Hopenhagen

OK, it’s time to talk climate change. I know it’s a touchy topic for some bartblog readers (and I love you anyway), but let’s just get something clear: climate change is happening, fast. And it’s mostly our fault.

All the really smart scientists say so, and so did South Dakota legend Tony Dean. And experts say it’s worse than we first thought, especially those who study the poles first hand (like Minnesota uber-explorer Will Steger). If we keep up the status quo, our changing weather will be particularly painful for lots of South Dakotans, like hunters and farmers (and people who like to drink water). So enough about some sort of debate about wether climate change is for real. (It’s as silly as a “debate” about evolution.) The only worthwhile and super-important debate is how we (as in humanity) should do something about it. There, now that’s out of the way…

Leaders from all over the planet will be gathering in December at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.  One of those leaders will be my friend and intern–if we all pitch in to help get her there.

Jamie Horter works with me at the Sioux Falls Green Project. She’s also a senior at Augustana College in Sioux Falls. Jamie was picked by Will Steger to be part of his foundation’s Expedition Copenhagen, a group of Midwest youth who will travel with him to the Climate Change Conference next month. Jamie has been interacting with kids and grown ups around South Dakota, gathering up hopes and dreams for our state’s future. She’ll be our messenger in December, talking about stuff near and dear to our hearts here in good ‘ol SD. Things like our place in the clean energy future, and our love of the land, rural communities and agriculture (see her video on YouTube). You can get more details on a blog post I wrote for the Green Project here.

Please help Jamie get to Copenhagen. She’s too shy to ask you, so I will. We need to raise some bucks to cover her travel expenses from South Dakota to Copenhagen and back. Her travel is not covered by Will Steger, and she’s a college student. You can drop a dime or two here, or give me a shout. Every dime will be used to help Jamie connect us to the talks in Denmark December 7-13. If you can’t chip in, that’s OK. Just help me spread the word, and this link: http://jamiehorter.chipin.com. I promise she’s way worth it.

We can’t all go to Denmark. If you live in the Midwest, please connect with Jamie to share your message. If you live somewhere else (or not), there’s a really cool project out there gathering up hope from all over the world and plastering it on the leaders who will attend the conference in Copenhagen. Please share your dreams and hopes and fears at Hopenhagen.

Above is a shot of one of the awareness campaigns Jamie recently helped organize. Check that stunning little activist in the colorful hat on the far right!

Nudging the Clouds: Blog Action Day 09

Today is Blog Action Day. For one day each year, the folks at change.org invite bloggers everywhere to unite around action on an important topic in the world. Today, there’s nothing more important and scary than climate change. There are crazy big changes coming that will effect the life of everyone on this planet, and much of it was done by us. We didn’t mean to screw things up, we didn’t even realize we were doing it. But now we know, and now we can change.

So, how do we change our behaviors–the way we go about everything–in one big swoop? We can’t. Humans have designed and built a society and life infrastructure that doesn’t work without messing up countless ecosystems, from our own bodies to our backyard to the other side of planet Earth. Reconstructing those social and built norms is like trying to push a cloud with our hands. It would be easier to just say screw it.

That would be normal. After all, despite overwhelming evidence that all those Big Macs and desk jobs and video games and chemical cocktails in our food are killing us, we keep up behaviors that doctors tell us will give us cancer or a heart attack or some other disease. Over and over again. It seems there are only two things that can change that kind of normal behavior:

Meeting 1Sky for Coffee

Like MinusCar’s author, I met with Zak from 1Sky today, but we hit Queen City Bakery instead of Monk’s House of Ale Repute. Same neighborhood, different time of day. If you have to have coffee instead of beer, Queen City is a dandy place. Coffee is never better than beer of course, just perhaps more appropriate at 10 in the morning. Unless it’s Saturday.

Zak is a young dude who’s setting up a South Dakota office and serving in the Green Corps as a contractor to 1Sky. Green Corps trains environmental community organizers and places them around the country to work on different environmental issues. They celebrated 15 years of work last year.

This 1Sky thing is good stuff. Good enough that I apparently signed up to be a “climate precinct captain” when I first heard about it almost two years ago. Zak came collecting on my forgotten promise. The goal: help folks recognize we all share the one and only sky (not so tough) and that right now is the the best (and maybe only) time for our nation to step forward together to enact new laws to curb climate change.

I like Zak. We had a great convo about the green energy and political landscape here in the Mt. Rushmore state–I wish he could stay here on the prairie for longer than a few months. I also admire the way 1sky is organized and operating. I hope you’ll sign up to help or tell your senator how important climate change legislation is to our grandchildren. You can join up on Facebook or at 1sky.org.

Tell Zak ‘howdy’ if you run into him out there.

Following up the VP

I was part of a panel of four speakers last night for an organization called Repower America. At least it was supposed to be four of us. 

The day before the panel, we found out former Vice President Al Gore would be joining us by conference call at the beginning of the meeting (he’s chair of the We Campaign, which is the parent organization of Repower America). Al spoke for about 15 minutes about the Cap and Trade bill that is making it’s way through congress right now (you can tell your congress representative what you think very easily by calling 1-877-9-REPOWER, no matter where you live). It was a national conference call with members of Repower America, and we just happened to be holding our event at the same time. So, he gave a shout out to Sioux Falls. 

I was scheduled to go first on the panel, to talk about the Sioux Falls Green Project and changing the way we talk locally about sustainability. So, with the late addition of the Vice President, I got to follow up Al Gore. Crazy.

It was a good event, and I learned some things and made great new friends. Others on the panel were my friend Randy Parry from the Rural Learning Center, Matt McClarty from the Environmental Law and Policy Institute, and Ned from Repower America. Plus Al Gore…

 

I just got this letter below from Bill McKibben–and today he’s helping to create the largest ever civil-disobedience on climate change in history. He’s in DC with thousands, protesting the coal-fired Capitol Power plant–a dirty symbol of our dirty energy history.

He’s asking for our help by signing onto a statement of support–can you add your name by following this link? I just signed it, and think we all need to stand together on this one.

http://www.350.org/coal-free

Thanks everybody!

[Read Bill's letter after the jump...Full of great stats on climate change.]

Help Send Obama and McCain to Poland

I only want them to go there for a little while. Who ever wins, we need him to attend this meeting. Tell the candidates, and tell your friends. Thanks.

100 Months and 350

Please help send our next President (whoever he is) to the big UN climate change meeting. They won’t go unless we ask.  Click here to see what I’m yapping about.

Also, I just joined the effort to spread the word about 100 Months.

I’ve posted this video before, but it’s worth another look…