When you are working to save the planet, sometimes it can be daunting enough that we can be to lose sight of who exactly we are saving the planet for.  All of us at the We Campaign headquarters in Menlo Park, CA, however, were reminded recently of who WE are fighting for.

Thank you, David

His name is David and he recently turned 7 years old.  Rather than ask for remote control cars and video games, he asked for donations, all of which he gave to the Alliance for Climate Protection (our nonprofit that houses the We Campaign).  Accompanying the money was a hand written note, in unmistakably 7-year old handwriting:

“Dear Alliance for Climate Protection.  I am sending you chek’s that add up to 400$ that I collected at my 7th birthday party insted of presents.  thank you for trying to save the earth.  love David feigeison.”

As any teacher or parent knows, sometimes it is the simplest acknowledgments that carry the most meaning.  Taped to our office refrigerator door, this note is an inspiring reminder of the importance of our mission.  Unless the necessary actions are taken now, unless policymakers step up and pass smart legislation, unless the international community comes together and commits to changing their energy consumption patterns, David’s generation will find themselves raising their kids in a world that looks drastically different from that of today.
The time to address this issue is now.  We owe it to David to help ensure that our children inherit a healthy planet.

Last night, gathered around computer screens in dorm rooms and video projector screens in larger campus halls, students across the nation witnessed the intersection of two of the most exciting and vibrant campaigns in America focused on climate crisis: Energy Action’s “Power Vote” and the Alliance for Climate Protection’s “We” Campaign.

Power Vote's Jessy Tolkan and Al Gore

During their co-sponsored live webcast, I saw Al Gore congratulate and thank youth around the nation who have been tirelessly and energetically campaigning to register hundreds of thousands of their peers to vote for clean energy and climate solutions in the November 4th election.  It seemed clear to me that Vice President Gore understood that is was those of us tuning in last night who would, over the next five days, mobilize in larger and larger numbers to turn out our peers and usher in the start of their clean energy future.

I saw students leave the event inspired to take to the streets and turn-out their peers in unprecedented numbers in the closing days of the election.  In Massachusetts, Amherst College played host to students from Mt. Holyoke and University of Massachusetts-Amherst in a spirited show of cross-campus collaboration.  U Mass student Katie MacDonald was motivated by the event: “It’s great to see how our actions are having impact on a bigger stage, and contributing to larger solutions.”  Dozens of students turned out and the sign-up sheet was filled with more students eager to join the cause, and mobilize their peers.

Across the state at Boston University, students used the event to build excitement about get-out-the-vote efforts and build support for the We Campaign’s generational challenge to Repower America.  At Emerson College, dozens gathered in the campus dining hall to watch the event, while countless others watched it on television broadcast through Emerson’s television station.

Last night’s takeaway was clear: our generation knows what’s at stake.  We know the task that lies before us. We will rally our peers, turn-out the vote, and continue our efforts far beyond the election to build a clean energy future.

And we will answer Al Gore’s call, and Repower America with 100% clean electricity within 10 years.  Our futures deserve nothing less.

Craig is Co-Coordinator of Massachusetts Power Shift and an M.P.P/J.D. candidate at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University

I had the privilege of meeting and introducing former Vice President and Nobel Laurette Al Gore during the special Power Vote webcast he made to young people this evening. His speech was inspiring and a true call to action to everyone to get out and vote on November 4 and start putting our country on the track towards 100% clean energy.

Although it’s not every day you get hang out with a Nobel prize winner, what was even more exciting than what happened in that little studio in Nashville was what has been brewing around this country for the last few weeks, and what kicked off in earnest tonight.

Get Out the (Power) Vote!

As soon as the webcast screen went dark, thousands of young Power Vote student leaders across this nation started intense Get Out the (Power) Vote campaigning. In Maryland they hit the dorms (in costume) and knocked on hundreds of doors. In Portland, they hit the streets doing a massive bike ride to get out the vote. In California and hundreds of places in-between, young leaders are going to be working around the clock to make sure that young people turn out to vote in record numbers on Election Day and demonstrate to our candidates that clean, just energy is a top priority for us.

