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.

Putting aside the issues of speed and magnitude of change for the moment, passing a law that commands us to adopt new behaviors, and then penalizes us if we don’t, is not politically feasible. And although offering us financial incentives to change is sending the right signal, we are still free not to avail ourselves of these incentives. When we are not already predisposed to changing, financial incentives have a limited effect. Even when we are amenable to changing, financial incentives are very slow moving and cumbersome to implement.

If command and control and financial incentives are not enough to turn the tide in the necessary timeframe, can renewable energy and new breakthrough technologies come to the rescue of humankind? While a low-carbon future critically depends on new technologies, there is no credible scenario by which they can be brought to scale in the ten-year window within which our scientists tell us we must make major carbon reductions.

The dilemma we face is what systems theory calls second order change — or change that requires a system to transform and reorganize at a higher level of performance. When the easier-to-implement solutions prove inadequate for the speed and magnitude of change required, the system goes into stress and must evolve, or it will break down.

We as a human species are being called on to reinvent not only our world but also the process by which we achieve this reinvention. If the current social change tools of carrots, sticks and technology are not able to meet our needs in the available time, what else do we have? Are there assumptions we might rethink about what motivates people to change? Taking a page from Thomas Jefferson’s playbook, might we be able to motivate ourselves to change because of a dream that inspires our imagination, enlivens our sense of possibility, and lifts our spirit as human beings? Or, to ask this question in a more tangible way, how might we empower ourselves to voluntarily adopt new behaviors that help us, our community, our organization and our planet operate at a higher level of social value?

My three decades of empowerment research has taught me that we human beings are willing to change when we have a compelling vision and the necessary tools to help us bring it to fruition. The vision must touch our core to engender the necessary passion and commitment needed to overcome the inevitable obstacles on the path of realization. To stay motivated, we need others of like mind going on the journey with us. And, with a well-designed change platform that is replicable and scalable, these behavior changes can be widely disseminated throughout a community, country and organization, and across the planet. I call this approach “social change 2.0.” Here’s what a social change 2.0 strategy looks like as applied to climate change.

America represents 20 percent of the planet’s carbon footprint, with half of these emissions coming from the fossil fuels we use to power our homes and cars. And at the community level our collective carbon emissions are between 50 and 90 percent. If, as U.S. households, we were able to reduce our carbon footprint by 25 percent and take this to scale community- and nationwide, we could significantly lower America’s carbon emissions in the short run and buy us the critically needed time for the longer-term solutions to scale up.

Furthermore, by engaging the citizens of a community to lower their carbon footprint we would be stimulating demand for the green products and services needed to grow a local low-carbon economy. And as we aggregate these low-carbon economies nationally, we see the path forward toward the green U.S. economy on which the country is pinning its future. Moreover, this will send a message to the world that as Americans we are reducing our high carbon-emitting lifestyles for the sake of the planet, which will afford us the moral authority to encourage other countries such as China and India to up their ante.

But can we mobilize Americans, not known for our conservation ethic, to change? An encouraging study by Yale University indicated that 75 percent of Americans recognize that our own behavior can help reduce global warming, and 81 percent believe it is our responsibility to do something about it. But how do we actually transform our current energy consumption patterns into low-carbon lifestyles in a meaningful timeframe?

In 2006 I began testing a solution by creating a community-based environmental behavior-change program called Low Carbon Diet. The program consisted of twenty-four steps to reduce one’s carbon footprint by at least 5,000 pounds in thirty days and to help others do the same. It was based on my experience working with 20,000 people organized into neighborhood-based peer-support groups — EcoTeams — who reduced their environmental footprint 25 percent in several cities, ranging from the environmentally progressive Portland, Oregon, and Madison, Wisconsin, to the more middle-of-the-road Columbus, Ohio, Kansas City, Missouri, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The program empowered the movement that had been building around personal action and community-based solutions, and immediately took off. It was driven by the many local governments committed to the issue of climate change who were wishing to engage their citizens; faith-based groups like Interfaith Power and Light representing some 5,000 congregations, wishing to engage congregants; and environmental groups, like Al Gore’s Climate Project, which gave the book to the 1,000 people he trained to lead his “An Inconvenient Truth” slide show. This interest resulted in the development of a strategy to scale up the program communitywide, creating what came to be called a Cool Community.

