Building a movement to stop global warming

One of the most important lessons I have learned in my life is that social change only happens when a movement of people makes it happen.  I learned this in the anti-Vietnam war movement.  Only when millions of (mostly) young people demonstrated, protested with civil disobedience, supported GIs who refused to obey orders to kill, quit their jobs and became full time activists, voted and demanded an end to the war, did the war finally end. 

Likewise, it will take a mass movement to stop the fossil fuel industry and get us onto renewable energy and sustainable transportation.

The past 10 days have given me increased hope that such a movement is coming into being.  I was part of three very different events that all had the same message--clean energy now/stop the climate crisis.

First was Connect the Dots/Climate Impacts Day organized by 350.org on May 5.  See 350.org for more details about this international event.   I joined (too late to get in the photo) a group of about 60 bicyclists at the Berkeley Marina to highlight the problem of rising sea levels in the Bay Area.  I really enjoyed the youthful enthusiasm of the group.  I'm working with 350.org Bay Area to continue educating and legislating regarding climate change.  Here's a photo of the Berkeley event:

I was inspired to post a YouTube song with photos from around the world from Connect the Dots day:  We Are Fighting Global Warming (tune:  We are climbing Jacob's Ladder).

The second event was a conference on May 10 sponsored by the  Local Clean Energy Alliance in downtown Oakland.  The conference built on the report, Bay Area Smart Energy 2020, which I reviewed here on April 13 of this year.  I was very excited to be part of a broad coalition of environmentalists, labor activists, community organizers, and engineering experts.  The speakers and panelists were uniformly excellent.  I was most impressed by the engineering expertise of Bill Powers, author of Bay Area Smart Energy 2020, and also the well-documented presentation on the coming leap to solar by Tony Seba, author of Solar Trillions.  I'm looking forward to seeing the conference papers on line, and hope to report more fully on this energizing (pardon the pun) event.

Tony Seba speaking at the Clean Power/Healthy Communities conference

  

Bill Gallegos from Communities for a Better Environment gives the keynote address

The third event was a talk by Bill Nye "The Climate Guy" to a sold-out auditorium at Chabot Space & Science Center in the Oakland hills on Friday May 11.  Bill is an engaging and entertaining speaker.  He talked a lot about his parents and his interest in sundials along with many quirky anecdotes before launching into global warming.  He made a compelling case that the earth will survive just fine, but we need to "save the world for us".  He pointed out that Venus is "like hell" with CO2 driving the temperature to 460 degrees.  He talked about how thin our atmosphere is--and it's our only protection.  The "hockey stick" graph that shows how temperatures started rising dramatically in the past 30 years in concert with rising CO2 "is just the start of things." 

He showed the solar panels on his house and told us he drives a Nissan Leaf.  Combining solar, wind, and electric cars  is the way to go.  He exclaimed, "Let's get 'er done!" and  "If you say we can't do it we won't."  "You have to vote!" he added. 

Bill Nye worked with the Chabot center to design a climate lab to teach people of all ages how the climate is changing and what we can do.  The lab has many interactive programs including ones to design your own energy efficient car/truck/train and your own house.  For more on the climate lab, see: Bill Nye climate lab

Jack & Ayda with Bill Nye on May 11, 2012

So I went to three events--one mostly with mostly younger activists, one with more veteran activists and engineers, and one with families oriented toward science.  These are three diverse groups, and they are all part of the movement we need to build.  As Bill Nye puts it, "Do I dare say it--we can change the world!"