It\’s Getting Hot In Here

Fellow Americans,

“With, or Without You.”  This will be the chant echoing across the country as we begin to understand that no one other than us is responsible for constructing the change we all so desperately seek.  No longer will we impatiently wait for others to offer us the necessary conditions to live in a just, equitable society.  The society we resurrect will be based on our ability to carry the fire of ingenuity, innovation and creativity, simmering in each one of us.

We are at a time of significant opportunity.  Yet, opportunities alone are not enough. We need the skills to make use of them.  Ten days from now, at the crossroads of hard skills and collective empowerment will be a new future for each one of us.  PowerShift 2011 is the time to commit to finding a vocation consistent with the change you seek.  It’s about jobs. It’s about production.  It’s on you.

This PowerShift, you can learn the skills to tell the story, or, you can become the story.

Commit yourself to learning the skills to take hold of your own destiny.  Sign up for the weekend long Clean Economy Track at PowerShift 2011:  http://www.powershift2011.org/conference/clean-economy

We will do this, with or without you.

This country has been built and influenced by each generation that has come to pass. While we still face major social issues, these previous generations have contributed some of the most impressive feats known to man, developing unique and marketable skills and tools that have fueled an extraordinary amount of growth and set the highest standard of living the world has ever seen. However, our generational brethren also left behind something else: a very specific mind set on the world.  A mind set that can be seen today powering our infrastructure, shaping our culture, and instilling our values. One that was relative to the times of our mothers and fathers, grandparents and great-grandparents but now stands outdated and dangerous.

Bob Dylan was right when he said “the times, they are a changin’.” In fact, times have changed.  One doesn’t need to look very far to see that our previous generation’s systems, values and ideas were built to be supplied by a finite source that right now is exhausting our planet’s resources, while destroying its species and environment.  It is here we can witness most explicitly our generational divide. One in which past generation’s values, skills and mind sets are no longer suitable or sustainable for us. We need to embrace this divide. But we must do so carefully and in a way that equips our peers with new skills, values and perceptions, and also enables older friends, families and neighbors to partake and share in building a new holistic, clean energy economy.  It’s time to have exponential learning overcome exponential growth. It’s time to value accumulated wisdom overcome accumulated wealth.

BUILDING A BRIDGE TO SOMEWHERE

To bridge this multi-generational divide we need to integrate education and training,  applying both to communities and peoples who need it the most. Continue reading ‘Green Economy Leadership Training’

A visual interpretation of the Washington DC summer project being managed by The DC Project

One question: Who’s responsible?

Let’s be real here. We’ve all read the headlines. We know all about the corporations, politicians, lobbyists, government. The list of culpable parties for the economical, environmental and societal crises our country faces is long and distinguished. The solutions to them many seem to think, are hopeless. While these problems are large, complex and years in the making, the one question we need to ask is, “Who’s truly responsible?” We are.

This summer pioneers of sustainable systematic change will commence in developing community empowered solutions. Collectively sharing resources and knowledge, individuals and communities will construct a national synergy that will be contagious and unprecedented. Across the country, communities, organizations and individuals will make a commitment for the betterment of each other while also allowing for a personal transformation of the individual.

It’s on us.

When we take a look back ten years from now and analyze the mind-set of leaders building the holistic, clean energy economy, we will see these motivated individuals did not ask compliance out of others, or demand “right” decisions from political leaders. Instead, they were shifting their energy toward personal development. It’s here we realize that we are responsible. That what we do as individuals (and then together collectively) is the answer in bringing about real, positive change. Each of us has the capability to embrace that which has come before us. This presents an unique opportunity to use that knowledge to think freely and outside the box for real remedies to what ails us. Using the experiences that have shaped each of us, we have the responsibility in finding solutions to our present and future problems. Continue reading ‘Building the I and the We’

The RFP

“We need heroes. Build them, dont put your fist up, fill them. Fight with tools.”

These lyrics by a popular band out of Denver, The Flobots, embodies the type of change we need within the youth movement to obtain what we want most; a holistic clean energy economy. The easy question is, how do we do this? The answer, if we do our part together, might not be as difficult as you think.

First, we need to to address our cities and communities that are no longer transforming themselves. The good news is there are those that have already started to do this. Heroes, as we call them. They are individuals who have brought about areas of positive change because they envision something greater. Each of these heroes are people just like you, links of a chain bounded together by community or organization, each with a story to tell, each empowered to make a positive difference.

These are the types of stories and individuals that create the positive synergy within a movement that turns a vision into a reality. There’s no question visions such as these have been plagued with the apathy and skepticism. Radical change has many opponents. But now is the time to work with communities on finding answers to problems that continue to plague them.

This Summer, the Energy Action Coalition is listening. Communities such as yours will have the opportunity to connect to something bigger, something that can be leveraged for relevant, real policy change. This will aide the movement in scaling-up to become a size needed to achieve the kind of positive transformation our cities and communities crave. Continue reading ‘Request for Proposal: Build the Clean, Energy Economy’