It’s Getting Hot In Here

From Lora DiFranco, Ecolympics coordinator at Oberlin College:

Oberlin College’s first Ecolympics came to an end Saturday as we announced South Hall as the winning dorm during the closing ceremonies. Run almost entirely by students, this month we hosted dorm energy competitions, waste audits, and eco-volunteer days where students earned points for their dorm. South has won a pizza party for their dorm by winning the competition.

Oberlin has had a Dorm Energy Competition every year for the past four years. Dorms usually decrease their energy use around 20%, saving the college hundreds of dollars and thousands of pounds of carbon emissions. This year, taking a hint from Duke’s Eco-Olympics, we thought, “Why not host other events that can have the same effect as the Dorm Energy Competition?” Most Oberlin students are very aware of the environmental issue facing our world today, but sometimes people need a straight-up incentive to change their behavior.

As the coordinator for Ecolympics and a senior who is graduating in a month (!!!!), I’m definitely relieved that the events are over. However, the over-analytical part of me is ready to start then next phase: the review.
Continue reading ‘Oberlin Ecolympics Wrap Up’

After scaling 45 stories with no ropes and no harnesses, a lot of things look easier — even solving climate change. When Alain Robert climbed the Four Seasons hotel in Hong Kong last week, he was telling the world that stopping climate change is possible, and simpler than we think, if we join together to take action! This building free climb by the French Spiderman, Alain Robert, was to raise awareness for climate change and the fact that The Solution is Simple (Alain’s website released on his shirt while climbing)! His site The Solution is Simple offers a call to action reminding the world that global warming is “the most urgent and important issue in our lifetime”.

Is that why he picked the Four Seasons (we want to keep all four!), an glass facade building in Hong Kong? Increasing the efficiency of the world’s buildings through green design in places like Hong Kong (and all over the world) will be a crucial part of the solution. And one that can start now! There’s no need or time to wait. Alain’s climb was to remind us all that there is no time to wait for governments to continue to talk about action. We need action before Copenhagen, showing not telling our politicians that The Solution is Simple. Alain’s solutions are simple:

1) Stop cutting down trees.

2) Make everything energy-efficient.

3) Only make clean energy.

Hey! How come some people can make everything look easy?!?

This past weekend I attended Seattle’s first Green Festival [ed note: that's JP looking surprised at the Green festival!]. The Green Festivals are a joint collaboration between Co-Op America and Global Exchange and are held in cities across the U.S. (this year in Seattle, D.C., San Francisco and Chicago).

The Festivals invite in luminary speakers to participate on panels and give speeches. This year’s speakers included Frances Moore Lappe, famed author of Diet for a Small Planet, Amory Lovins, brilliant founder of the Rocky Mountain Insitute, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and plenty of others both local and national. But the main focus of the festival and by far the biggest draw for most of the thousands of attendees were the commercial booths. If you were looking for a bumper sticker to express your love for the planet while driving your car, t-shirts, Amazonian miracle fruits, books, lotions, Bush punching bags or any matter of other liberal hype crap, then the Green festival was the place to find it.

Before I get too critical of the Festival, I do want to say that it wasn’t all bad. A few panelists actually seemed to understand the magnitude of the problem and the actions needed to address it and the festival organizers were nice enough to set aside a panel focused on the youth movement. And random run-ins are always nice networking opportunities.

But now for the critical. Let me focus on the commercial aspect to start off. There was so much crap being sold at the festival that it made my head spin. Too much of it was simple Bush bashing and the stuff that wasn’t was utterly unnecessary, the kind of stuff that regularly fills up our landfills and our thrift stores. Now of course, all these vendors went through a screening process to make sure they were both people and earth friendly, and all those t-shirts were organic cotton, but really, who gives a damn when it’s still something we simply do not need. Simplicity people! And simplicity does not mean owning ten pairs of Simple brand shoes. What scares me the most is that the large majority of people will leave this hyper-green consumerism and go out into the real world again with that same consumer mind-set and buy, buy, buy, whether their purchases are eco or not. Continue reading ‘Critical Look at Seattle’s Green Festival’

We’re less than a week away from the second annual Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming webcast! This FREE webcast will feature colleges from around the country that are leading the fight against global warming. Ask our panelists questions, learn more about what you can do to confront global warming on your campus, and watch student videos, like this one from Cy-Fair college in Texas:

Chill Out is next Wednesday, April 16 at 7pm Eastern. Sign up today to host this FREE webcast on your campus!

The bustling halls of the United Nations climate negotiations still ringing in my ears, it’s been an incredible few months since I and other youth delegates from SustainUS returned from Bali. So many friends and neighbors emailed or stopped by to say “Thanks for sending your email updates from Bali!” and “Welcome home!” I still feel the excitement of working with the best & brightest of the youth climate movement around the world.

Upon returning from Bali as a US youth delegate, I was filled with hope that humanity will create a global consciousness by rising to meet the climate emergency. In the last few months, worsening scientific predictions have only strengthened my belief that we are the leaders we seek. It’s up to us. We have the power to make the climate emergency, and the immense economic opportunities we will realize from solving it, our top priority. A bold, broad movement is needed on a scale larger than the mobilization for World War II. This mobilization will only be accomplished by unleashing a renewed civic engagement.

Continue reading ‘Post-Bali Dispatch: “Lighting Up” a movement in Upstate New York!’

I recently had the pleasure of shepherding a group of elementary school children around a Water Festival. The day’s myriad events focused on everything from salmon habitats to sea kayaking lessons. It was great to watch little kids get excited about nature in its most basic forms. I think it’s something that I, and maybe others, forget when we’re working on globe spanning issues like climate change. Remember that we were once little kids too, our minds being blown by the simplest joys nature could offer. To watch a room full of a hundred kids all imitating the sounds of a Killer Whale is pretty awesome.

The day made me realize/remember how important it is to reach kids at this young age when a love of nature is still embedded deep within their inherent nature. Kids dig nature. It’s important that we recognize that love and connect it to the bigger picture so that as they grow older and are bombarded by life’s million other messages, they also grow in understanding of the entire cycle of life; the fact that Killer Whales, the slimy worms and the seashells are all part of a bigger picture that we must also protect.

It is also important that we as educators work to strive towards living the lessons we teach. I watched educators drinking bottled water (in Washington state where we have some of the best tap water in the country) and others throw away mountains of recyclables. As educators of the younger generations, we have to walk the talk or they will see right through us.

If we’re not careful and considerate of the generations behind us, we could be seeing a repeat of what we’re currently fighting so hard against.

Looking for an amazing experience working with other youth leaders of the climate movement this summer? Check out the Summer of Solutions:

We’ll be using the principles of Open Space organizing to empower participants to engage in creative action on their own terms, yet as vital members of the team. As student climate organizers at Macalester College, the organizers have been building grassroots community partnerships and strategic initiatives around green manufacturing, entrepreneurial community energy efficiency, community-based clean energy development, and much more for the past two years. Using this base and our collective skills and insights, we will work together to advance these initiatives and create more while building a base of young leaders ready to lead their communities all across the country towards a sustainable future. We will realize the Climate Positive Vision by using “a mind-set that engages eagerly in the opportunities inherent in solving the climate crisis” to generate the solutions that will get us there. In the process, we’ll meet lots of amazing people, discuss so many amazing things, build skills that will last a life-time, and have lots of fun!

The Summer of Solutions will be June 1 - Aug 1 in St. Paul, MN. If you’re interested in helping build innovative solutions to climate change, fill out the simple application by one of the priority deadlines: April 1, 15, or 29 - PLEASE apply ASAP! After you apply, we’ll help you figure out how to get paid through various programs/ fundraising that we’ll help you with. The application and much more info can be found at
http://grandaspirations.org/summerofsol/summerofsolutions.html.