For young people, clean energy is worth voting for. And worth fighting for. We won’t stop on November 4. We will make sure that politicians start putting bold clean energy policies into place. The era of dirty energy politics as usual is over. We’re ready for a cleaner, healthier, more prosperous, and just future!

An answer is blowing in the wind

But, despite this gloomy news, the U.S. wind industry looks like a bright spot in our economy:

“With a projected total of about 7,500-megawatts of new wind energy developments this year, the industry is on track for a fourth consecutive year of record growth in 2008.  This year alone eight new wind turbine component manufacturing facilities have opened, nine have expanded, and nineteen more were announced.  These new facilities will create 9,000 new jobs.”

To help keep the turbines spinning, Clipper Windpower Plc and BP Wind Energy entered a joint venture to build the world’s largest turbine farm in South Dakota:

“The Titan Wind Project will include 2,000 wind turbines installed across 500,000 acres, with a total electric generating capacity of 5,050-megawatts – enough to power over one million homes.  When the project is completed in five-to-ten years, it is expected to be the world’s largest wind farm.”

A few policymakers are also catching the green wave of ingenuity by implementing programs to stimulate employment within their states.  Michigan, which recently adopted a renewable portfolio standard (RPS), will benefit from the New Apollo Program:

“U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D), along with the Apollo Alliance, unveiled a 10-year, $500 billion plan to create five million green jobs nationally.  The program calls for spending on: retooling factories to build renewable energy systems and alternative-fuel vehicles, producing a quarter of the nation’s power from renewable sources, doubling U.S. investment in clean energy R&D, and investing in green jobs training.  The coalition hopes the next administration will help implement the plan.”

And New Jersey’s Governor just revealed his ‘energy master plan’ in the midst of the state’s budget crisis:

“NJ Gov. Corzine plans to employ 1,500 to 2,000 people over 6-12 months in new, clean energy businesses.  A revised energy master plan will include plans to cut energy demand by 20 percent by 2020, push through policies to support the creation of about 20,000 green-collar jobs by that year and increase spending of the $492 million the state has set aside for its clean energy program.”

Hawai'i makes the switch

Mainland states are not the only ones building new solutions for the county’s challenges.  Hawai’i is making the switch to smarter forms of power to meet its goal of producing 70 percent of the state’s total energy needs from renewable sources by 2030:

“Hawaiian Electric Co., the state’s largest utility, commits to put a moratorium on new coal plants, integrate up to 1,100-megawatts of renewable energy into the power grid, and convert existing fossil fuel generators to biofuels using locally grown crops.  Currently the state has one existing coal-fired plant and generates about three-quarters of its electricity from oil-fired plants.”

While travelers may be attracted to the tropical weather in Hawaii, environmental groups and scientists have a right to be concerned when global temperatures abnormally rise:

“According to NASA, seven of the eight warmest years on record globally have occurred since 2001.  Environmental groups and some international scientists have warned that emissions of carbon dioxide must drop 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050 to head off the worst consequences of climate change.”

The consequences of the climate crisis are scary.  However, these bold steps taken by the wind industry, policymakers, and local jurisdictions are good signs we headed in the right direction.

But the biblical references matter greatly.  And faith plays an essential role in the work to solve the climate crisis.  This is why The Climate Project hosted a unique training session on climate change for more than 130 faith leaders last week in Nashville.  Al Gore spent three 14-hour days with a dedicated group of spiritual leaders, sharing tools and information they can take to their congregations and communities across the U.S.

Eric Sapp, director of the Eleison Group, a Virginia-based consulting firm focused on faith initiatives, attended the sessions in Nashville.  He said “the climate crisis is a top moral priority for the faith community.”

“The poor and the most vulnerable bear the brunt of the worst effects of climate change and we have a responsibility to care for the least among us, according to the Bible,” Sapp explained, saying the faith community is embracing the climate change issue in ways that break down traditional notions of conservative politics among Evangelicals. “The faith community’s outreach programs are absolutely progressive when it comes to preserving God’s gift of the Earth.”

Sapp was wowed by Gore’s passion, stamina and humor in the training and left impressed by the range of potential solutions to the climate crisis.  He left with a better sense of how to heed what he described as “Genesis’ call for us to be good stewards of God’s creation.”

