2009-03-02
A New Movement Emerges. Commentary by Austen B. Levihn-Coon, PowerShift09.org, March 1, 2009. "A year and a half ago over 6,000 young people gathered in DC for Power Shift 2007. While Power Shift '09 was built on the legs of the last national youth climate conference, this year's summit is not just a horse of a different color, it's an entirely different animal. The crowd of '09 is twice as big, twice as broad in age range, and twice as full of energy and committed to tackling our generation's greatest challenge. The energy and commitment of the teens and 20-somethings who have been at the forefront of the push to take action on climate change has snowballed and the movement itself has been transformed by the new values and experiences of today's youth... Not only has the age range of the movement expanded, but so have the values, incorporating... 'environmental' justice and 'green' jobs into the new environmental movement... for a 'clean and just energy future'... When the 12,000 leaders at Power Shift '09 go home they are going to continue to continue to push not only their friends but also older generations... This generation, with its new values that cut across traditional social and geographic barriers, will be the ones in power, and they will be the ones that make the decisions reflecting a broader societal commitment to social justice and solving climate change."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment