I was writing an application essay this afternoon for a graduate school fellowship, one that I arguably only have a reasonable chance of receiving because of the devotion and morality my work with SJSF has demonstrated.  I hope you enjoy the synopsis, and encourage you to look into foundations such as Hertz, which look to support academics who actively work to improve the society they help constitute!

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A year ago I became involved with a group called Students for a Just and Stable Future.  It went by a different name at the time, one of its many as it has developed over the past five years.  This is a group completely designed and run by students who attend high school or college at one of 24 campuses across Massachusetts.  Students for a Just and Stable Future (SJSF) is a social justice organization, concerned with the effects that rapid climate change will have on our society, globally.  These effects have already taken shape in the heat wave that swept through Russia, and the flooding that mired down Pakistan.

When I first learned about this group, I was inspired by their past accomplishments; they facilitated in 2009 the passage of a joint resolution between the Massachusetts House and Senate calling on congress to Repower America with 100% Clean Electricity by 2019.  I started to go to trainings offered, and initiated a chapter at WPI in October 2009.  Within a month there was a stable group of 15 students, who joined hundreds of others for weekly sleep-outs on the Boston Commons, held every Sunday night from October 24^th to Dec 7^th.  SJSF, then The Leadership Campaign, wanted Massachusetts to promptly pass our bill for 100% clean electricity in MA by 2020, since the United States Congress had not reacted to the resolution passed in 2009.  We wanted Governor Patrick to introduce our bill and see to the expedience of its passage, so that when the United Nations met in Copenhagen to discuss Climate Change, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts could declare to the world that while the United States had taken no action, Massachusetts had, and that the world should follow suit.

Every Monday morning we lobbied our legislators in the Statehouse to sign a letter to the governor, calling him to action.  We secured a meeting with the governor midway through this campaign, but he was unwilling to introduce our bill.  We closed the fall semester with a final rally on the Commons, declaring the governor’s shortcoming, and declaring, alongside supportive representatives and senators, to introduce the legislation ourselves.

Spring semester I was voted the campaign coordinator for the Worcester Region, to coordinate the efforts of the schools and the community within Worcester and the surrounding area.  To my great fortune, the students that I had found at WPI proved devoted and capable, and they adeptly moved forward with the mobilization of our campus without my immediate help.  Our organization had bloomed in numbers during the fall campaign, and we furnished an entire regional leadership which I directed in our efforts to mobilize the entirety of Worcester to support clean electricity.  During this time we involved 3 more college campuses, networked with numerous churches and community organizations, and ran an aggressive legislative effort to pass our bill.  The experience was profoundly educational in how to work in all of these fields.

The summer came, and our bill, which was late file, never made it to the floor because of internal politics of the House of Representatives.  With students home for the summer, a number of us met weekly in Boston and Worcester to devise a plan for the following year.

When the academic year resumed in the fall, I was again voted the Worcester Regional Campaign Coordinator.  With some experience under my belt, I moved forward to develop an exemplary network among the colleges, high schools, and community members of Worcester.  We devised a series of events to build up membership within our colleges, such as educational picnics under windmills at a nearby state park.  Our connections within the community began to build on themselves, one leading the next.  Within September and October, I was able to speak almost weekly at different events we were notified of.  In September I received an invitation to attend a discussion with the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change at Clark University, and had the chance to speak with him about attending one of our events.  In our exciting momentum, Worcester decided to take on the production of a statewide event; a rally on the Worcester Common followed by a sleep-out in a nearby city park.  The event went phenomenally, speakers included local senator Harriette Chandler, gubernatorial candidate Jill Stein, a local pastor filled with passion, a community artist, the president of the board of the Massachusetts Climate Action Network, and a number of students from our group.  Many attendees were newcomers to SJSF, and they all claimed to thoroughly enjoy themselves, wanting to continue work with the organization.

Elections are right around the corner. There are a lot of opportunities for us to engage our peers, the public and our legislators on addressing climate change.

At the sleep out many of us called our legislators to tell them about why we were sleeping out and what we’re asking them to do about climate change. Many of us also found out that we had a lot to learn (i.e. we didn’t know who our legislators were or have their phone numbers readily available). We have an opportunity. An opportunity to personally engage in the political process that shapes our nation’s policies and consequently influences the fate of the entire world at the hands of climate change.

So in the next two weeks or so,  I am asking you to have a campus meeting and do the following:

1. Look up your elected representatives

and add their contact information to your cell phone. This way you can call them anytime and let them know that you’re active in the community.

2. Go to one event/rally/debate in your area.

Hold signs about climate change. Meet some people in your community. Ask the candidates a question about climate change, phasing out coal, and clean electricity if you can. At the very least you’ll meet local community members who are engaged in politics. They can be great resources.

3. After the elections on Nov. 2, call or write your newly elected officials.

Better yet, you could even schedule a time to meet them in person. This is about building relationships. If all you say is, “Hi, I’m … from …. Congratulations.” that’s okay. That’s the first step towards building a dialogue about climate change action. Eventually, we’ll be asking for their support on our legislation. Who knows, they might be just as concerned and enthusiastic about our goals as we are! But first, we need to be in touch with them. We have a lot of ideas, material, and solutions to offer and that’s great. All too often, people complain without offering solutions. But we do. And we’re serious about it, because a stable climate needs us to be. So, now’s the time. Make that phone call and get in touch.

