Environmental Justice Takes Center Stage at Power Shift '09 Opening Session
Power Shift, a conference and lobby event that aimed to bring 10,000 young people to the Capitol to take action on climate change and environmental degradation, took a turn for the socially-aware at last night's opening keynote speeches.
Almost 12,000 t-shirted twenty-somethings filed into the hall, sometimes breaking out into spontaneous cheers or songs. About 2,000 more people had registered than Jessy Tolkan and other members of the Energy Action Coalition had hoped, and they filled the room to capacity. Buses were unloading more groups from colleges and youth groups all over the country until just before the session opened. The event is being cited as the largest gathering on climate change and clean energy in the history of the US; more people are in attendance here than were at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali in December 2007.
For a group that considers itself the most tolerant and most diverse environmental movement in the nation, it was no surprise that opening speakers didn't restrict their remarks to increasing atmospheric CO2 or ocean acidification. Instead, Lisa Jackson of the EPA, Ken Salazar of the Department of the Interior, Majora Carter, Mayor Rocky Anderson, Van Jones, Clayton Thomas-Muller and others elaborated on the idea that environmental work cannot be delegated to any one group, nationality or ethnicity.
Majora Carter, an environmental activist from the South Bronx who has spent years on a "Greening the Ghetto' campaign, told stories of the pollution in the neighborhoods where she grew up, and the diabetes, asthma, and other health problems caused by manufacturing and energy plants in the Bronx. "Our pollution-based economy is built on the subsidies on the health of poor people," she said. She urged the audience to put a stop to mountaintop coal removal and other community-harming sources of fuel, to meet opponents with love and companionship, and find safe, fair work for those currently employed in coal or other industries. "Environmental justice," she said, "is civil rights for the 21st century."
Overwhelmingly, the crowd signaled their commitment to working with government and other organizations to find solutions to climate problems. One of the loudest cheers of the night went to Ken Salazar, who promised that the Department of the Interior would "appoint thousands of young people to restore America. We'll have the best youth conservation corp the world has ever seen!"
Van Jones also noted the importance of "adding to the world" rather than taking things out of it. "If all we do is take away the dirty powers in the system and stick a solar panel on it, but don't deal with our water, or the way we treat each other, we'll have biofueled bombers, and be fighting over lithium for the batteries," he said. "We can be locusts or we can be honeybees," he finished. "Will our work be a scourge on this planet or a blessing on this generation?"
Sustainability is rarely defined as a single-entity problem, especially when considering recent economic and political traumas. Gordon Rands of Western Illinois University and Mark Starik of George Washington University argued in one of this morning's sessions that a university's plan for sustainability should be taken far beyond the campus border.
Rands says, "An entity can become sustainable on its own, but it can’t
remain that way." He went on to stress that without a larger context and a fully sustainable climate (environmental or cultural), even the most exciting higher education projects will be unsuccessful.
For example, a green business is unlikely to survive without competitors' willingness to make similar efforts, as their lower costs will cause the eco-minded company to fail. A college, even one running on renewable energy and stable supply systems, could find itself an island without the involvement of the surrounding town. Unless the local channels for food, telecommunications, energy, transportation, medical care, housing, and other provisions are as able to weather a crisis as the university itself, a few wind turbines and even carbon-neutrality will be ultimately meaningless.
Rands and Starik propose, instead, that a holistic view of higher education would work on five levels:
--Ecological: Ensure the viability and environmental-friendliness of the waste systems, products, and energy that support the university.
--Individual: Members of the institution must be invested and participating, whether that's through following a recycling policy, making sustainability knowledge an integral part of the curriculum. or inventing new storage technology for a solar array.
--Organizational: Make sure that your partners support your work, eg. forming strong industrial ecology arrangements or working with your local town for commuting programs.
--Political: Engage in political mechanisms, such as lobbying, trade associations, and media organizations to affect policy and public information.
--Socio-cultural: Use the university's stature in its community to increase the involvement of off-campus citizens and create a broad culture of sustainability.
The idea that a university has an obligation to the wider community is not new, but is usually considered in terms of thought leadership -- research and innovation will eventually trickle down to the populace, even if no direct conversation takes place. However, Rands and Starik suggest that the university itself do more to collaborate with its neighbors, making everyone greener in the process.
Rands says, "This is still on a conceptual basis. At WIU, we've made some operations changes, but that's pretty much it so far. The model, however, started with business and could easily be aimed at government as well. It's just a way to think about all of this."
We are recapping AASHE:
Sustainability on Campus and Beyond as it happens. If you were at the
sessions we're covering, weigh in with your comments below. Or see others'
blogs, photos and Twitter updates on the AASHE live page.
