It’s Getting Hot In Here

(Written by the Sierra Student Coalition Publishing Group)

For those of us in school, the semester is coming to a close and our student organizations are wrapping up projects for the year. We face the next academic season with the full knowledge that we are entering an era of new politics and new opportunities, and that many decisions await our communities, our campuses and our nation. As we expand the scope of our movement and the impact of our work, we are beginning to recognize the diversity of our own stories: the victories that we have won and the setbacks we have encountered, the hopes and fears for our future, and the strain and joy of pushing a country forward.

The Sierra Student Coalition Publishing Group invites the youth movement to share your personal stories throughout the coming year – starting now. Fill out our brief questionnaire with your group or as an individual as you reflect on your semester along with the challenges and the victories that it presented. We want to publish and distribute your stories to inform and expand nationwide dialogues among youth on what we have done and how we have done it. This is your opportunity to help other groups learn from your successes and challenges without having to re-invent the wheel, so to speak.

Continue reading ‘Share Your Story with the Movement!’

From the Anchorage Daily News, courtesy of Peter Cizmadia. Question: How high do price incentives need to be to impact energy use?

“JUNEAU - First, there was a run on energy-efficient light bulbs. When those ran out, people began asking for lamp oil. But when they started demanding clothespins in this land of mist and rain, it was clear Alaska’s capital city was caught in a serious energy crunch.

“We sold all our clothespins the first day,” said Doug White, general manager at Don Abel Building Supplies. “I don’t think kids even knew what they were for, but they’re learning now.”

Avalanches this month knocked down transmission lines and cut off Juneau’s source of low-cost hydroelectric power. Threatened with a fivefold increase in utility bills, Juneau quickly powered down.”

Continue reading ‘When Push Comes to Shove’

Here in Washington we’re feeling like pretty good leaders in the climate change movement what with all our great climate change legislation passing and all. But there’s always more to be done, key among them keeping a wary eye out for false solutions as we move ahead. One of those false solutions has tried rearing its ugly head here and we aim to stop it before it’s got a change to flourish. That would be “clean coal“, the only coal option in Washington thanks to our strict emissions limits. You can read all about the plant and it’s history here. It’s currently on hold due to concerns from the Port of Walla Walla, but they plan to try again in the Fall and we’ll be there to say no again.

So, the campaign: It began out of a Fossil Fools Day idea but grew much bigger and just wrapped up last week. The Cascade Climate Network and friends collected 795 photo petitions from eight different universities and colleges in Washington, all speaking out against coal and advocating clean solutions and green jobs. We’ll be sending the finished book to key players in the clean energy future of Washington as well as a few Washington Congressmen who have yet to sign onto the new Clean Water bill that would effectively end mountain top removal.

All in all a bitchin’ effort and a great example of what students can do if they unite across the state and region.

You can check out the finished photo petition, put together in a high school yearbook-style format, as well as a similar photo petition calling for No LNG in Oregon at www.CascadeClimate.org.

Statement Initiated by Participants in the Climate Change|Social Change conference, Sydney, Australia, April 11-13, 2008

The following statement was started by the participants in the Climate Change|Social Change conference. Anyone who agrees with it is welcome to add their signature, and an updated list of signatories will be issued on a regular basis (contact: <climateconf@greenleft.org.au>.).

It is being distributed to environmental, trade union, Indigenous, migrant, religious and community organizations to help build the movement against global warming

Continue reading ‘Climate Crisis — Urgent Action Needed Now!’

The United Nations Youth Climate Change Challenge is an interactive competition that aims to inspire and educate young people on the key messages of the 2007 Human Development Report - the United Nations’ most comprehensive analysis of current scientific, economic and political thinking about the threat of catastrophic climate change and how to avoid it. To see these key messages Click Here. The contest invites young people aged 15-25 to make 30-150 second videos that relate these key messages to their own lived experience of climate change, their views about it, and/or their concerns about how the older generation have been, or should be, reacting to the challenge of combating it.

Videos to Engage and Inspire the World:
The United Nations is made up of 193 member states - and young people aged 15-25 in each of them are welcome to enter this contest. Even if you do not own a Video Camera, or a computer, you can take part in the contest. Click Here for full details.

Prize:
An all expense trip paid to attend the World Youth Congress 2008 in Quebec City, Quebec.

The 4th World Youth Congress will bring 600 of the world’s most dynamic young activists in the field of sustainable development to Quebec from 120 different countries.

So, if you are regular reader of It’s Getting Hot in Here, you may have noticed that I have been a little absent recently. Why, you might ask, as what could be more exciting than sharing information with the youth climate movement? Well, I have been working on a project behind-the-scenes that I want to share with you all.

I have been working on launching Fired Up Media. Let me take you for a spin. Fired Up Media just won Project Slingshot for our Youth Action TV proposal, so we are terrifically excited and want to tell all of you about what we are doing!

What is Fired Up Media? Fired Up Media is a growing network of videographers, editors, and journalists reporting from the front lines of the youth climate movement and disseminating through the Fired Up Virtual Newsroom. The network has grown out the diverse media projects of the youth climate movement, such as It’s Getting Hot in Here, I Shot Power Shift, and CSSC TV.

Fired Up Media is harnessing dynamic advances in digital communications and new media, creative social entrepreneurship, and existing youth media on and off-campus to build a revolutionary media network. Read more here.

What do we do? Fired Up Media is launching two major projects this summer, Fired Up: Youth Action TV and Fired Up Africa.

Read more after the fold.

