Out of a collective passion for finding solutions to the climate change crisis, a group of driven Oregon and Washington college students and recent alums decided to meet at Mt. Hood to create what would become the Cascade Climate Network.
Up in the mountains, the more than 20 young people united over what they think and what they want in relation to solutions for climate change. Putting their thoughts to paper, the group penned the Cascade Climate Declaration, a document spelling out their desires as the youth of the Pacific Northwest to come up with fair and just solutions to combat climate change.
In addition to helping the youth involved in the climate change movement to network and share ideas with ease, the Cascade Climate Network is injecting life into an otherwise fatiguing movement.
Since the creation of the Declaration, the Cascade Climate Network has been collecting signatures in support of the declaration, working on their respective Focus the Nation events (some of them planning the events themselves) and organizing for the Cascade Power Shift ’08: Mobilizing Youth for Climate Justice.
Last weekend’s Cascade Power Shift summit consisted of informative panels, skill-building workshops and kick-off events for climate campaigns in Eugene, Ore. More than just an opportunity to learn about solutions to climate change and build the movement, the summit was also a great way for people to connect with each other and share ideas.
What happened at the event and what future action is born out of it will largely be open to what ideas the participants brought up, said JP Kemmick, one of the coordinators of the Cascade Climate Network. Cascade Power Shift was designed to help students who want to forge great campaigns for their schools and will help them to reshape what they believe is doable on campus, Kemmick said.
“The youth have so much energy,” Kemmick said. “You hear about and idea, and two months later it’s in action.”
Almost 200 hundred Pacific Northwest students attended the summit, and approximately 30 of them traveled to their respective capitols in Salem, Ore., and Olympia, Wash., on Monday for the Cascade Climate Network Citizen Action Day to lobby their elected officials. (Read about these bills CCN members lobbied for and other eco-improving proposed legislature at the Washington Environmental Council’s site.)
To learn more about the Cascade Climate Network, or to read the Cascade Climate Declaration, visit www.cascadeclimate.org.
Student leaders to connect with on campus or to connect with as allies for your university include:
Evergreen: Elisa Otter (elisaotter@gmail.com) and Claire Lagerwey
(lagcla10@evergreen.edu)
Centralia: Joseph Robinson (pnyxpericles@gmail.com)
UW: Ariana Rose Taylor-Stanley (taylorstanley@gmail.com) and Kristiane
Skolemen: kristiane.skolmen@gmail.com
PLU: Becca (krzmarrc@plu.edu)
Whitman: Sarah Judkins: sarah.c.judkins@whitman.edu
To stay well connected to the hot happenings of the Cascade Climate Network, join the google group at http://www.cascadeclimate.org/connect.htm or at http://groups.google.com/group/cascadeclimate.
Filed under: Hot local action
