It’s Getting Hot In Here

Young clean energy & climate companions,

The following is an enlightening piece from the Huffington Post by David Gershon, one of our movement’s older-in-body-but-young-at-heart  visionary thinkers and author of the just-released book, Social Change 2.0, which I highly recommend you check out.  I invite you to read carefully, consider implications for our strategies moving forward, and let me know if you’d like to get connected to David:

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The political leaders of the world that gathered in Copenhagen had the unenviable responsibility of forging a strategy to pull humankind back from the brink of a dire future. What ultimately will come from this meeting is uncertain, but whatever occurs, the challenge ahead is immense. According to conservative climate change science, we need to stabilize concentrations of carbon dioxide at 400 ppm and then begin reducing it to 350 ppm to avoid triggering a cascading set of irreversible tipping points. To be successful in this task requires us to develop a solution to achieve by 2020 what the current treaty being negotiated hopes to achieve by 2050 — an 80 percent reduction in CO2 emissions.

The scale and speed of change required goes well beyond anything political leaders have ever had to contemplate, much less achieve. And even if the political will were there to achieve this level and speed of carbon reduction, the social change 1.0 tools at their disposal — command and control, and financial incentives — are not designed for this type of rapid, transformative change. They were purposely designed over two centuries ago for gradual, incremental change.

Continue reading ‘Solution in the Wake of Copenhagen — If Governments Can’t, People Can’

It’s way past my bedtime, my body is screaming for sleep, and I am in utter unrest.

“6.3 degrees, 6.3 degrees, 6.3 degrees”…it keeps racing through my head.  According to a Washington Post article in late September, 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit is how much the planet will warm by the end of the century… even if the nations of the world pass the most ambitious climate policies currently on the table (http://bit.ly/6_3degrees).

6.3 degrees carries us twice past the point of what the world’s scientists call “catastrophic climate change.”  And I can’t help but wonder, what does that even mean?

I can barely even think straight, I’m so stunned and panicked.  What will the world look like by the time we finally stumble away from our addiction to fossil fuels?  What will I tell my children when they ask, “what took you so long?”  What will any of us have to say?  It’s so much grief, I just want to shut down altogether.  But a few questions occur to me:

What really matters to me about climate change?

If we’ve locked ourselves in for some degree of climate chaos, no matter what we do…well, then what do we want to do??  What becomes important at that point?

And what does this mean for my life’s work?

Continue reading ‘6.3 Degrees: What Really Matters?’

Mass Power Shift rocking out

From Katie MacDonald, Mass Power Shift Co-Coordinator:

On the weekend of the 6th, February 2009, Massachusetts Power Shift held a leadership retreat in West Falmouth Cape Cod. The retreat was initially intended to be a time for the group to build up existing leaders and encourage new leadership for the coming year, but became much more than that as the weekend progressed. Those present got a unique opportunity to find common ground with fellow climate activists and explore their own personal motivations for involvement in the greater movement. 

Massachusetts Power Shift (MAPS) is an unaffiliated youth climate activist network that connects youth and allies from across Massachusetts in demanding bold, and collaborative climate solutions. The group works on the political level, playing a large hand in the passage of the Global Warming Solutions Act in 2008, and also locally across the state at over 20 colleges and Universities. Over the course of the last six months, network leaders have been working tirelessly to promote Al Gore’s RePower America Campaign and to build support for their present Adopt a Congressperson Campaign, designed to push legislators to support and create aggressive energy and climate legislation. 

Upon entering the space in which the retreat was held, the energy was palpable. Twenty three members of MAPS crowded around on couches and chairs waiting anxiously for the event to commence. That night the group delved into exploring the concept of personal stories. Everyone was encouraged to ask themselves who they were and what incidents in their lives had brought them to climate action and to relay that story to someone else. One particularly common theme present in many stories told was the idea that that person had at some point in their lives recognized the conflict facing themselves and the planet and had subsequently been forced to make a decision as to if they as an individual would act or remain apathetic. Individuals agreed that by choosing to act they had transformed a potentially horrific situation into a source of motivation for themselves and others. 
Continue reading ‘Group Therapy = Organizing Strategy?’

Butts in seats.

These three words must become the GUIDING PRINCIPLE OF OUR LIVES for the next 16 DAYS.

We face a failing economy, a faltering climate, and a world of increasing anxiety & insecurity.  We also know exactly how to shift to a just and prosperous economy powered by clean energy…and this Power Shift will only happen if OUR generation works and fights for it.

So here’s what to do: 
 

1. Recruit like crazy between now and Saturday.  Talk to friends, have friends talk to friends, go to classes, go to clubs, and DON’T STOP EVEN IF YOU’RE WORRIED ABOUT LOGISTICS.  They will work out.

2. Register as many Power Shifters as you can at www.powershift09.org by this Saturday at midnight PST, to get the $40 dicount rate.  Use this discount code: p0wersh1ft.

Concerned this job is too hard?  Afraid you’re not up for it?  Fretting over logistics?  I assure you, none of your doubts will matter in 16 days, let alone a year from now.  What WILL matter a year from now is whether we look back and see that THIS was the moment we brought together a movement of courageous, determined young people strong enough to turn the tide.

Need some perspective?  Take a second to remember whose shoulders you are standing on.  Women were jailed for years fighting for the right to vote.  Blacks were beaten and firehosed for standing up for their rights in the segregated South.  People walked so long for the March on Washington the bottom of their shoes wore out.

Every generation must rise to its challenge, and this is ours.  We have the chance to live the most meaningful lives that have ever been lived…and it starts with butts in seats.

Go get ‘em.

Peace,
Zo

I am wondering this. I am sure we all are. The answers won’t be in this blog post. But sometimes, to make sense of the present, we must look backward from the future…:

“You’ve asked me to tell you of The Great Turning, of how we saved the
world from disaster.
The answer is both simple and complex.
We turned.
Continue reading ‘Where From Here?’

I just received this sermon from one of our movement’s finest chaplains and co-founder of Religious Witness for the Earth, Reverend Fred Small. I wept when I read it.

The New Youth Climate Movement

A sermon by Rev. Fred Small

First Church Unitarian, Littleton, MA

November 11, 2007

“And now abide faith, hope, and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

So wrote Paul the Apostle to close the thirteenth chapter of his famed letter to the Christian community at Corinth. It’s still my favorite passage in the Bible, no matter no how many weddings I hear it at. Love is the most important thing, the one essential thing, the most powerful force, I believe, in the universe.

And that’s a good thing, because my faith and hope have been taking quite a beating lately. If faith demands confidence in the outcome and hope optimism, then global warming can really do a number on faith and hope.

Continue reading ‘Words From Our Movement Chaplain’