It’s Getting Hot In Here

Thursday morning, I went to a press conference hosted by Clean Energy Works. I knew there would a variety of speakers but I didn’t expect was to be blown away by the words of two young women, both in high school at the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School. I should have expected it.

As Callie Guy, a senior, pointed out to the crowd, “For my generation, the controversy over global climate change simply doesn’t exist. We know what the price of inaction is, and it will fall on me and my friends unless we act now. It is time for my generation to declare their independence from the fossil fuels of the past and lead our country on a clean energy revolution. “

Callie’s right. My generation has moved past deciding if global warming exists to deciding how to solve it. We refuse to listen to false solutions such as clean coal and nuclear. My generation will Define Our Decade with 100% truly clean, safe, green energy.

Maggie Chambers, a junior, closed the press conference with these words which I want to share with all of you.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident that not all energy sources are created equal, that all people are endowed with the undeniable rights to clean air, liberation from foreign oil, and the pursuit of permanent clean energy jobs- That to secure these rights, Government should follow the path of pursuing strong clean energy and climate legislation… Continue reading ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident that not all energy sources are created equal’

Cross posted from CCAN’s blog.

Thanks to the constant updates that is my Twitter feed, this week I discovered NASA’s Earth Observatory website. This website shows satellite images of the Earth- many tragic (arctic sea ice), some providing glimpse of hope (burn recovery in Yellowstone) and some simply bizarre (the growth of Dubai.) Perusing the images and attempting to interpret the changes from image to image was intriguing until the timelapse of mountaintop removal stopped me completely. I no longer marveled at the ability to capture such images, I was sickened at what we are doing to our mountains in Appalachia. I’ve seen mountaintop removal sites in person, but these images clearly show the scale and the permanence of the destruction.

According to the website:
“Below the densely forested slopes of southern West Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains is a layer cake of thin coal seams. To uncover this coal profitably, mining companies engineer large—sometimes very large—surface mines. This time-series of images of a surface mine in Boone County, West Virginia, illustrates why this controversial mining method is also called “mountaintop removal.”

I wanted to share some of the images, though watching the timelapse video on the website is even more compelling.

1984

Continue reading ‘Scars on Our Mountains’

Last night 19 people sat down in the conference center were the UN negotiations were held and began reading the names of over 11 million people who have joined the call for a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal. I stayed with them in support for what turned out to be one of the most memorable nights of my life. Realizing that hundreds of people were reading our liveblog, posting comments of support and watching the webcast made me realize the power of these names of people from around the world.   In solidarity, Canadian youth sat in at the Prime Minister’s office and today, US youth held a sit in at the State Department continuing the read the names of the 11+ million people who have joined the call for a fair, ambitious and legally binding deal. We need to keep finding ways to be sure these voices are heard. Call for solidarity events have been resonating around Copenhagen and coming from activists in US (here and here.)

Can you hold a solidarity event? Below are just a few resources that may help you out.

Finding the 11 Million Names
You can download the names here. This isn’t all of them, but enough to keep you busy for a long time. If you haven’t signed the petition, you can do that too!

Selecting a location
Right now, the Obama administration is stalling the UN negotiations because the US Congress hasn’t passed a climate bill. A great place for your event is your Senator’s local office. Our Senators needs to realize that their failure to take action is affecting people far outside their state- and that their constituents want to see action.

Invite the media
Collect your local media contacts and send them a media advisory about your upcoming action. Shorter than a press release, media advisories function as an invitation, detailing the date, time, location and other logistical information for attendees. Media advisories can be sent by e-mail or fax, depending on the journalist’s preference. Be sure to call and followup with the reporter to make sure they received your advisory, answer any questions and so you can convince them to come.

At the event, give press the press release from the Copenhagen sit-in as well as a press release for your own action. You can use the Copenhagen release as a good template. List local contact info on your release. After the event send the press release out to your local contacts that were interested but couldn’t make the event.

At the event
As press come, have one person greet them and get their contact information. This will help you track what media covers your event and helps build new contacts for the future.

Begin your event with a short introduction about why you are there and what you’re reading. Identify one or two people to deliver a brief statement at the beginning. This should last no more than 10 minutes. Then begin reading the names. Read them for as long as you planned- either for a given time period, until you are asked to leave, or until you are removed. Be sure your group has agreed on a plan in advance. You are standing in solidarity with over 11 million people worldwide and our goal is to let these names be heard by those who have the power to make sure the US supports a fair, ambitious and legally binding climate deal.

Some helpful resources
This was just a basic couple of hints. Below are a few more resources that may help you out. Thank you for joining us.

Sierra Student Coalition Media Guide and Event Planning: http://ssc.sierraclub.org/resources/organizing-basics/getting-started.html

Ruckus Media Guide- http://ruckus.org/section.php?id=18

If you are having a solidarity event, please email us at rapidresponse@powershift09.org.

I’m sitting in my friend Anna’s house after the first night of ReEnergize Texas. They say everything is bigger in Texas, and this summit is no different. Sadly, I got there late and missed the first speakers but arrived during a definitely energizing talk by Reverend Lennox Yearwood of the Hip-Hop Caucus. As he ended the crowd was on their feet clapping and cheering. I got some footage of that so look for it in the coming week, but I’m on a borrowed computer right now.

In the coming day and a half, we’ll be having lots of awesome workshops and trainings, including some I’ve never seen at a state summit before. Personally, I’m pumped about a workshop from Architecture for Humanity, but we’ve also got Physicians for Social Responsibility if that’s more your thing. The number of organizations here is staggering-1Sky, Sierra Student Coalition, National Wildlife Federation, Restoring Eden, Co-Op America, Oxfam, Austin Green Art and more!

This summit is more than a gathering for students to get some great new skills, however. It’s also the launch of a statewide coalition which unites a diversity of students and youth leaders in an alliance that supports and strengths the youth climate movement in Texas, working together to leverage collective power and create change for safe, clean, efficient, just and renewable energy solutions.

Friday afternoon all of us from the March to ReEnergize New Hampshire, strolled out of the office looking forward to taking some time off and chilling with some other young people in Concord who were nice enough to throw a little cookout to welcome us to town (thanks Amelia!) What we didn’t expect was to spend the night answering questions from our new friends about the campaign or to meet musicians who want to play at the rally- and help us reach out to more great bands! And we certainly didn’t expect to go out the next night and meet more people who are excited to get involved. Or to walk into a Quizno’s on Sunday to ask if they mind if we talk to people outside only to have the employees there tell us that they were just talking about global warming and ask to get involved.

But I guess we shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, global warming seems to always be the hot topic of conversation, and young people all over America are calling for action. Luckily, no matter where the ReEnergize New Hampshire team is headed (and we’re headed all over this state!) we’re ready to talk about real global warming solutions for a clean energy economy.

Read our blog to learn more about where we’ll be this summer AND sign up for the March to ReEnergize New Hampshire at climatesummer.org.

*Technically a story about last week. Check out climatesummer.org for posts from what’s going on now.