Lester Brown: Mobilizing for a Clean-Energy Civilization-- AASHE 2008
Today's environmentalism has been called a 'Third Wave.' Unlike the conservation ethic of the early 1900s, or the calls for anti-pollution regulation and the mass nostalgia for a more agrarian past in the 1970s, we are now looking at a fully globalized world, in which the decline of one nation would send shockwaves through the rest of the world, due to our linked economies, limited natural resources and shared climate.
Therefore, says Lester Brown, author of Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, "Sustainable development is not a sexy term, but a sound concept. You hear a lot about a 'more sustainable this,' or a 'less sustainable that.' But the reality is, we're sustainable or we're not. The only way to avoid decline and collapse is a sustainable economy--a sustainable civilization."
The idea was met with cheers from the audience, a group 1,700 strong from universities and colleges all over the country, most of whom have spent years if not decades trying to make their colleges greener, and their students prepared for a world of rapidly shifting priorities and problems.
In fact, Brown went farther than most, calling for emissions reductions of 80% by2020, a far more ambitious goal than any politician or even most academics have dared. He claims that actions this drastic might be the only way to save Asian glaciers (which provide the irrigation for vast sectors of the world's grain market) and the Greenland ice sheet. In this new environmentalism, action is no longer just about saving polar bears, but about preserving our own global society.
The question of necessity is no longer on the table. And judging by the enthusiasm of the audience, the question of "how," at least when it comes to higher education, will be the meat of the next two days.
We are recapping AASHE: Sustainability on Campus and Beyond as it happens. If you were at the sessions we're covering, weigh in with your comments below. Or see others' blogs, photos and Twitter updates on the AASHE live page.
Hundreds of colleges and universities, schools and businesses all across the world are hosting the National Wildlife Federation’s second annual broadcast, Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming as part of their series of activities leading up to Earth Day on April 22. The Chill Out competition and awards program continues the National Wildlife Federation’s tradition of recognizing and celebrating innovative solutions to global warming on our nation’s campuses. The inspirational examples illustrate how it is possible to dramatically reduce our use of fossil fuels and human impact on the climate to achieve what the science is necessary: a minimum 2% annual reduction in CO2 emissions.
For example, Butte College in Oroville, California expects to be carbon neutral by 2015 without relying on carbon credits by employing solar panels and fuel cells for energy storage; the University of Missouri has grown by 60% but has reduced energy consumption by 19%; students at the University of Montana have taken 1,000 cars off the road every day through green transportation policies; Cascadia Community College and the University of Washington-Bothel are sequestering carbon dioxide and protecting wildlife through extensive habitat restoration; and students at the Berkshire School in Massachusetts capped carbon emissions and trade allowances among the residences.
As noted by moderator, Andrew Lee, a member of the National Wildlife Federation’s Youth Advisory Council and former Campus Ecology Fellow, “we have a moral responsibility to lead, especially in the US, where we have only about 5% of the world’s population, but use almost 25% of the world’s energy resources. Our colleges and universities are among the wealthiest in the world and are recognizing more and more that our higher education institutions bear a profound responsibility to lead.”
Host sites include colleges and universities, high schools, schools and businesses in the US, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Canada, China, India, Iran and Syria. An additional 150 sites or more are anticipated to host the program in the month of April 2008 and beyond. To date, Chill-Out is the only nationwide program with a global reach that specifically showcases solutions to global warming on US campuses.
It's been a busy few days here at Campus Ecology, between gearing up for our rapidly approaching Chill Out broadcast and our attendance at the Smart and Sustainable Campuses Conference yesterday and today. Yours truly was there, live-blogging on SCUP's excellent Campus Planning Network (think Facebook, but with warmer colors and a campus sustainability focus).
I suggest you check it out to see what I learned. And, since I lack the ability to be in more than one place at once, you can also look at AASHE's live-blog, which covers some of the sessions I didn't make it to. If you were there, we (and AASHE, who has a similar conference planned for the fall) would love to hear what you think.
Overall, it was an exhausting and inspiring two days. We heard about some great things happening at different campuses (Ithaca, Yale, Ohio, LACCD, and UMD are just a few), and talked to people on the cutting-edge of clean technologies and sustainability planning. Please do look over our live-blogs, and send us your questions and suggestions.
It was amazing to have the
opportunity to experience the energy of 6,000 students converging at the
University of Maryland at Power
Shift 07 to demand action on global warming--but even better has been to
see the ripples that are spreading.
For those that couldn't
experience it firsthand, the NWF Campus Ecology staff wants to share some of
the great stories and images that are emerging. When you need a shot in the arm, just click on one of these links for
some inspiration:
Immediate Impact:
Power Shift made some folks
awfully nervous--the right wing attack machine was brought out in full force:
·Rush
Limbaugh attacked NWF's own Charlie Lockwood, a student leader from the Alaska
Youth for Environmental Action (AYEA). She gave an incredibly powerful and
courageous testimony before the House Select Committee on Energy and Climate
Action on his radio show.