Three years later there are now over 350 Cool Communities in thirty-six states across America. Participants are achieving on average a 25 percent carbon footprint reduction and reaching out to fellow citizens to accomplish the same. A growing number of these campaigns have committed themselves to a three-year effort to mobilize up to 85 percent of their communities’ residents to reduce their footprint by at least 25 percent. And in Massachusetts — one of the nation’s leaders in enacting bold climate change legislation–the Cool Mass campaign has been launched to help the state achieve its carbon reduction goals through developing Cool Communities statewide.

A Cool Community also enables a city or town to enjoy the immediate practical benefits of more livable neighborhoods, greater environmental sustainability, and economic development. Furthermore, it creates a robust long-term carbon reduction capability by building the community leadership, carbon-literate citizenry, and political will necessary to sustain this type of change over time.

And, at the most fundamental level, when individuals become personally part of the solution, it creates a new dynamic in the way we tackle large societal challenges. It allows us to move beyond the traditional social change formula of business as the problem and government as the solution — the familiar paradigm in which nonprofits lobby government for better regulations against business while disenfranchised citizens sit on the sidelines complaining about the coziness between politicians and business. When citizens are empowered to adopt socially beneficial behaviors, such as a low-carbon lifestyle, an opening can occur for traditionally adversarial relationships to establish new arrangements of cooperation and collaboration. When the whole system begins working together and there is no “other” to combat or protect against, more innovative and generative solutions start to emerge. Everyone is now a participant in shaping the future.

The Cool Community movement is building Mount Everest base camps in communities across the nation for the long climb we must make to address climate change. It is also providing fire for the soul to inspire community leaders to reach for new visions of what is possible, with some committing to reduce their carbon footprint 80 percent by 2020. Nelson Mandela, an exemplar of taking on large, epic challenges, describes the journey this way, “It always seems impossible until it is done.” But the journey must begin somewhere with someone. That somewhere is our homes, neighborhoods, towns and cities. And that someone is us.

David Gershon is the author of Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program to Lose 5,000 Pounds, and recently published, Social Change 2.0: A Blueprint for Reinventing Our World. He is CEO of Empowerment Institute and founder of the Cool Community movement.

“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?

Thinking about these questions, I’m still awake, in total unrest.  But it’s a blessed unrest.

Even with the dire forecasts, the science is clear: We have a few years left to spare ourselves of the worst, if we act swiftly and boldly.  So, we absolutely must fight like hell for swift and bold action, nationally and globally.  But regardless the outcome of those efforts, we absolutely must also dedicate our lives to preparing humanity to respond compassionately to whatever comes to pass.

Recently, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and saw the future.  It was a Great Exodus.  I saw hundreds of millions of Mothers, Fathers, Daughters, & Sons, running, holding hands, carrying babies, as floodwaters swallowed their homes and their heritage… I saw levees crumbling and dozens of Hurricane Katrinas pounding coastlines, year after year… and I saw our non-human Brothers, Sisters & Friends retreating out of view, first into preserves, then zoos, and finally just outdated biology textbooks.

But what mattered to me most was not the situation itself.  What really struck me was how we chose to conduct ourselves.

I saw people who had the priviledge and fortune to just fend for themselves and turn away in the midst of all the turmoil, but who chose otherwise.  I saw these heroes welcoming climate refugees into their homes, studying their languages, and learning their stories, songs, and sacred rituals… I saw them smiling and handing over dollars, clothes, and toilettries so their neighbors could eat, drink, stay healthy, and sleep soundly… and I saw them standing up, organizing with their votes and their pocketbooks, giving governments and corporations no viable course of action other than to serve the needs of life over the needs of profit.

I saw civic leaders, public officials, and business chiefs solemnly taking new oaths to act in the service of healing and repairing the damage done.  I saw citizens and leaders representing the entire community of nations engaging in Global Truth & Reconciliation Commissions, trembling, weeping, and embracing as they mourned and forgave for past injustices, and committed to each other’s future protection.

Having seen all this, I opened my eyes, totally dumbstruck.  I’d been so focused on preventing the worst before it was “too late,” I’d never even thought about what would happen once Nature had given us Her verdict.

But what if humanity’s compassionate response to Nature’s verdict is really what matters?  And if this is really what matters… is there really such a thing as “too late”?

Is it naïve to think that the Human Family might come together in these turbulent times ahead?  Or is it possible that this future is, in fact, absolutely necessary?

