theClimateers

Many of us who were at the UN climate negotiations in Copenhagen from December 7-19 went through a period of hibernation in week following the conference. I, for one, slept for more than 32 hours in the 48 hours that began at 12:00 p.m. on December 20th. I’d been burning the midnight oil for fifteen straight days at that point, constantly jumping from one task to the next throughout the 18-hour workdays. It was actually no great hardship to sustain such working hours during the conference; the bubble that we lived in – that of the UN conference and, more so, that of our own international youth climate movement within the conference – was teeming with energy. We fed off the energy, passion, intellect and creativity of one another to make up for lack of sleep or caloric intake.

Youth Energy Reverb during COP Prep

This is nothing new. Our movement and social movements in general have acquired great strength from the way inspiration bounces around from activist to activist, sparking or re-igniting motivation. But to experience this at COP-15 in a tiny microcosm of the greater movement was eye-opening for me, particularly in the final hours as we walked away from the negotiations without the fair, ambitious, and legally binding treaty that we’d been pushing so hard for.

A fitting and galvanizing quotation just came through on my Twitterfeed: “Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged people who kept on working.”

While I believe it to be true that we can trudge through the lowest of lows and achieve great highs, I know it is a difficult task. Some of the farewell conversations I had with brilliant, effective young activists in Copenhagen were filled with a such a preponderance of negative emotion that, at least in the initial shock of the blow taken at the end of the negotiations, these new friends seemed to be leaving with a debilitating sense of defeat.

We are all working hard for a sustainable future, but how do we move forward using our own energy sustainably? How do we make sure we aren’t losing power as people fall out of the movement as they become too tired or too discouraged?

In the wake of COP-15, there are many facets of the international climate movement that need to be re-examined, strengthened or freshly innovated, and many great ideas have already been put forth. As we power back on after Copenhagen, let us take this opportunity to consider not just how to grow this movement but how to do so healthfully. The strategy to cultivate a healthy movement will provide the foundation for our strategies to deliver what the world needs on the US Senate floor, in Mexico City, and on the ground in communities around the world.

Generally in my blogs, I throw a set of bullet-points in right about here with my thoughts on the next steps. To be honest, I’m still a little lost and I don’t have a strong background in organizational psychology to make up for it. So let’s make a deal: I put in my 2 cents and you respond with some more ideas in the comments. Consider this a brainstorming session about some things we might want to reflect on as we burst into 2010.

1. Let’s be vocal in giving one another encouragement. The day-in-day-out fight for climate justice has its darker days (and not just in Copenhagen in December!). We not only need to highlight positivity through messaging around solutions and encouraging our leaders who are taking the right steps as Phil Aroneanu and Meg Boyle suggested, but we also must remember to share heartening words with each other. Look at the hundreds who came out of the woodwork to voice their support of the youth sit-in at the Bella Center on December 16. Showing one another that kind of love on a regular basis, after triumphs of all sizes, lifts the souls of the participants and organizers of each action. This indeed lifts the collective soul of the movement.
2. Let’s continue to recognize that everyone in the movement, whether they’ve attended one local 350.org action or three COPs, is an important player. Not everyone in the climate movement can dedicate his/her whole life to climate work. Not everyone concerned by climate change is even part of the climate movement (yet). These current and future members of the movement, however, should not just be numbers to be counted on one-off days of action, online petitions, or small fundraising drives. Our movement relies on our energy and inclusiveness; our work is not for minority rights but for the rights of all people and all life on this planet. We need to reach out, embrace the fresh ideas and engage the capacity of everyone who shares our concern for the climate.
3. Let’s remember to take care of ourselves. As COP15 prep ramped up this fall, I found myself shedding other commitments and hobbies and putting most of the rest of my life on hold until January. With the urgency of the need for global action on climate change weighing over us, it is easy to feel like climate work must always take priority. But hey, there’s still going to be work to be done after Mexico City, no matter how great the outcome. Diversity of interests and activities is healthy, and healthy members make a healthy movement. Plus, participating in other activities and taking up new hobbies opens us up to new networks (see “future members” referenced in 2). Win-win… and third win.

After writing it all out, all of these things strike me as fairly obvious, but clearly sometimes I forget to take note of them. If that’s the case for you, I hope these points were welcome reminders; if not, I hope to read your ideas on how to foster a healthy movement in 2010 in the comments.

