“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” – Buckminster Fuller.
This idea was the core of the Clean Economy Track, a special set of workshops at Powershift that focused on moving away from the current dirty energy economy. Along with two other Carleton students, I spent the morning talking about what we wanted to see in a new, green economy. Between the three of us, we went to workshops about solar energy projects, myths and realities about wind turbine technology, financial strategies for building a green economy, national transportation policy and more.
While we were learning about the Clean Economy, the rest of our group was hard at work in a movement building session, learning from other students how to harness their own stories for building the movement, how to engage others and build relationships and how to work in teams.
The highlight of the day, though, was the nighttime keynote. Amid a host of passionate speakers were two incredible people – Lisa Jackson, director of the EPA, and Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org, a grassroots global climate campaign.
Ms. Jackson shared with us all the EPA’s successes in regulating chemical safety, protecting clean air and clean water, limiting car emissions and more. Each one of her statements were met with rousing cheers from the 10,000 students filling the auditorium.
Mr. McKibben, however, was one of the most passionate speakers I’ve ever seen. As he spoke, a slideshow of 350 photos played behind him, bringing faces to the worldwide climate movement. “There is no one else,” he told us. “It is you. That is a great honor and that is a terrible burden.” He said that although Big Oil companies have the power of money, we have more currency: we have bodies, we have spirit.
Now, we are headed into day three – more workshops, more training, and preparations for tomorrow’s march and rally at the White House!