Here’s a video about Nathan and I going to a political debate at Worcester State University. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the record button pressed when Nathan asked his question. All the candidates were jumping at it – trying to one up each other on who was more green. I’ll let Nathan tell you the rest of the story:

Nathan Nesbitt talking about the debate at Worcester State University

Oh and have fun too.

Thank you all who attended the Sleep Out last weekend!

For those of you who couldn’t, you missed a great time! We had almost 70 students from across the state right here in Worcester!

We rallied on Worcester Common where we heard from Ted McIntyre, President of the board of MCAN; Susan Champeny, a local artist who painted a CFL lighbulb sculpture for National Grid; and students Chris Freida and Chris McDermott from SJSF. We then marched carrying climate change banners to Institute Park with cars honking in support all the way.

At 9PM in Institute park we were joined by our senator from Worcester, Harriette Chandler, who spoke about the importance of being politically involved. We also heard from gubernatorial candidate Jill Stein. WPI Pastor John Longworth wrapped up the evening with a funny, but serious talk about climate change and how its impacting our lives right now and the moral imperative we have to do something about it.

In the morning we went to the Massachusetts Climate Action Network’s conference and learned about ways to take action locally, nationally, and politically.

So on that thread, I hope you can join us for our next big events: Climate Change Awareness on election day (Nov 2.) and the Pricing Carbon Conference (Nov 19-21.) Both Bill McKibben and James Hansen will be there! SJSF has worked out a deal with the Pricing Conference organizers so we can get in cheap.

Hope to see you there!

Onwards and Upwards,
Linnea Palmer Paton

SJSF Co-State Political Coordinator
WPI 2011

Sunday, October 10th marked 350.org’s global “Get to Work Day,” the second international climate change action day organized by Bill McKibben’s grassroots organization. According to 350.org, 7347 events happened in 188 different countries, all with the goal of protesting climate change and helping bring the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere down to 350 parts per million.

On the campus of Tufts University, students and townspeople gathered together to tackle the daunting task of weatherizing one of our fraternity houses. Volunteers split into teams and got to work at jobs including replacing all the building’s lightbulbs with CFLs, caulking around windows to insulate them and reduce the need to generate unnecessary heat, replacing faucets and shower heads with water-saving devices, and appraising appliances. Much to our chagrin, we noticed the house had an old, energy-sucking Frigidaire filled with nothing but a few jugs of orange juice, and it was set to the coldest—and therefore most energy-wasting—setting. Besides turning down the fridge, we worked hard to make sure that the house was consuming a lot less energy by the end of the day. Everyone who worked at the house walked away with valuable knowledge about how to make a house more efficient, and some of the luckier volunteers managed to snag some free CFLs.

So, I was dancing at the UConn ballroom competition on 10/10/10, and thus could not partake in the many weatherizations and the such going on that day.  To make up for this, I slept on Institute Park in Worcester with 20 other students from Worcester, in protest of the dirty electricity that powers our homes.  Then when I got the comp, I got number 350 for the comp, and then asked if I could speak about 350.org and the fact that it was International Get to Work Day.

They said yes, check out the video , hopefully I got through to some people!

Nate

This past Sunday afternoon, Greenpeace hosted a rally attended by many environmental groups from the area in honor of 10/10/10.  We got passersby to sign a petition to shut down the Salem Harbor coal plant, the 3rd largest greenhouse gas contributor in the state. We held signs that stated slogans like “Quit Coal” and “Invest in Green Jobs”. The environmentally conscious band Melodeego sang about getting to work on climate change, and fans enthusiastically pedaled bikes that powered their amplifiers! I got to pedal, and felt so empowered to be creating clean energy. Then community leaders and organizers, including several SJSFers, spoke to the crowd, encouraging all of us not only to continue our important work but also to grow it by reaching out to new people in collaborative ways. This was my first climate change rally, and I was inspired to be rallying with so many amazing people who will change the world. Let’s keep up the energy and excitement from 10/10/10!

Today Western Mass had a great day at Puffer’s Pond getting people excited about letter writing! Shattering our goal, we had people write a total of 20 letters to State Senator Stanley Rosenberg, State Representative Ellen Story, and Governor Deval Patrick, asking for their support of 100% clean electricity in MA, and to support a bill that would phase out coal in the state by 2015. We had students representing UMass, Mt. Holyoke, Hampshire, and ARHS there.

We met a few new people who are really interested in getting involved, and are planning on going to our regional meeting this sunday, one from Amherst College, and one from Mt. Holyoke.

(An article I wrote this week for WPI’s campus newspaper, the Towers)

http://towers.wpi.edu/read/3084/Work-party!-Cutting-carbon-to-350

International day of climate action scheduled for 10-10-10

Katrina Crocker, Zakkai Kauffman-Rogoff

Classes of 2012 and 2011

All across the world…increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it’s here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster. -Barack Obama

On October 10th, 2010 in 183 countries across the planet, around 6,000 events with millions of participants are scheduled to fight rapid climate change. Led by 350.org (so named for the maximum safe level of ppm CO2) and environmentalist Bill McKibben, this international day of climate action, called Global Work Party, will “celebrate climate solutions and send our politicians a clear message: “We’re getting to work—what about you?’”

Local communities world-over are organizing such events as a giant bike fix-up day to get every bicycle in the city back on the road (Auckland, New Zealand), are putting up solar panels on the Presidents’ offices (Maldives), and are planting thousands of trees (Kampala, Uganda). Continue reading →