Cross-posted at It’s Getting Hot In Here

I spent months helping prepare policy briefs on adaptation, plan how the SustainUS communications team would interface with policy and actions, and set up a framework for the international youth communications and media production teams to work within at COP. My personal (unaffiliated) involvement in yesterday’s unapproved sit-in inside the Bella Center was a transition into a new activist life outside of the COP-15 conference center.

In the end, we held our sit-in for nine hours. At around 2am, we walked away voluntarily (in some senses of the word), because the UNFCCC Secretariat and the security guards communicated an ultimatum to us: if they had to physically remove us, all 300 NGO observers (reduced from 7,000 allowed in on Tuesday and Wednesday) would be banned from entry. Three hundred is a paltry sum compared to the total number of accredited NGO observers (around 20,000), but it is far better than zero.

We were concerned about the silencing of civil society voices, and considered being arrested to show this concern. However, we agreed that to silence our voices further would hurt, not help the chances for a fair, ambitious, and legally binding deal. We were holding our sit-in to share this ask, signed by over 12 million people now, with negotiators and press in the Bella Center. We were therefore not willing to further reduce the already small chances for success in achieving this real deal in Copenhagen by allowing the UNFCCC to use our sit-in as an excuse to shut out civil society completely.

Our procession out of the Bella Center was bittersweet, mostly bitter. The sit-in had been a great success in some ways: gaining tons of media attention, engendering more smiles and thumbs up than we’d seen in the last 10 days in the Bella Center combined, and giving all of us an uplifting feeling as we realized we were not only supporting something we believed in but were also concurrently supported by millions of people including friends in the youth climate movement back in the US, official country delegates, and of course John Kerry. But as we left, we knew our impact inside the Bella Center was over, and with stalled negotiations over unacceptable texts, it felt like we hadn’t achieved enough.

But today was a new day. I woke up rejuvenated after five and a half ours of sleep (I’ve been averaging around six hours/night – better than I’d expected). This movement is still growing. Although we’re closer to tripping over climate tipping points with each delay of a binding, science-based treaty, this movement is going to continue. With added urgency to mitigate climate change and added need to help affected communities adapt to changes we can no longer avoid, the undercurrent I’m feeling among (my mostly new) friends here is that it is time to bring this movement to a new level. International Youth Climate Movement version 2.0.

Today, I fasted in solidarity with three Climate Justice Fasters who are now on day 42 (!!!) of a water-only fast. This cleanse is also a symbolic clearing of my system as I prepare for a new kind of involvement in an improved movement.

Tomorrow, I will continue (that is, unless I chicken out) down this path of a symbolic restart by shaving my head with a group of other activists in front of the Bella Center. Other things shaving my head could possibly end up symbolizing include: the ugly negotiating process, the bad decisions made by negotiators, or the catastrophic changes that unabated climate change could bring about. Those are risks I’m willing to take, though, because if the shave does turn out horribly, it will be, as the Climate Justice Fast was explained to me, a form of penance for being a part of the problem and not effective enough as part of the solution til now. At the same time, though, my shaved head will provide a promise of new growth – personally, in the movement, and for the world – to help us rise up above the challenges we have created for ourselves.

Life goes on and we will not let it pass us by. We won’t just sit and wait for a fair, ambitious, and legally binding deal. We will make it happen.

Cross posted from It’s Getting Hot in Here

As 27 of my fellow SustainUSers are in Copenhagen are attending plenary sessions and planning actions with international youth from around the world, I’m holding down the fort in Washington, DC by bridging the news from Denmark to actions at home.

A friend of mine earnestly remarked today that he thought grassroots and youth organizing for COP15 was a lost cause because the real negotiating at Copenhagen, and that legislative change in the U.S. Senate happens behind closed doors between high-level decisionmakers and powerful lobbyists; that protests, petitions, and rallies are tiny blips on the political radar. And I suppose he has a point – the COP15 outcome depends highly upon decisions of key leaders, and the deep pocketbooks of special interest groups and corporations resonate at higher decibels than kids with hand-painted banners and street actions.

But he’s wrong to conclude that it’s a waste of our time. After a brief afternoon existential crisis of the importance of our collective work, I stopped to look around at all the inspiring work coming from delegates in Copenhagen and my friends all over the country. It’s easy to become apathetic or discouraged, but it takes a lot more to keep fighting the fight.

