Sunday, March 1, 2009
WASHINGTON -- Thousands of young people, many of them emboldened by the 2008 presidential contest, will descend on the Capitol tomorrow to urge the government to take radical action to stem climate change and plant the seeds of a green economy.
Arriving Friday from every state in the union -- as well as every Canadian province and more than a dozen countries -- about 12,000 people, most between 18 and 26 years old, are in the District this weekend for Power Shift '09, a summit aimed at raising environmental awareness and lobbying leaders on green issues. Full story in The Washington Post.
Here is a small sampling of a long list of fine speakers at PowerShift 2009:
Two Obama administration officials spoke. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson said that “science is back” at the EPA. Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, promised that the department would no longer be the department of fossil fuel extraction. Youth climate leader, Billy Parish stressed the need to tell Congress that clean energy is a better investment than dirty energy because it creates more jobs. Other youth climate leaders included the Energy Action Coalition Executive Director Jessy Tolkan, and Adam Gardner of the eco-friendly band, Guster. There were multiple keynote addresses, including those by Bill McKibben, environmental author and founder of 350.org, and by legislators Rep. Ed Markey and Rep. Donna Edwards, and by Majora Carter of the Majora Carter Group and founder of Sustainable South Bronx, and Van Jones of Green For All. Accompanied by her two little children and sources of inspiration, was Gillian Caldwell of 1Sky.
Speaking sessions ended at night with musical performances by Santigold, The Roots and The London Souls.
For running instant updates via Twitter, the Youth Climate way, click here. For more information, visit PowerShift 2009.
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