Realistically, what choice will we have but to come together, as our fertile farmlands wither into arid deserts, our freshwater supplies drain, and our cities grow increasingly crowded?  What choice will we have, as unlivable climates push millions closer to desperation and the temptation of a warm meal, religious study, and promised paradise for suicide martyrdom?  What choice, when the pull of the right trigger or the push of the right button could extinguish all life on this planet several times over?

What kind of consciousness shift might be necessary if we are to lay down our tools of violence, and spare ourselves from mutually-ensured destruction?   What depth of collective compassion might we need, in order to willfully and joyfully share together a shrinking harvest with our hungry neighbors?  And what strength of spirit might we require in order to maintain calm, reason, and good humor, while our economies and the ecosystems upon which they depend collapse all around us?

What might it take to achieve humanity’s moral & spiritual coming of age, on the timelines that we now know Nature demands?  What might we need to be doing, starting right now, to ensure we get there?  And how might a movement combine the spiritual and the political in a way that could be mutually enhancing?

Right now, it seems particularly important to me to open this inquiry.

Before I go to sleep, there’s a story I’d like to share about a Cherokee elder, who was teaching his grandchildren about life.  He drew the children around him one night as they sat by the campfire and looked around the circle and said, solemnly,

“There is a fight going on inside me. It’s a terrible fight! And it’s between two wolves.  One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, and resentment. The other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope, and kindness. This same fight is going on inside of you and every other person too.”

The children sat wide-eyed and thought for a minute. Then one youngster asked, “But Grandfather, which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee paused and looked into his grandchild’s eyes and replied, “The one I feed.”

If our lives in this moment in history are meant for fighting, may we fight to feed the choice of love in the human heart.

Article and photos by Halle Miroglotta, Loyola University Chicago ‘11

Asthma? Check. Lung Cancer? Definitely. On the south side of Chicago, there are two toxic sites that some Chicagoans know nothing about. According to the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO), the Fisk and Crawford coal plants, located in the Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods, are “the two largest sources of particulate-forming air pollution in Chicago.”

The coal is mined in Wyoming, burned in Chicago, and the energy sold to a community in Pennsylvania. None of the energy from the coal plants stays in the community that is directly and negatively affected by its toxic outputs. Additionally, the workers in the plants are not from Pilsen or Little Village either. Like many other toxic sites and food deserts, Fisk and Crawford “hide” themselves by existing in low-income neighborhoods. In terms of serving local needs, these coal plants are a disaster.

The continued operation of these plants severely threatens Chicago air quality, especially in the areas closest to the smokestacks. According to the EPA, the coal plants combined have emitted 230 lbs of mercury, 17,765 tons of sulfur, and 260,000 lbs of soot.  These emissions are linked to over 40 deaths, 550 emergency room visits, and 2,800 asthma attacks annually (Harvard School of Public Health).  Because they were built in the 1950s, both the Fisk and Crawford Coal Plants are exempt from federal regulations under the Clean Air Act that ensure both safety and pollution control.

For over a decade, the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) has been fighting hard to bring attention to these issues.  With the help of PERRO, the group has uncovered the facts about the Fisk and Crawford power stations, developed tactics for raising community awareness, and engaged local youth in neighborhood activism. Nevertheless, LVEJO and PERRO continue to wait for action and leadership from city government.

As part of a growing coalition, 50 Chicago activists gathered on June 8th in Daley Plaza to demand that politicians bring pressure to close the Fisk and Crawford facilities.  The rally functioned as a mock election asking citizens to choose between a clean energy future and a dirty energy past. Overwhelmingly, all but one ballot was cast in favor of closing the plants and transitioning Chicago to a clean energy future.

Mayor Daley, do you hear us?
Students, activists, and local organizations joined forces at Monday’s “election” to stand in solidarity with the directly affected communities. The event was organized by the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), PERRO, and the Chicago chapter of the Rainforest Action Network.  The coalition plans to host elections throughout the summer in efforts to raise awareness and build public support on the issue.

Mayor Daley has the power to close the coal plants, and until this point has been unresponsive to community needs. In a time when politicians around the world are addressing the realities of climate change, dirty coal should have no place in our energy future.  We are running out of clean air and need not waste our time, resources, and health investing in a dead end.

All across the country, wind farms and solar panels are popping up. If Chicago touts itself as a green city, Mayor Daley should know we have no business with dirty coal. The time to invest in clean sources of renewable energy is now.