Don’t underestimate the value of expressing your two cents to your leaders – it’s money well spent! We’ve already seen a positive change in political climate from our tireless campaigns – from Obama’s willingness to engage with youth climate leaders to the growing support for 350 ppm as our new global CO2 stabilization target – and though our gains may seem incremental, they are certainly pointing in clear direction: forward.

“I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world,” writes poet Adrienne Rich. We may not have money or extraordinary power on our side, but we have our youth, creativity, energy, enthusiasm, and dedication, and no astroturf effort can buy that kind of genuine passion. Sure, even a visible Ark on the National Mall isn’t alone going to convince my Senator to vote for the Climate Bill, but it’s the combined effect of all sorts of actions happening worldwide that show our collective force.

As youth delegate Caroline points out in her dispatch from Copenhagen, it’s important for us at home to build on the momentum from our friends in Denmark to push for domestic action.  Join a rapid response team! Call your senators to voice your support for the Climate Bill!  Talk to your friends and neighbors to raise awareness about these issues to people who might not otherwise know about them! Attend a 12/12 candlelight vigil!

Tomorrow, youth activists in Copenhagen are holding a Bed-In to commemorate the assassination of John Lennon by singing a climate-adapted version of “Give Peace a Chance.” The message? Give youth a chance.

Dear President Obama,

The science on climate change is overwhelming, and the momentum from the climate movement is at full speed. Don’t resign to postponing climate action just yet! We’re not just asking you to attend Copenhagen in person, we’re asking you to be at Copenhagen with all the dedication, energy, and diplomatic grace that you have demonstrated so many times before.  We want to see you come home  having made progress — real progress! — on climate negotiations, not pat yourselves on the backs and say, ‘The timing wasn’t right, but let’s certainly do this again later.’

Time is running out! It’s true; we may not feel the repercussions of unabated climate change in the same way we feel the backlash of this economic recession right now, but we have already made irreversible damages to our earth and it is imperative that we act now to prevent too many more from happening.

In solidarity,

Your friendly, neighborhood Climateers

____________________________________________

Dear all,

Most of us are not as lucky as Valida and hundreds of other youth to be able to voice our opinions at Copenhagen in person, so here are a few things we can do at home to make sure we let President Obama and the Senate know we don’t intend to let them off the hook on this one.

1. CALL YOUR SENATORS! You have two of them, and while sometimes it might not seem like it, they work for YOU, so let ‘em know what you want!

2. Attend a climate justice action on November 30: http://www.actforclimatejustice.org/ – happening all over!

3. If you are in DC, help 1Sky and CCAN deliver art to the White House on Dec. 4!

4. It’s not all petitions and protests! Think of something creative! Valida and I wrote 350 songs; Berlin held a silent climate parade; DC released dozens of beautiful, floating lanterns at the White House during Obama’s trip to China — what can you come up with?

5. Send Obama a message or sign a petition – no worries about sending two, or three, or four! The larger the volume the better!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/live |  www.itsgametimeobama.org |  www.climatecountdown.org

Here’s a possible list of things to ask him to do:

- Attend Copenhagen in person

- Put pressure on the Senate to pass a strong climate bill — no watery bills wanted

- Meet with the youth leaders who have been working so hard at the grassroots level on environmental issues

- Address the country with a public, televised speech on the importance of climate and energy legislation so to tell the world that this is a top priority on his agenda

Louise

October 24, 2009, was an amazing day in Berlin and, from what I can tell, around the world at over 5200 events in 181 countries.

There were a few major events in Berlin.

1. 350, the Show. Put on by the Klimapiraten (Climate Pirates) and the Kampagne Klimakanzlerin gesucht (Climate Chancellor Sought Campaign of the Klimaallianz, GermanWatch & Avaaz), this short theatrical show in front of the Brandenburg Gate was highly successful despite some last minute changes to the program.