Continue reading ‘Introducing Fired Up Media’

Millions of people are celebrating and rallying for climate action this Earth Day, but we’re also seeing how dedicated young people are to spending more than just one day working to pass legislation and find community solutions to global warming. Today, Focus the Nation and Clif MOJO are proud to announce three projects that will be examples of that determination to make positive and sustainable change through Project Slingshot

After weeks of deliberation, the Project Slingshot judges have zeroed in on three projects to propel from ideas into action this summer with grants of $10,000 each. With 45 great applications full of ideas on how to spark more youth action on climate change, the judges didn’t have an easy job, but the winners stood out for their commitment to innovation and to broadening this movement in tangible ways. The lucky three are:

Maya Donelson, Graze the Roof, San Francisco, CA, will integrate local organic food production and the efficiency gains of a green roof with an edible green roof at Glide, a diverse San Francisco church and nonprofit located in the Tenderloin District serving low income and marginalized people. Students from Glide’s Training and Employment Services Youth Build Program will construct and maintain the garden.

Richard Graves, Fired Up Youth Action TV, Washington, D.C., will produce five minute news segments covering youth issues ranging from education, to politics, to jobs and the economy, to entertainment and culture - all through the lens of the most important challenges facing young people: the impact of global warming and the construction of a cleaner, more just economy and society. [Full Disclosure: Richard is a contributing editor for It's Getting Hot in Here]

Jesse Hough, Sunnyside Neighborhood Energy Project, Portland, OR, will run a summer “think-and-do tank” institute that will engage students to help advance an innovative, community-owned, thermal district energy system utilizing low carbon energy supplies to provide space heating and cooling and domestic hot water to a mixed residential/commercial neighborhood of Portland, Oregon

These projects will serve as replicable models for all of us to become more involved and Maya, Richard and Jesse will be sure to keep getting the word out about how their projects are going.

The youth organization of the most powerful political party in West Virginia passed a multi-pronged resolution on coal & green jobs that included a call for No New Mountaintop Removal Permits. Our generation knows that Mountaintop Removal takes mining coal too far and we have safer ways to mine it as we transition to renewable energies & energy efficiency. This resolution passed in the midst of an above-the-fold article in the Washington Post, the Presidential Campaigns closing in on the May 13th WV Democratic Primary, and a record showing of grassroots involvement in the WV Democratic County Conventions. The political machine in West Virginia is getting scared of what true grassroots organizers are building here in West Virginia and we are in the year of a lifetime to build our movement for justice here!

The February 10th “Young Dems on Kayford” event that brought more than 35 Young Dems onto Kayford Mountain to see the effects of Mountaintop Removal was a crucial event in the organization learning about the issue and taking a stand.

This resolution on Mountaintop Removal was passed as a result of years of building awareness and involvement on the issue. This resolution passed with the solid margin of 32 votes in favor and only 10 votes against (with 2 abstaining votes). The WV Young Democrats have been a focus of education throughout the past year as we organized events to show both the leadership and the membership what Mountaintop Removal is doing to the people and land of Southern (and increasingly Central) WV. The resolution was formed and revised to its final content by a room of high schoolers, college students, deep miners, organizers, and concerned citizens to its final form. This resolution is causing reverberations through the WV Democratic Party and WV politicians (who have long been kinder to the coal industry than citizens) are taking notice.

Continue reading ‘WV Young Democrats Say “No New Mountaintop Removal Permits!”’

Hey all, below is a post I’ve been excited about for a long time. When IGHIH started, its goal was to provide a voice for a global youth climate movement. That movement is there - it’s up to all of us to listen for it, find those who can tell its story, and help bring it together. The following is from John Romankiewicz, a Fulbright Scholar in China, who is doing incredible work with his Chinese partners:

China’s Green Beat is a video podcast that informs people about current environment solutions and what they can do to take action. It was founded by an American John Romankiewicz and a Chinese Zhao Xiangyu, and the podcast is delivered in mandarin Chinese with English subtitles. Most recently, Canadian Rene Ng, a professional actor and writer in Beijing, has joined the team as producer. Our videos are divided up into three categories: comedy (episode 4), documentary (episode 5), and instructional (upcoming episode 6) so that we can reach different audiences in different ways. The videos are meant to be fun, informative, and engaging. www.chinasgreenbeat.com is the portal through which all videos can be accessed, each video pinned on a map of China to the location where it was filmed.

Latest Video: Wind Power in China:

I’ll speak first person here: The inspiration to make optimistic, solutions-based videos came from my own personal reaction to negative foreign media on China, pieces like the New York Times series “Choking on Growth.” While extremely informative and very well reported, after reading such articles, it seems as if there is no hope, why would anyone even try and help China’s environment. In Chinese “mei you banfa 没有办法”. In fact, there are good things going on, and in my view, the best way to inspire and encourage people (from citizens to businesses to governments) to lead greener lives and make greener investments is through smart, fun, and optimistic media.

Continue reading ‘China’s Green Beat’

Raise a Rope for Climate Hope: a youth-driven, community-service, climate-action project

The Wolfeboro, New Hampshire based nonprofit, Global Awareness Local Action (G.A.L.A.) is gearing up to join thousands of other youth from around the world on Global Youth Service Day to help tackle their generation’s most pressing environmental issue - climate change. Their strategies are local in practice and global in scope. Collectively these actions will make a difference.

In collaboration with local youth groups including Kingswood & Kids, Kingswood Youth Center, and the Brewster Environmental Club, G.A.L.A. is proud to share one plan of action - Raise a Rope for Climate Hope. This climate action project will connect advocacy and service. First, Alex Lee, Founding Director of Project Laundry List will give a presentation to raise awareness about the “Right to Dry” bill (S.41). At the presentation, attendees will have the opportunity to register for a free clothesline of their choice to be installed by youth teams later in May. Continue reading to learn more about this exciting Earth Week and Global Youth Service opportunity.

Continue reading ‘Raise a Rope for Climate Hope’