Questions (AND Applications) can be sent to summerofsolutions@gmail.com. We hope you can join us!

If this won’t fit your schedule, but you’re looking for other amazing options, check out the Summer Opportunities Page.

No, it’s not the latest installment of trashy teen horror flicks. It’s a call to keep organizing for climate solutions this summer.

Consider the incredible progress youth have made so far this school year: fighting scores of coal, oil, liquefied natural gas and other fossil fuel facilities; achieving amazing campus, city and statewide victories for advancing just climate policies and practices; making climate a major issue in the presidential campaigns; engaging with Congress hundred of times throughout the year to hold them accountable for dealing with global warming; the list goes on. You need only to read over the other posts here to find stories of young people building momentum and creating solutions for a just and sustainable future.

We all know that there will be a frenzy of activity in the fall around the elections, which present an incredible opportunity to elect climate champions and shift the federal and local approaches to tackling global warming. As youth we have become a coveted demographic for the campaigns and have the opportunity to determine the outcome of elections across the country. It will be exciting and exhilarating.

But what about this summer? I already told you that I know what you’re doing this summer. You and young people like you all across the country will be devoting their summer to organizing for climate solutions. This will keep the momentum from this school year going and will help us engage even more people in the fall. There are opportunities to attend:

• trainings and build your skills and ability to make greater change;
• actions across the country which will mobilize against the expansion of fossil fuels;
• organizing programs where you can devote your whole summer to working in a community building local climate solutions
• cultural events where you can connect with other young people and incorporate music, art, performance into the work this movement is doing (because after all a revolution without dancing isn’t worth fighting for).

Check out the Summer Opportunities page and make your summer part of building a just and sustainable future.

By Camila Thorndike and Sarah Judkins

Climate change is the unthinkable. It is unimaginably vast and catastrophic, and its causes are frustratingly avoidable. As youth activists, we are used to this - but the very real idea of new coal plants in Washington still took us aback. After all, we are one of the lowest carbon-emitting states in the nation, and we have repeatedly proven ourselves as dedicated international leaders on the climate action front. The geology of our region, including the mighty hydropower production of the Colombia river, has made this possible.

For better or for worse, another local feature has been recruited as a key player in the power game: our cavernous Colombia River Basin basalt beds, just the right sort to house to potentially calcify liquid carbon from a coal gasification power plant. The complications of hydropower in Washington pale in comparison to those of a proposed “clean” (aka slightly-less-deadly) coal plant, which a consortium aims to construct in the coming years at Wallula, a town near Walla Walla on the Colombia river.

Once again, rural southeastern Washington has made headlines in the energy world with promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while providing an abundance of energy for the Northwest.

Wait a minute… clean coal? It’s an idea - and nothing more - that has somehow become a “reality” for people through the constant repetition of half-truths. Perhaps you’ve seen the sexy ads for “America’s Power” on the Democratic primary debates, which follow Hillary and Barack’s promises for a clean, independent energy future . Politicians love to portray America as the “Saudi Arabia of coal.” We don’t think this is something to boast about.

This dirty fossil fuel sickens communities, pollutes our air and water, and is responsible for one-third of our greenhouse gas emissions. However, it provides approximately half of our nation’s electric energy needs, which presents a daunting economic and political conundrum.
Continue reading ‘Proposed Plant Stalled in Eastern Washington’

On Monday, March 3 a group of four hundred concerned students gathered for the Youth Forum on Global Warming Solutions, a collaborative and nonconfrontational conversation with Minnesota’s Governor (and possible vice president candidate) Tim Pawlenty. Organized by the Governor’s office, the Will Steger foundation, the Transcampus Energy Action Movement (TEAM MN), and Youth Environmental Activists (YEA MN), the event sought to present both the Governor’s and student visions for what Minnesota can do to combat climate change. Continue reading ‘Minnesota Students hold Forum with Governor Pawlenty’