   The initial idea that we had was to have a casting show (like American Idol) to seek out the true Climate Chancellor, a title Angela Merkel likes to give herself despite doing little for the climate, amidst 350 people with Merkel masks on. At the end, a Climate Pirate from 2050 would deliver the true Climate Chancellor 350 roses and a note thanking her for all the right steps she took at Copenhagen in 2009 that led to a sustainable, beautiful world in 2050. I was always a bit uncertain of whether we could pull this final messaging off – how could we make it clear that we were thanking a Merkel that we’d like to see and not the real, current Merkel; how could we be sure to convey the 2050/time-traveler aspect? Luckily, in the last few days before the event, others made the decision to overhaul the program despite already sending out the press releases and mobilization emails. (I was unable to make the final planning meetings due to class and a trip to Bonn for a scholarship retreat.)

   Our new show, which I first caught word of AT the event on Saturday morning, was much easier to handle. We had our 350 volunteer Merkels as the studio audience and split inner-conscience of Angela Merkel during a studio interview. The messaging changed to “The time for uncertainty is over” and we left Merkel saying “Jein” (yes/no) at the end followed by the rest of us saying “Act! Now!” The 15-minute show was perhaps still a bit long for most reporters to take note of all the details, but the masks were great and got us in as one of the nine featured events in the New York Times slideshow. I call that success.

2. Deletion of 350 tons worth of emissions credits. At the end of the 350 show, we tagged on another action put on by the Compensators, in which they popped a balloon labelled “350t CO2″. Once popped, 350 slips of paper, each representing one ton of CO2 pollution that the Compensators and donors had purchased out of the European Union Emission Trading Scheme, flew out like confetti.
3. Carrotmob. After some tear-down and clean-up, a bunch of the Climate Pirates headed over to Eve & Adam’s organic salad and smoothie bar to enjoy a refreshing lunch. The little restaurant committed 45% of proceeds to energy efficiency improvements and boy did it pay off! Carrotmobbers enjoying any of the tasty menu items including a special carrot and ginger soup for 350 cents more than doubled the restaurant’s record daily income.
4. Silent Climate Parade. Honestly, going into this event, I was a bit skeptical and I only intended to show up, take a bit of video, and go home. I was given one of the 350 wireless Sennheiser headphones, though, and was quickly sucked in to the awesomeness of this event! The idea here was that 350 ravers listening to live techno music being played by Dr. Motte, the man behind Berlin’s famous Love Parade in the 90s, would dance and party through the streets of Berlin, from Potsdamer Platz to Alexanderplatz.

   Honestly, this was the most fun protest/action/whatever that I’ve ever participated in. Basically, it was bunch of youth partying in the middle of the main streets in downtown Berlin. Like getting into a very underground or elite club, we with headphones were rocking out to sweet jams that no one else could hear. Passers-by were quite perplexed, so we handed out 5,000 fliers explaining the event: greenhouse gas emissions are a mostly silent problem, but if we listen to the scientists, it is clear that our politicians have been too silent on the issue of climate change.

   Many of the people on Unter den Linden are tourists, so I volunteered to help deliver the German fliers and had one ear out to try to identify non-German speakers who might want an explanation in English. I talked to dozens of people, giving a full 2- or 3-minute explanation to maybe 20 people, and they were all captivated by and supportive of the Silent Climate Parade and broader 350.org message.

   A chance meeting with an old friend who lives in another part of Germany and the adrenaline rush from dancing through the streets certainly helped make this one of the best days of my life. However, I think it was seeing all the volunteers behind their Merkel masks at the Show, all the hungry activists at the Carrotmob, and all the energized youth and interested bystanders at the Silent Climate Parade – at least a thousand of us, all behind the call for 350ppm – was really what made this day a day to remember.

I was lucky enough to have had access to a wonderful new HD camcorder and edited this little highlights video together before hitting up the 350 After-party on Saturday night (also a fun time, hah). Click to view the video at Vimeo.com to see it in HD.

Berlin 350 International Day of Action Highlights from Valida Prentice on Vimeo.

Did you organize or participate in a 350 International Day of Climate Action event? How did it go?

Things have been busy here in DC (and in 170 other countries!) in preparation for the International Day of Climate Action on October 24th!

On a personal note, it’s been really gratifying and energizing to have been helping to plan the rally. Between phone banking, petitioning, and mobilizing other DC volunteers, climate change action has been monopolizing my free time, but it’s great to see all the different environmental groups come together for this.  And, it’s been so interesting to see all the different types of events that people have come up with, which, I guess, is the beauty of the 350 grassroots-based campaign. From the big march in DC and regional campus PowerShifts to protests at coal plants and bike rides, I’m so happy to see people getting involved in all sorts of ways.