·And poor Pat Buchanan never
knew what hit him when the Energy Action Coalition's Co-Director Jesse Tolkan
came out swinging on Hardball
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep.
Ed Markey, Chair of the House Select Committee on Energy and Climate Action
addressed students and responded positively to chants of, "We want
more!" (as in stronger climate action). In a follow up letter to Power
Shift, Speaker Pelosi pledged, "Combating climate change and working
toward energy independence are flagship issues for my Speakership and top
priorities of this Congress."
News Highlights: (For a full media round up, check out the Power
Shift newsroom.)
·Discovery and MTV - aired video clips highlighting the energy of the
lobby day, which many say was the largest yet on climate change--more than
2,000 students visited Members of Congress.
·Time magazine online - An article quoting Jesse Tolkan:
"For the Millennials, climate change is emerging as the defining issue of
their time, just as civil rights or Vietnam might have been for the generation
before. 'This is a new generation that sees itself at the forefront of a great
movement, just like the greatest movements of the past,' says Tolkan."
·Wildlife Promise - NWF's invited people to send messages to
students attending Power Shift, and got great comments from people
"passing the torch" from one generation to another.
Pictures and Video
Hundreds of pictures have
already been uploaded to FlickR
with the "Powershift07" tag. Also, the "I Shot Power
Shift" project put video cameras in the hands of more than 100
students and the footage is just starting to come in. They include:
·The "Green Jobs Not
Jails" rally cry was one of the most powerful of the weekend. This "Green for All" video captures some of the
incredible diversity of Power Shift and you can't help but get excited about
the future by watching Van
Jones who lit up crowd each time he spoke.
·And former NWF Campus Ecology
Fellow Summer Rayne Oakes put together the coolest video called "We
Are One" featuring the Faces of Power Shift.
Thanks to everyone who
contributed to the success of Power Shift 07!
National Wildlife Federation (NWF) hosted a luncheon at the Power Shift conference on Saturday, November 3, at the Marriot Conference Center on the University of Maryland campus. The luncheon was packed with 62 students (and 2 campus staff) from 20 campuses, including Ball State University, Colby College, Furman University, Texas Southern University, Macalester College, Randolph College, Richard Stockton College, and the University of Maryland. NWF's president and CEO Larry Schweiger and Chairman of the Board Tom Gonzales, as well as Julian Keniry, Kristin Kranendonk, Justin Schott, and Praween Dayananda from the Campus Ecology program, addressed the audience and students were invited to speak about their motivation for joining Power Shift 2007. The luncheon was a great opportunity for Campus Ecology members, fellows, and others to network and learn what others are doing to confront global warming on their campuses.
Photo: Students from Texas Southern University, copyright Julian Keniry
Six thousand student leaders from 2000 colleges, universities and high schools all across the country traveled to Washington, D.C. over the weekend as part of Powershift to ask our nation’s legislators how they plan to protect their generation from global warming. After participating in over 300 panel sessions and workshops on the weekend at the University of Maryland, the student leaders proceeded to Capitol Hill where they spoke at a Congressional hearing, paid hundreds of visits to lawmakers and held a large rally on the Capitol steps wearing hundreds of green hard hats.
The green hard hats symbolized the students’ vision of a prosperous economy through the creation of thousands of new green jobs. This is not a distant prospect. The National Wildlife Federation’s report,Higher Education in a Warming World: The Business Case for Climate Leadership on Campus (released November 2007), cites several studies illustrating how hundreds of thousands of exciting new jobs are likely to be created through investments in clean energy in the near future.
NWF's Campus Ecology Program hosted a greener campus teleconference series during the 2006-2007 academic year. Each teleconference featured practitioners in the field speaking about their accomplishments and challenges and a question-and-answer session giving participants an opportunity to engage in discussion. Each teleconference focused on a different strategy to confront global warming on campus - topics included greener purchasing and transportation, creative financing, conducting greenhouse gas inventories, and more.
Don't worry if you were unable to participate! All teleconferences were recorded and an audio file is available on the Campus Ecology website, and the three most recent - Creative Financing and Endowments, Purchasing Green Tags and Renewable Energy Certificates, and GreenerTransportation - are also available via Podcast download through iTunes, also on the Campus Ecology website. So, check out our site to learn more about global warming solutions and how campuses nationwide are reducing their greenhouse gas emissions while you drive, walk, run, etc.
The students at Middlebury College are gearing up and getting ready to Focus the Nation! To find out how you can Focus the Nation, watch the video and follow the steps!
