groSolar, and the rest of the country, StepsItUp!
Posted By: Jeff Wolfe
Date: November 4th, 2007
Category: Climate Change, Events
This is the week of “StepItUp”, the campaign led by Bill McKibben one year ahead of the ‘08 elections. The idea being to reaise awareness of climate change and make it a campaign issue. This was certainly a StepItUp week for me personally and groSolar.
:
I attended 5 different events in 4 states, making a presentation or being on a panel in each one. That was:
- Manchester, NH at the going Green Expo, (”Solar Energy – Making It Easy for You”)
- Massachusetts H2 Coalition, Clean Energy Conference, “Solar Panel”
- Investing in Solar II in Las Vegas, “Commercial and Residential Aggregated Rooftop Projects”
- Vermont investors Forum “Introduction to CleanTech / GreenTech panel”
- Vermont Environmental Consortium, Environmental Careers in the Era of Fossil Fuel Depletion and Climate Change”
-
So that was bad for carbon emissions, and good for getting our message out more broadly. And based upon response, I’ll be speaking quite a bit more going forward.
Dori, my wife, co-founder, and continuing partner, was active in getting the StepItUp message out. We had some signs made up and distributed. Photos are just coming in to our website and the StepItUp web site. It’s not too late to add your photo, the action continues! Go to Take Action now and get a yard sign, then follow the instructions we’ll send with it to submit your picture. It’s easy, it’s fun, and it helps get the message out!
As part of our action, we also financially supported the StepItUp actions in Burlington, Vermont and Concord, Massachusetts. groSolar also attended the StepItUp event in Concord, MA. (Thanks Kevin!) Like most locations in New England, the weather was dreadful, keeping numbers down. But what impressed us was that no elected officials failed to show. U.S. Senator John Kerry, U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas and several state legislators were right on time. And the location!!! Just steps from the famous North Bridge in Concord where the first shots of the Revolution were fired. And a few more steps from The Old Manse, the house owned first by Emerson’s father and then by Nathaniel Hawthorne and visited frequently by Thoreau. What would they be thinking today as climate change legislation is slowed in Congress by legislators worried about preserving the carbon-based economy?
About 50 hardy souls braved the monsoon-like weather and delivered their pitch to the political leaders. Kerry said not one more old-fashioned coal-fired power plant should be built anywhere in the world unless it has the latest in clean technology and has the ability to sequester the carbon. He called also for major new funding for solar, wind and other renewables, nothing short of an energy revolution. Thoreau would have been proud.
the whole thing about StepItUp is to START actions, not be the only action. Keep it moving. Stay tuned to StepItUp, and 1Sky. Meanwhile,
- Keep those letters to the editors flowing
- Keep calling your Congressman, and their staff
- Keep taking your own actions
-
Make this the subject of cocktail party, dinner time, and office conversation!
If we all work on this, we CAN not only make a difference, we can make the difference we need to make.