I think the best part of this whole process is that it’s been a good platform to talk about climate change with people (both friends and strangers) who did not think about taking action otherwise.  My friend at UC Davis just told me that she signed up for a big climate bike ride after seeing all my 350.org plugs on facebook, and I’ve gotten several other people to volunteer. Even just getting climate issues on people’s radar is great.

For our U.S. readers, here are the details for two 350 events in DC and Chicago.  Unfortunately, it looks like possible rain on Saturday in DC, but at least the forecast won’t be too cold!

Chicago:

1-4 pm at Fisk Coal Plant in Pilsen (1111 W. Cermak)

Speakers and performers will include Alderman Joe Moore, Executive Director of Greenpeace Phil Radford

DC:

Malcom X/Meridian Hill Park, 12-3: Rally at Malcolm X; 3-5: March down 16^th Street to the White House

Speakers and Performers will include:
Reverend Lennox Yearwood, Hip Hop Caucus
Friis Arne Petersen, Danish Ambassador to US
Steve Ma, Live Green
Joe Uehlein, former director, AFL-CIO Center for Strategic Campaigns

For folks interested in marching as part of an MTR contingent, see this!

By Keith Harrington of CCAN, with whom I’ve been working to do 350 outreach.

Want A Strong Climate Bill? Then Pay Up! | Grist

“We the American people have far deeper pockets than all of the big oil and coal companies combined. While most of us fail to realize it, each one of us, by right of being a democratic citizen, has access to inexhaustible stores of a currency far more potent than the dollar. This currency is one which our leaders ultimately depend upon to hold office, run the country, and pass laws that truly reflect the public interest – political capital.”

A couple weeks ago, in the days leading up to September 21′s Global Wake-Up Call for climate action, I had the pleasure of meeting the folks at Avaaz’s Climate Action Factory in Berlin. I was immediately impressed by the energy exuding from the group and by the way the walls (or lack of walls, in some cases) of the teamwork-oriented office reflected this energy right back at the activists. All this energy was definitely helping the team get a heckuvalot done: not only were they preparing for a large action in Berlin in front of the Brandenburg Gate, but they were also the central organizing team for Wake-Up Call flash-mobs in 30 or 40 other German cities.

With just a few days to go before the action, these guys were BUSY. As a SustainUS member, I was warmly welcomed and quickly trusted to I help out where I could – assembling packets, setting up an online survey to collect post-action info, and throwing in my two cents on what might work for the staging of the Berlin event. But, arriving late in the game, I was definitely an outsider and had plenty of time and space just to observe and listen.

While there, I realized a story seldom told by activists: the behind-the-scenes story. We post pictures, media hits and occasionally reflections from the actions we produce, but most people don’t get to see the development process of our actions. Even we ourselves are sometimes too focused on our end-goals to recognize the beauty and wealth of the process. From the organizational charts to the unconventional “boardroom” meetings, from the email blasts to… the construction of huge cardboard clocks… what we’re creating from the ground up is energy and empowerment in true form.

So I wanted to take a moment to pause, reflect, and say, “Hey, all you climate activists out there, YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME. Recognize it!”

I know the clock is ticking – COP-15 kicks off in 66 days – and we’re all feeling it; but remember to take a tiny step back now and then when you’re hard at work to feed off of some of that inspiring energy that your peers are producing. We’ve collectively got an amazing renewable resource right in our own backyards, whether next to us at the brainstorming table or linked in from across the globe through itsgettinghotinhere.org. Take advantage of it!

If you’re feeling down (say perhaps due to the German elections), keep in mind that our activist energy is like wind energy – even if thing’s aren’t blowing your way, the mighty activist wind’s a’ blowin’ full-speed for clean energy somewhere else. So get linked into that smart grid and let the power of our youth movement reenergize your work and renew your spirit.

And P.S. check out what all the hard-work, energy, creativity, teamwork, and process of the Berlin Climate Action Factory team created (photos courtesy Avaaz):

German Leaders Heeding Climate Wake-Up Call

Flashmobbers + Press - all organized by the Action Factory in Berlin!

And check out more photos from the Berlin Wake-Up Call or from Wake-Up Calls organized by Avaaz leaders and volunteers from around the world – a great way to get pumped about our power.