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) works with their families, coworkers, and neighbors to improve our environment and lives in Little Village and throughout Chicago through democracy in action.

P.E.R.R.O. is a group of Pilsen residents that formed in 2004 to fight the disproportionate amount of pollution in the Pilsen neighborhood. Its mission is to increase awareness about the effects of pollution and create a dialogue among residents, businesses, and social and religious organizations in order to promote a better relationship between industry and community and a healthier living environment.

Posted in global warming ]]> http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/06/17/got-asthma-thank-mayor-daley/feed/ 0 Zo Citizens gather in Daley Plaza to protest the Fisk and Crawford power plants http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/02/16/the-strategy-of-touchy-feeliness/ http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/02/16/the-strategy-of-touchy-feeliness/#comments Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:51:29 +0000 Zo Tobi http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/?p=8795 ]]>

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. 
To further explore the concepts of conflict and solution, action and inaction (in the context of global issues) , attendees partook in the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium. A four hour long interactive symposium designed to assist in the opening of people’s minds to the seemingly insurmountable problems the planet faces using the big picture to generate a sense of shared purpose and collective action. ” It was the first time that our group had explored the emotional implications of living in a world on the verge of collapse” (said Harvard Law Student and MAPS Co-Coordinator Craig Altemose when asked to reflect on the exercise). The Symposium required participants to analyze a number of real world issues including the spiritual sickness of modern cultures, pollution and habitat destruction, and climate change. Gregory Reinauer, a longtime MAPS leader and the administrator of the symposium commented on the importance of this exercise; ” By allowing ourselves to feel the pain for our world, we can finally tap into the power and strength needed to save ourselves and the planet.” 

According to an article in the New York Times titled; Climate Change and Mental Health, acknowledging our fears and sharing our stories about climate change can be surprisingly therapeutic. “we may …derive some psychological benefit from banding together with other citizens to mitigate the effects of global warming. Taking action might not only give us back a sense of our own sense of efficacy against a powerful outside force, but also help us build community and social ties that offset stress” says author Emily Anthes. This certainly proved true for MAPS as MAPS leaders emerged from the weekend refreshed and ready to hit the ground running. ” The retreat reminded me why I do all the work that I do” reflected David Emmerman a sophomore at Amherst College, ” by identifying the problems we face, and recognizing how we can solve them, we all become empowered, and when it comes down to creating real change, that’s what makes the difference” 

To learn more about Massachusetts Power Shift go to www.masspowershift.org.

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

“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.

“For hundreds of years we had turned away as life on earth grew more precarious.
We turned away from the homeless men on the streets, the stench from
the river, the children orphaned in Iraq, the mothers dying of AIDS in
Africa.

“We turned away because that is what we had been taught.
To turn away, from our pain, from the hurt in another’s eyes, from the
drunken father or the friend betrayed.

“Always we were told, in actions louder than words, to turn away, turn
away. And so we became a lonely people caught up in a world moving too
quickly, too mindlessly towards its own demise.

“Until it seemed as if there was no safe place to turn. No place,
inside or out, that did not remind us of fear or terror, despair and
loss, anger and grief.

“Yet on one of those days someone did turn.

“Turned to face the pain. Turned to face the stranger. Tuned to look
at the smoldering world and the hatred seething in too many eyes.
Turned to face himself, herself.

“And then another turned. And another. And another. And as they wept,
they took each other’s hands.

“Until whole groups of peole were turning. Young and old, gay and
straight. People of all colors, all nations, all religions. Turning
not only to the pain and hurt but to beauty, gratitude and love,
Turning to one another with forgiveness and a longing for peace in
their hearts…”

– Christine Fry, “The Great Turning” (October 19, 2004) | Found at: www.joannamacy.net

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.

With accelerating certainty and alarm, the scientists are telling us we’re in for some very rocky times, our children even more so.

It’s really nice that Al Gore won the Oscar and the Nobel Peace Prize, but in the nearly two years since An Inconvenient Truth premiered, the United States government has done precisely nothing to stop global warming. Instead of inspiring international cooperation to change how we produce and use energy, the melting of the North Pole has incited an international race to see who can exploit its resources the fastest.

As Lily Tomlin likes to say, “Things are going to get worse before they get even worse.”

So I’m relieved and a little astonished by the news I bring you this morning. News of love, yes, always, but news as well of faith and hope, even in the same breath as global warming.

