ReEnergize Texas

Powershift :)

rachel724 — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:06:14 +0000

Wow. Powershift was amazing. I don’t really have words to explain it, but I will try. Van Jones was spectacular. He totally brought the whole thing together for me. The whole feeling of that room changed when he was speaking. You could feel the power that we as students, voters, and citizens have. It was incredible. The lobbying was so much fun and so empowering. We went and spoke with Lloyd Doggett’s environmental LA. She was really receptive to what we were talking about. Jacob was awesome enough to think about inviting him to RTX. It was just incredible. I will be posting my notes from my workshops and stuff later. I just wanted to make sure I posted a first impression.

Rachel

The Power Shift has begun

Praween Dayananda — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 01:10:37 +0000

This weekend, over 6000 young people, from every congressional district in the country, converged upon Washington DC for the largest summit on global warming and the largest lobby day in US history, Power Shift 2007. The atmosphere during the weekend was truly magical, inspiring and empowering and I come out of Power Shift 07 more confident and hopeful than ever that our generation will do what is needed to protect our beautiful environment and our precious future.

Van Jones, Reverend Yearwood, Rep Ed Markey and others fired us up by reminding us of the great opportunities that are before each of us and this country for addressing this planetary-crisis. Faith Gemmill, Majora Carter, Evon Peter and Charlee Lockwood spoke to our hearts and guided us to take just and compassionate actions with their deep understanding of the inter-connections between humans and our environment. And our own absolutely lovable youth leaders Billy Parish and Jessy Tolkan inspired us all by showing us what we can do when we step up to our challenges head on as a collective unit.

In addition to all the amazing speakers, there was so much to learn with over 30 panels and 300 workshops on Saturday and Sunday. The panels and workshops addressed an incredible array of topics including the intersections between climate change and social justice, environmental justice, corporate responsibiilty, and faith and spirituality. In addition, there were other panels and workshops on climate actions on campus, in the community and at a state and federal level, media and messaging and climate legislation.

Then there was the 5th of November. The 5th of November - the largest lobby day in US history, with over 2000 young people from every congressional district meeting with 100 Senators and over 400 Representatives. One of the most inspiring moments of the day came when over 300 of us broke into a loud collective chant of “80 by 50″ (80% reductions in carbon emissions by 2050) in the center of the Hart building, around which many of Senators’ offices are lined up. That chant brought out scores of staffers (and probably some Senators) from their offices into the balconies to watch the proceedings and it was no doubt heard by everyone in the building.

This is only the beginning. As Van Jones said, “The revolution starts right now.” Many of us from Texas were there, more than 35 of us. We are now back here ready to alter the collective consciousness of this state so that we have a future with an environment that is safe, ecologically-healthy and livable for all beings.

Watch the events of the weekend here and here and below:

Billy Parish

Evon Peter

Charlee Lockwood

Van Jones

Texas youth rise to the climate challenge!

Praween Dayananda — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:09:35 +0000

On October 20^th 15 youth leaders from across central Texas attended the first Texas Youth Climate Summit at Austin Community College in Austin. The meeting led to the birth of Re-Energize Texas, the first youth coalition working to address climate change in Texas! The gathering had 15 student leaders with representation from UT Austin, UT San Antonio, Austin Community College, Baylor University, South Western University, and St. Edwards University. With some delicious Ethiopian food to sustain the spirit of action, students had an opportunity to:

Learn about each others work and establish new relationships
Attend workshops on global warming science and policy, campus solutions to climate change, and campaign strategies for climate action, and finally
Plan some wicked projects and actions for a youth coalition in Texas to stir up the state to climate action!

Follow and support the students on their mission on http://www.climatechallengetexas.org/

The youth gathering was organized by National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology Program, Public Citizen with support from Sierra Student Coalition and Austin Community College.