This is a joint post by Morgan Goodwin, Juliana Williams and Jesse Jenkins. Also cross posted on Dailykos.
Two recent studies “in separate journals over the past few weeks, suggest that both industrialized and developing nations must wean themselves off fossil fuels by as early as mid-century in order to prevent warming that could change precipitation patterns and dry up sources of water worldwide… The world must bring carbon emissions down to near zero to keep temperatures from rising further.“
Sure, the science is evolving, but why are these headlines in major publications particularly relevant to the climate movement? Our activism has been aimed at targets based on cautious interpretation of the scientific data and calls for relatively incremental goals like 2% reductions in emissions per year, targeting 80% reductions by 2050 - one of the main “mantras” of our movement since Step it Up. We’ve been busy making that 80×50 goal politically feasible, but is this really the goal we need to work towards? Now the mainstream media is telling us - climate activists who are supposed to be pushing the cutting edge - that our goals aren’t good enough.
“People aren’t reducing emissions at all, let alone debating whether 88 percent or 99 percent is sufficient,” said Gavin A. Schmidt, of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “It’s like you’re starting off on a road trip from New York to California, and before you even start, you’re arguing about where you’re going to park at the end.”
If we get wrapped up in the targets we get caught up in the mess of what’s politically feasible and scientifically relevant. We as the youth movement need to come at this from a different angle. No more targets. We need a vision.
We as a country, we as a people and a society have overcome amazing challenges when we’ve been inspired by a vision. Inspired by JFK’s call to do the seemingly impossible, we put a man on the moon and built an aerospace industry that launched an economic boom. Inspired by MLK’s Dream and passion, we fought to desegregate our hearts and our society.
We now stand at the brink of a challenge that dwarfs those that have come before - climate change - and we are beginning to articulate a compelling vision that matches the scale of that challenge, of that opportunity. We are ready to start building and talking about something inspiring and tantalizing, something truly revolutionary. This sort of vision can be held by everyone in the movement, moving us from fear and despair at the scale of the challenge to hope and optimism at the equally grand scale of opportunity that challenge presents. That sort of vision must be powerful enough to inspire individuals and society to action.
What is our vision?
Since Power Shift, young leaders across the country have been developing an idea that feels both powerful and simple:
We can be Climate Positive.
Continue reading ‘Washington Post and MSNBC: 80 by 50 Not Good Enough’