Last weekend I joined nearly six thousand young people at Power Shift 2007, the first national youth summit to address the climate crisis. One of a handful of middle-aged and elder guests, I sat on a panel on “Faith and Climate” and presented two workshops, “Spiritual Practice in Sustaining Activism” and “Songs and Song-leading for Activists.” I felt honored to have been invited, but I felt awed to be in the presence of these dedicated young people as they come into their power, and not a moment too soon.

The new youth climate movement is big, it’s diverse, it’s savvy, and it’s determined.

These young people know they’re the first generation ever to inherit a habitat globally damaged by their parents, and frankly they’re not thrilled about it. They’re not going to settle for political lip service or corporate greenwashing. These kids are dead serious, they’re wicked smart, and they’re fired up.

Thousands of teenagers, college students, and twenty-somethings streamed to the University of Maryland campus for Power Shift. They came from all fifty states, 300 congressional districts, and more than twenty countries. For three days they listened to speakers like Nancy Pelosi, Ed Markey, Bill McKibben, Winona LaDuke, George Lakoff, and Van Jones, as well as their own youth leaders. They attended panels on environmental justice, human rights, alternative energy, green jobs, communications, lobbying, and voter registration. They jammed classrooms for workshops with titles like “Strategic Tools for Movement Building,” “Non-Violent Direct Action 101,” “History & Principles of Environmental Justice,” “Ecofeminism,” “Wind Power on Campus”, “Digital Organizing,” “How to Be the most Persuasive Person in the Room,” and “Preparing for Bali: Effective Youth Engagement in Global Negotiations.”

The young people I encountered struck me as idealistic, pragmatic, and eager to learn.

Christians, Jews, and Muslims attending the “Faith and Climate” panel sought scriptural and religious grounding for climate stewardship. Others less religious were curious how faith might support and inform activism. A number were delighted to be introduced to Unitarian Universalism. At the workshop I led on spiritual practice, participants were looking for practical tools to sustain their commitment and avoid burnout. My workshop on songs and songleading, attended by over thirty singers, reviewed the powerful impact of singing in movements past and shared tricks of the trade. Misreading the schedule, I arrived ten minutes late to find the room already filled with song. They were teaching each other!

Power Shift was far and away the most racially diverse environmental gathering I’ve ever witnessed. Sure, white folks were in the majority, but people of color were everywhere-in the seats, on staff, as presenters, as performing artists, and as keynote speakers. African-American teenagers sported t-shirts emblazoned with the words “Green the Ghetto.” Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. President of the Hip Hop Caucus, fulminated against global warming with the fervor of a Baptist preacher denouncing fornication. One African-American hip hop artist rhapsodized on “the energy between God, Mother Earth, and me”; another linked polar bears, the evacuees of New Orleans, and detainees at Guantanamo.

Faith Gemmill of the Gwich’in people of Alaska told us of the Porcupine River Caribou Herd, upon which the Gwich’in have depended for subsistence since the dawn of time. Each spring, the caribou cross the frozen Porcupine River to reach their calving grounds in the north. But in 2000, the river thawed early, blocking their migration. The pregnant caribou dropped their calves on the southern bank, but instinct demanded they reach the safe haven of their calving grounds or perish. The mothers plunged into the swollen river, calling their calves to follow. 45,000 calves drowned.

Majora Carter, Executive Director of Sustainable South Bronx, told us global warming is an issue transcending race. “Don’t all people want beauty in their lives?” she asked. “Don’t we want all of our people to be happy, healthy, and productive people? Everybody needs someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to. If people don’t feel that their life is contributing to something, they feel isolated, angry, and alone. Don’t we all want to be part of a larger movement to improve the society we share?”

The United States, she lamented, represents just 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s greenhouse emissions-and 25% of the world’s incarcerated. Her voice broke as she spoke of one in three African-American men facing imprisonment in their lifetime. “I am tired of looking at my brothers and sisters and praying they beat the odds. I am tired of thinking, ‘Which one is going to be doing time because of opportunities denied?’” She led thousands of us in a chant: “Green jobs, not jails! Green jobs, not jails!” “I need to hear you say it,” she entreated, and who could deny her?

With so many voters in one place, it didn’t take long for politicians to come calling. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Ed Markey both appeared unscheduled Saturday night on the main stage.

