Youths Mobilize on Global Warming

In the largest youth mobilization on global warming to date, over 50,000 students at 575 college and high school campuses across the U.S. and Canada organized events January 29-February 2 calling for immediate solutions to deal with climate change.

The demands were made as part of Rising to the Climate Challenge: Visions of Our Future, a week-long series of actions coordinated by the Campus Climate Challenge. The week of action coincided with the release of the Intergovernmental Panel Climate Change report stating that man-made activities are a leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions.

“The Challenge” unites young people to win 100% clean energy policies at their schools.

Anchoring the week of action were hundreds of screenings of “An Inconvenient Truth.” In partnership with The 11th Hour Project and Truth on Campus, the Challenge made copies of the DVD and public screening licenses available to college and high school campuses across the U.S. and Canada.

In 49 U.S. states and eight Canadian provinces, students organized rallies, educational forums and requested meetings with members of Congress to urge that the U. S. (and Canada) take a leading role in reducing greenhouses gases.

Events included:

y Students at the University of New Mexico collected signatures on a petition urging Governor Bill Richardson to issue an executive order mandating that state agencies purchase 30% of their energy needs through renewable sources.

y Students from all eight Ivy League universities issued a joint call for their campus administrations to develop plans towards making the universities climate neutral.

y Students from City College of New York and Billionaires for Coal delivered lumps of coal to employees of Merrill Lynch to protest its investment in TXU, a company proposing to build 11 new coal power plants in Texas.
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y West Virginia elementary school students presented letters to Governor Manchin urging him to build them a new school away from the coal silo that sits 150 feet from their current school.

y Students are making short videos and writing essays explaining how their campuses are going green as part of a video/essay contest called Chill Out sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation.

y More than 130 students gathered at the Northwest Climate Justice Summit held February 2-4 and co-sponsored by the Sierra Student Club and the Campus Climate Challenge.

“Nearly 900 students filled the auditorium for our screening of An Inconvenient Truth,” says John Hopkins University freshman Kevin Pai. “This sent a clear and powerful message that the John Hopkins community is serious about taken action to deal with the number one threat facing our generation: global warming.”

The Campus Climate Challenge, a project of the Energy Action Coalition, unites young people to organize on college campuses and high schools to win 100% clean energy policies at their schools. Energy Action Coalition is a network of 41 organizations from across the United States and Canada, founded and led by youth to help support and strengthen the student and youth clean energy movement in the United States and Canada.

Energy Action Coalition partners are: Americans for Informed Democracy, Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, Black Mesa Water Coalition, Brower New Leaders Initiative, California Student Sustainability Coalition, Campus Progress, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Clean Air Cool Planet, Climate Crisis Coalition, ConnPIRG, CoPIRG, Dakota Resource Council, Earth Day Network, Energy Justice Network, Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, Global Exchange, Greenpeace Student Network, Indigenous Environmental Network, INPIRG, Kids Against Pollution, League of Conservation Voters Education Fund: Project Democracy, League of Young Voters, MarylandPIRG, MASSPIRG, MoPIRG, National Association of Environmental Law Societies, National Wildlife Federation’s Campus Ecology Program, NJPIRG, OhioPIRG, OSPIRG, Rainforest Action Network, Restoring Eden, Sierra Student Coalition, Sierra Youth Coalition, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Student Environmental Action Coalition, Students United for a Responsible Global Environment, Sustainable Endowments Institute, SustainUS, Utah Clean Energy, WashPIRG, WISPIRG, Young People For and Youth Environmental Network.

Truthoncampus.org is helping colleges, universities and high schools across the country increase the positive outcomes from their screenings of An inconvenient Truth. Coordination is being led by Better Days Alliance, a Connecticut-based 501(c)(3) organization with support from Aveda, Annie’s Homegrown, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade, Clif Bar, Stonyfield Farm and the 11th Hour Project.