Last week, our CEO, Cathy Zoi wrote a pointed letter to Anne Sweeney, the chief at ABC-Disney, and put out an appeal to our membership asking 100,000 Americans to sign a petition and send it to ABC, demanding the network observe fairness in advertising. In less than a week, nearly a quarter million people answered the call by signing the petition.  It sends a resounding message to ABC.

Others have been talking about it.  Climate Progress put up a post that became so popular through a Digg, that all the attention crashed the Climate Progress servers.

Journalists nationwide have been asking questions too, such as Eoin O’Carroll at The Christian Science Monitor’s Bright Green Blog, who managed to get ABC spokeswoman Julie Hoover to say the issue was the corporate policy on controversial issue advertising, but did not explain how oil industry ads on the same “issue” manage to pass muster.

It’s true that news and conversation about this controversy raises awareness of our message, and that can sometimes be a kind of advertising in itself.  But that was never our intent.  We didn’t imagine this ad could be viewed as controversial.  And we’d still prefer for the American people to see our ad. We’d still prefer that one of the world’s largest media conglomerates give Americans the opportunity to make up their own minds about the “controversial issue” of repowering America through renewable energy and rejecting our dependence on fossil fuels.

So help us keep the pressure on. Sign the petition and send it to ABC, and to everyone you know.

******

Blue + Red = Green

We’ve seen it before.

Every four years, we see the large, electoral map dividing the red states from the blue states – Republicans from Democrats.  But, now, both parties seem to be finding common ground on the issue of clean energy.  Maybe the red states and blue states are beginning to turn green.

Between August 9-20, WorldPublicOpinion.com conducted a poll of 1,174 Americans:

“Three-quarters of Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama’s supporters and 60 percent who support Republican John McCain favor alternative energy even if it increases costs in the short run.”  The Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland managed the poll.

Supporters of both parties are not the only ones engaging in the clean energy movement.  The Associated Press reports a Republican leader is calling for lower carbon dioxide emissions to reduce his state’s impact on global warming:

“South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford (R) called for his state to cut CO2 emissions to below 1990 levels by 2020, with voluntary measures driven largely by incentives and laws already in place.  Renewable sources should provide the state with 5 percent of its energy needs and another 5 percent is to be met through conservation and efficiency measures.  South Carolina’s GHG emissions rose 39 percent between 1990 and 2005.”

Seems like our message, and those of other organizations and leaders, is making the case to the public for the urgency and solvability of the climate crisis.  Hopefully more people will realize that the climate crisis is not a Democratic issue, or a Republican issue, but a humankind issue.

And who better to explain the real urgency than a Nobel Prize-winning group of international scientists.  A new research study from Global Carbon Project shows emissions caused by humans are on the rise:

“Global carbon dioxide caused by humans rose 3 percent last year.  The new numbers, called ‘scary’ by some, were a surprise because scientists thought an economic downturn would slow energy use.  Most developing nations, however, slightly cut their CO2 output in 2007, while U.S. emissions rose nearly 2 percent, and China and India increased their CO2 pollution to a record high of 9.34 billion tons of carbon.”

However, it seems one carbon-emitting company is taking a step in the right direction.  Xcel, one of the largest builders of coal-fired plants in the U.S. is aiming to build its renewable energy portfolio:

Making the switch

“Following Xcel Energy’s announcement to shut down a 156MW and 73MW coal plant, it is adding more wind and solar power.  Colorado and Minneapolis-based Xcel, which serves 3.3 million electricity customers in eight states in the Midwest and West, will add at least 1,000 MW of new wind and solar power to its energy portfolio as well as increase its investment in energy efficiency programs.”

Not only will this kind of the switch to renewable energy reduce impacts on the climate, but it will create jobs in the much-needed green economy as well.  A new UN report relates the big economic benefits of green jobs:

“The worldwide renewable energy industry is expected to create 20 million new jobs around the globe by 2030 if countries implement and broaden policies to slow global warming.  This is nearly ten times the number of green jobs that exist today (2.3 million).  Twelve million new jobs are expected in the biofuels industry, 6.3 million in the solar industry, and 2 million in the wind industry.  The biggest gains are expected to come in the developing world.”