Congressman Markey spoke first. In full-throated Ted-Kennedy-style rhetoric, he had the crowd cheering his call for youth to lead in against global warming. They cheered again when he called for legislation to increase fuel economy and support renewable energy. But when he boasted the bill would reduce global warming pollution by 40%, the cheers turned into a chant: “We want more! We want more! We want more!” and then “80 by 50! 80 by 50! 80 by 50!” meaning 80% reduction in greenhouse emissions by 2050, which is what the scientists say we’ll need to stop global warming. It seemed to me a pretty sophisticated chant for five thousand kids.

Congressman Markey, figuring if he couldn’t beat ‘em, he’d better join ‘em, led a brief chant of “Hey, Hey, What do you say? Global warming stops today!” and swiftly surrendered the stage to Nancy Pelosi.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives immediately endorsed 80% by 2050. She compared the assembled youth to the “magnificent disrupters” who founded the United States of America. The crowd responded positively, although I noticed one young man standing silently throughout her speech holding aloft a human spine (whether real or replica, I couldn’t tell) as if in offering.

Later that evening, Bill McKibben, at age 46 the grand old man and reluctant rock star of the climate movement, ascended the stage flanked by the shock troops of the Step It Up campaign a generation younger. “I got to tell you what you guys look like out there,” McKibben began, leaning his gangly frame into the microphone. “You look like a movement. . . . This is the next great movement on this planet, and we better get it right or it will be the last great movement on this planet. You can’t just change your campus, you’ve got to change your world. My colleagues behind me in Step It Up have organized 2000 demonstrations in all fifty states of this country. You can see the impact of all this organizing tonight. A year ago 80/50 was a radical idea, and tonight the most powerful person in the US Congress was leading a chant with those numbers. In twenty years of working on this, in twenty years of fearing on this, tonight’s the most hopeful I’ve ever been.”

On Monday, thousands of young people energized by the conference and trained in lobbying descended on the Capitol, rallied on the steps, and visited hundreds of lawmakers. Many wore green hard hats to dramatize their demand for green jobs, They crammed the hearing of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming (chaired by Congressman Markey).

Among those testifying was Billy Parish, founder of Energy Action, which organized Power Shift. At 26, Billy is now an elder statesman of the youth climate movement. “In four months I will be a father,” he told the panel. “I urge you to consider what we say, not as politicians, but as fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters. This is our future. . . . We will solve this [crisis], but we cannot do it without you. And if you do not join us, then find yourself another job. We are in the millions, and we are organizing. We put you in office and we will take you out of office. This is our lives at stake.”

When Billy Parish says we solve this crisis, he doesn’t know when or at what cost. He doesn’t know how much damage already will have been inflicted on our precious earth. He doesn’t know how much suffering we will endure before we learn the lesson of ecological and spiritual interdependence.

Neither do I.

In my spiritual practice workshop, I reminded the young people that Mahatma Gandhi had persisted in more than a half-century of devoted activism by heeding the counsel of the Bhagavad Gita: “Action alone is in your control. It never extends to the fruits. Be not attached to the fruits of action nor be attached to inaction.”

Who knows what the future holds? Maybe the skeptics are right, and global warming will turn out to be vastly overestimated. Wouldn’t that be relief? Or maybe we’re already doomed and just don’t know it. All we can do is act with courage and integrity on the best knowledge we have.

“As for prophecies, they will come to an end. As for tongues, they will cease. As for knowledge, it will come to an end.” Only love never ends.

But like Bill McKibben, in the glow of Power Shift I find myself strangely hopeful. Thousands of young people are taking the information, skills, and contagious energy of Power Shift back to their schools, colleges, and communities, and the movement will multiply. However dire the threats we face, as these young people take up the watch, the earth is in good hands.

The day after Power Shift 2007, a second-year student at New College of Florida named Amy Ortiz posted a blog on itsgettinghotinhere.org, an online forum of the youth climate movement. She captures the spirit of this movement far better than I ever could.

“The whole experience at Power Shift 2007,” Amy writes, “was one of such incredible joy and optimism. Unlike most experiences I have had with climate change focused events, it didn’t feel like we were facing incredible, unsurmountable odds. Instead, I felt empowered, inspired and activated. This weekend, I realized more than ever before, that we CAN do it, and we WILL do it. As youth, we have the vision, passion and inspiration to lead our country towards the just, clean energy future we all dream of.”

Amen.