seattleDIRT

I traveled to Olympia on Monday to meet with a group of youth know as the Cascade Climate Network who were mobilizing for climate justice. I was the new kid, as most of the people gathered in the lobby of a church near the capitol building had just spent the weekend together at the Cascade Power Shift summit. In Eugene, Ore., more than 200 Washingtonians and Oregonians meet to network, share ideas, stories and information about how to build the climate change movement.

Then about 60 of them decided to skip out on their Monday obligations to go ask their elected representatives in Salem and Olympia to support bills concerned with climate change solutions. They called this day the Citizen Lobby Day for Climate Action.

Paired up with others from their voting districts, students from Evergreen, Centralia, the UW, PLU and Whitman, as well as recent student alumna headed to Capitol Hill to petition their elected officials for support on two bills: one that would help bring green collar jobs and climate action to Washington and one that would place climate changing pollution on the list of items local government leaders need to take into consideration when making decisions about growth and development.

Through the typical February, misty rain, we marched up to Capitol Hill. I was paired up with my trusty, new lobbying buddy Ariana Taylor-Stanley, a 20 year-old sophomore at the University of Washington majoring in environmental studies.

Taylor-Stanly told me and the legislators that we went to visit that as the youth of this country, we see ourselves as the ones who will inherit this massive problem we call climate change. As the youth, we see that we need to take steps to ensure that policy is in place to ensure that citizens and the government will do their part and work together to come up with solutions to climate change.

“It’s really the youth who are standing up for this issue. It’s really starting to click for our generation that it’s going to affect not just us, but our children and their children,” Taylor-Stanley said. “But what can we do to make sure something is happening outside of our own apartments? We need policy and political action.”

We went to the offices of Senator Ed Murray, Senator Phil Rockefeller, Representative Sherry Appleton, Representative Jamie Pedersen and Representative Frank Chopp to spread the word that we are young, we are fired up and we want change. It was empowering to be there and to realize how accessible our elected officials from King and Kitsap counties are. Most said they were already chairpersons or cosigners to the bills we were asking them to support, but told us that these bills still face some challenges.

One of those challenges is funding. This is a non-budget year, meaning that not too much money is left in the pot. Legislators will have to decide which competing bills deserve funding. Also, the bills might pass, but might not have any money attached to them, Representative Sherry Appleton explained. This would mean they would go nowhere, for now, but the policy would at least be in place. Appleton said she believes that they would probably be funded with in three to five years though, so not to worry.

Senator Phil Rockefeller, on the other hand, sounded worried. He told Ariana and me that he doesn’t believe we have time, that we should have enacted bills like this 20 years ago.

“I worry about the rate (at which) it’s happening,” Rockefeller said. “We’ve lost a lot of time already.”

Rockefeller said that we can already see the signs that climate change is happening, signs such as the increase in fires, pests and storm events in our region.

Meanwhile, some of our fellow Cascade Climate Network lobbyists were witnessing another challenge these bills face: lack of education about the issue. One of the official’s aides told CCN coordinator JP Kemmick that he didn’t believe climate change was real and was definitely not human induced. Although, those officials are the minority, they have the ability to influence doubt in the minds of the other legislators who are deciding which bills to support financially.

Yet another problem these bills face is voter apathy. When it comes to voting for these bills, our legislator’s hands are tied because of a lack of political will from their constituents and from the federal government.

For example, Representative Jaime Pedersen told me that only 42 percent of the registered voters in King County voted in the last election.

“Voting at the local, state and national level matters,” Pedersen said. “It’s absolutely critical that we all vote. I can tell you that with these four climate change bills, if Rossi were the governor they would all be vetoed and there would be nothing we could do about it. The past three years have really depended on us having a democratic governor.”

The legislators will decide on the bills by spring. If approved, the bills would be implemented and funded in 2009. Until then, you can check on their status (Local Action and Green Jobs (HB2815/SB6516) and Local Solutions to Global Warming (SB6580 and HB 2797)) at www.leg.wa.gov. Learn more about these bills and other environmental bills here.

What I learned overall from my first lobby day is that we must become engaged in the political system. In order to make change happen, we must act not only on an individual level, but also on a political level.

Communicate – tell a friend

Advocate – join the CCN and sign the petition

Participate – work individually for change and VOTE.