less than this unshrinking leadership for our current crisis: global climate disruption.

Besides our progressive history, Massachusetts is also in another unique position: our US Senator, John Kerry, will be the US chief negotiator at Copenhagen.  We must send Kerry off to this summit knowing his state is committing itself to fighting global climate disruption with full force.  That is why our goal has an end date – December 7th, the first day of the climate summit.

Continue reading ‘Mass Power Shift and Mass Council of Churches Kick-off Leadership Campaign’

Posted on behalf of Stephanie Black-Schaffer, Western Mass Team Leader, Mass Climate Summer (a project of Mass Power Shift)

Mass Climate Summer is over, and yet certain things will always stay with me.  A new appreciation for the versatility of ketchup, a comprehensive familiarity with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, the imprint of a bike seat on my derriere, and a better understanding of the urgency for climate action.   But if I didn’t understand the urgency from the beginning, why did I invest my whole summer in such an internship?  I will—obnoxiously—answer this question by asking another.

Do you know who the hardest person to canvass is?  Right now you’re thinking maybe it’s the misanthrope who takes vindictive pleasure cussing you out, or maybe the apathetic aristocrat who says ‘no’ before you open your mouth, or maybe the talkative old lady who keeps you on her porch for forty minutes.  –Incidentally, we had all three–

But the hardest person to canvass isn’t any of these.  It’s the person who is totally informed.  Informed but jaded.  It’s that individual who laughs when he hears your petition, tells you he’ll sign it because he thinks it’s a great idea, but that he’s been trying to change the world for decades and no one listens.  That gets you wondering.  If this active, experienced, informed person couldn’t get anything done, who are you—one college student—to try?

Now imagine living with such a person.  My father had the highest National Merit score in the state of Ohio.  One of the fifty greatest minds of his generation.  He’s also extremely well-read.  But though he’s certain climate change is occurring, he doesn’t believe we can do much about it.  He gets me wondering.  If my intelligent, informed father doesn’t think anything can be done, who am I—one little student—to presume?

But then it occurred to me: movements start with one or two little people.  The Civil Rights movement started in the single digits.  There were only nine Little Rock students, one Ruby Bridges, four sit-in demonstrators, one Rosa Parks, two black major league baseball players, one Martin Luther King Jr.  If they could change the course of history, why couldn’t I?

Continue reading ‘Final Thoughts on Mass Climate Summer’

Cross-Posted with Mass Climate Summer Blog.  Posted on behalf of Jeff Gang, Mass Climate Summer participant.

For the past two months, I’ve been spreading the word about the climate emergency as part of Mass Power Shift’s Massachusetts Climate Summer, a program of twenty student volunteers biking around the state.  (You might have already read about us!)  We’ve been in cities and towns, past beaches and through slums, under the rain and sun, and on ferries, trains, and subways. We canvass every weekday, not asking for money, but building support for a movement and engaging leaders. And since our project is almost through, I thought I’d share some of the lessons we’ve learned during our time in the Commonwealth.  First, I’ll talk about the canvassing experience, and then I’d like to share some impressions about getting the message across.

What is it like going door-to-door? Well, as anyone with canvass experience can tell you, it can be difficult.  But I’ve found that as soon as I tell folks, “we’re not fundraising” or “there’s no money involved” they loosen up, and begin to seriously listen to me.  I’m not some kid with a fundraising script; I’m a volunteer, giving my time because I care about climate change.  The message is clear: they should care too.  Our efforts have been very successful – 4,000+ signatures thus far.  I’d suggest that this sort of canvassing holds good potential for our movement across the country.

What does real America think about climate change, and how do they respond to it?

Continue reading ‘Lessons from Massachusetts’

Posted on behalf of Jay O’Hara, Mass Climate Summer Coordinator.

Another week has closed here in New England, and Mass. Climate Summer has passed the half-way mark with nearly 20 students soldiering on, biking from town to town building the movement.  While this has been an exciting and dramatic week for climate action; from L’Aquila to Washington and Mt. Rushmore, Massachusetts Power Shift continues to focus our energy on building a powerful movement capable of working for bold, science based solutions.  And of course we’ve had a bit of fun in the process.

To date we have visited over 25 towns, found over 3,000 people eager to Repower America with 100% clean electricity in the next decade, presented sustainability workshops in 12 communities, recruited dozens of organizers ready to work towards a powerful show of force on October 24^th and scored over a dozen media hits from small-town papers to the Boston Globe and NPR.  But we haven’t stopped there.  This week our teams’ creativity was on full display…

On Thursday  July 2^nd, the Cape Cod team worked with our partners at Greenpeace and Clean Power Now to showcase exactly how global warming and sea level rise will bring destruction to Massachusetts.  Several weeks ago extreme high tides washed away several cottages on Cape Cod, and last week as the remainder of the cottages were being dismantled by cranes, our team went to point out that “Global Warming Looks Like This.” Heather Bulis, a senior at Westfield State College said, “it was awesome to get out there and see what global warming actually looks like and collaborate with other organizations.  We were out there when they were demolishing the houses, it was pretty powerful.”

Continue reading ‘Mass Climate Summer takes State by Storm’

The below article is an attempt to use a satirical historical comparison to demonstrate how we have drifted away from moral messages that convey our values and the seriousness of the situation in favor of treating a societal evil (emitting greenhouse gases) as a trade-able commodity that has a rightful place in our society.

“Cap and Trade Bill Passes House, Democrats Attack as Assault on Economy”

June 26th, 1859

The United States House of Representatives, in a victory for the nascent Republican Party, narrowly voted to substantially reduce the amount of slaves in the United States by the turn of the century.

“This is a great victory for freedom and equality” said Rep. Daniel Webster, Chairman of the Committee on Commerce of the House and lead author of the bill.  ”By the end of the century, about 80% of the slaves alive right now will be free.”  Webster worked closely with long-term ally Henry Clay to draft the legislation. Continue reading ‘Sacrificing the Moral Highground: A Satirical Article on How We Got to Where We Are’