These potential 20 million new green jobs around the world are proof positive that we can improve the environment and revitalize our economy at the same time.

In more than 650 events across all 50 states, hundreds of thousands of people came together to learn how jobs supported by an economy powered by clean, renewable energy can lift communities out of poverty and ensure a prosperous, sustainable future for all walks of life.

Flint, MI is ready for green jobs now

In Flint, MI, Kathy Sheller told us how the prospect of a “green collar” economy allowed people in her community to put aside political differences and find common ground on which to build optimism in a town that has been on a long downward slide.

“You can pretty easily tell where people stand politically around here,” she said. But added, “I was amazed to see how Green Jobs Now found a way to bring people from all sides of the political spectrum together around the idea of greening the economy.”

The Flint event, held at the weekend farmers market, highlighted local university sustainability programs and coursework in training for the green collar jobs aimed at turning around the sagging Flint economy.

In Chicago, Naomi Davis from Blacks in Green was deeply gratified to see so many people come together in the area on Chicago’s far south side where Democratic candidate for President Barack Obama began his community organizing career.

“This is an extremely isolated area. The people who live here are surrounded on all sides by toxicity, from landfills, to wastewater treatment facilities, to the Chicago river, that runs right through the community.” She described the hopefulness and the yearning on the faces of many who came from the areas’ Section 8 housing and its crumbling 1920s single-family housing when they learned more at last Saturday’s event. “I saw a level of excitement and optimism that I haven’t found in this community in many, many years,” she told us.

Training youth for green jobs in Los Angeles

In Los Angeles, Alli Starr told us that the National Day of Action rally on Wilshire Boulevard more than doubled last year’s turnout, showing that momentum is building across the nation for an inclusive green economy. “We need real solutions to the climate and economic crisis,” Starr says, “and repowering America with a green economy is a solution that promises long-term stability, and livability, for all of our communities.”

Skyrocketing energy costs, thousands of jobs lost and Wall Street in shambles makes the economy the number one voting issue among, well, everyone. Gas prices, energy, the war in Iraq, and college affordability fall right behind the economy in Rock the Vote’s latest poll reporting young voters’ top concerns.

And where does global warming and the environment rank in this list of priorities to tackle? Not very high.

The good news is that Al Gore’s challenge to Repower America with 100% clean electricity from renewable energy sources within ten years can bring big solutions to these big problems and combat climate change. We just need to help government leaders and young voters connect the dots.

Young adults can fuel the new green economy

Take the economy. We can revitalize the job market by creating millions of green collar jobs, and we can do it right now. I recently attended one of the 700 Green Jobs Now National Day of Action events and found it truly inspirational. People who were struggling to find a job, people who were looking to do something positive in their lives, found a way to do both after receiving training in the clean energy sector.

And the issues of the war, gas prices, and energy are inextricably linked. We know that our reliance on foreign oil prevents our nation from being fully secure. We know that failure to produce our own resources hinders our innovation and keeps us (and our pocketbooks) at will to the oil industry. We also know that the sun, the wind, tidal waves, and heat from the earth are never-ending and they are free.

So, shouldn’t we help our leaders connect the dots — that by repowering America with clean energy we can literally REPOWER America?

Green Jobs Now! Oakland Rally

The sense of camaraderie was palpable, as those who join forces in battle often feel; the people who gathered at the concert and rally wanted to collaborate, they wanted to work together, they wanted to do things that would benefit their community. Participants represented a number of different interests, from solar energy to sustainable food production to job training to human rights, yet they were united in their support for green jobs.

Green Jobs Now graffiti art

The Oakland Green Jobs Corps Partnership on display yesterday provided an inspiring example of a community effort to utilize the opportunities for advancement that green jobs offer. The program is aimed at young adults of color in Oakland facing barriers to employment, and gives training in green collar jobs, in the hopes of providing a pathway out of poverty. Current trainees were easy to spot at the rally, dressed in bright orange shirts and clean white hard hats. And they were all ready to share their story of hope.

We Campaign members are ready for Green Jobs Now!