7.25.2007

One Week to Go!

This morning I woke up early to go swimming with some fellow ReEnergize NH team members, and then we got right to work in the office for our 10:00 morning meeting. But these morning meetings have a strange habit of getting bigger every day.

A week ago, we had 20 people excitedly dividing up tasks and getting to work. Later in the week we had 25, because a few new volunteers came in to fill our ranks. Today, there were 30 of us. There was energy in the room.

And not just 30 bodies, but 30 of the most motivated and dedicated college and high school kids I've ever met. There's Zo Tobi of Clark University who stayed in the office until after midnight last night emailing and calling every single one of the hundreds of state representatives, asking for endorsements. He actually maxed out his limit of sending 500 emails a day on his gmail account. Then there's Lauren Armstrong from Middlebury, who has called the mayor of Manchester's office over 18 times this summer and finally got him to commit to our march. Lindsay from Middlebury called us last night to say she had just gotten an endorsement from Bode Miller. What?!? Who cares, that's awesome.

In short, this morning I felt like we had achieved critical mass. This juggernaut of climate action has started rolling faster than anyone can control. We're going to put on the largest event for the climate (other than Al Gore's live earth) that the country has ever seen.

And they're definitely going to see it! We had meetings yesterday with some of the state newspapers, and some of the reporters were practically begging to walk with us the whole time! It didn't seem to out of the ordinary to get a call back from Thomas Freidman's office (and then a personal email from him) saying he was very sorry that he couldn't make it, but said we were doing a great thing.

So I'm excited, and I hope you are too. Will you come and join us?

www.climatesummer.org

7.17.2007

ReEnergize NH

I'm really excited. For the next two weeks I'm working in Concord, NH to bring the climate crisis to the forefront of the public debate through state-wide grassroots action. And I want your help.

Along with 20 other students in the Sierra Student Coalition, I'm helping to organize a march with thousands of people across the state from Aug 1st-5th.

How can you help? If you are anywhere in the North East, you should consider coming to visit me here. Its a really exciting office, we talk to lots of citizens, and the other kids are really interesting. Its also very easy to only come for a day or two and still help us a lot. Or, we would love to have you attend our march. From August 1st - 5th we'll walk from Nashua to Concord, with music events every night, hundreds to thousands of other people and the eyes of the national media on us. Studies have shown that mass demonstrations and marches are one of the most effective ways to change public opinion and get our leaders' attention. At the very least, talk about what's going on in the movement to your friends.

There has never been a more exciting time to be a citizen concerned with the climate.

Visit our website: http://www.climatesummer.org