Climate Summer 2007

In the summer of 2007 a website was set up to face the challenges of the climate crisis and action was proposed to make the government see sense. The name climatesummit was chosen to reflect the seriousness of it.

Their opening statement on their web site was as follows.

“The number of Americans who are ready to take sweeping action to solve the climate crisis is nearing a critical mass. Now is our opportunity to build on the momentum of Step It Up, the Campus Climate Challenge, and other nationwide actions to get all the way there.

We intend for the next four months to be the climate summer that brings about the scale of leadership actually able to transform the way America produces and consumes energy.

We know we need to cut carbon at least 80 percent by 2050, and we know we can make that happen if we start making 2 percent reductions every year, starting right now. We have the technology, we’ve got the know-how, and we have the grassroots support. All we need is bold and decisive action from the leaders of our country.

In the tradition of past transformational social movements, youth organizers and citizens from across the country will come together this summer to ensure that such bold action is taken. We will work together with the citizens of Iowa and New Hampshire to raise awareness and build broad support for solutions to global warming, which will create millions of new jobs and lift people out of poverty, help make our nation more secure by ending our addiction to fossil fuel, and allow us to be patriotic about something other than war.

New Hampshire and Iowa provide a unique platform to lead the national dialogue on clean energy solutions. For ten weeks, we will work with local groups in each state to make action on global warming the top priority in people’s consciousness, through town meetings, educational outreach, and hundreds of community-based discussions and presentations.

Then together, by the thousands, we will make a powerful call for change. From August 1-5, we will march from Ames to Des Moines in Iowa, and from Nashua to Concord in New Hampshire. Everywhere we go, we will call for what is needed and what is possible – 80 percent cuts in carbon by 2050, starting right now with 2 percent reductions a year.”

Many organisations supported their cause such as ‘Climate Challenge’ ‘Carbo Coalition’ ‘Democracy For America’ among many others.

A further post was made as follows:-

When past generations faced immense challenges, our society found ways to pull together and rise above – the Civilian Conservation Corps and other New Deal programs pulled our country out of the Great Depression, they didn’t create another one. In World War II, we defeated global fascism by reorienting our entire economy, not by continuing the economy of the past. And when the promise and ideals of our country did not extend to black Americans, a principled social movement wrote new laws for our country, sharing a dream that inspired a generation even if it has yet to be fully fulfilled today.

But for the past twenty years we have heard nothing but denial, delay, and hollow rhetoric on the issue of our time, global warming. And what more consequential issue has ever faced humanity? As our problems have become larger and more complex, our politics have become more and more trivial, more tragically beneath the tasks before us. The politics of today are not worthy of our American heritage.

So it is time to restore our American spirit of resolve and hope – yes, learning from past achievements, but also writing our own, unique generational story.

We can build our own Clean Energy Corps, providing millions of young and retired Americans with service opportunities retrofitting tens of millions of low-income homes helping those who most need to save money on their energy bills and reducing pollution.

Followed by this post:
“Welcome to Litchfield, walkers. Folks are talking amongst themselves. Come back next year and see the fruits of your labor – you got all the local farmers to participate. Hoorah!”
– Liana Eastman, farmer, Nesenkeag Coop Farm

Liana Eastman and her husband, Eero Ruutila, welcomed us last evening to their organic farm, tucked between Nesenkeag Brook and the Merrimack. This morning we awoke to sweetbreads and strawberries from the farm stand down the road, and Liana spoke of how the March had started the farmers talking – she said the participation of the farms in this event had helped forge at tighter community. “Think of the amount of work we could get done if we had this many community members coming by like this all the time,” she said.

When the heat neared 90, we set off, already sweaty but powered on by a good morning swim and early press coverage on NPR, international radio, and the front page of The Nashua Telegraph. As the temperature broke 100 degrees and our voices cracked from singing “Ooo, it’s hot out here” perhaps too many times, Stonyfield came to the rescue with a donation of ice cream for lunch.

A few blocks and blisters later, we arrived in a very different place than where we had started – Manchester, or fondly referred to by many as Manchvegas, a business capitol for the state. There we were greeted by Representative Lilly Mesa and others who highlighted for us the importance of business in building a green economy.

Every day we’re finding the critical but scattered parts of a green economy here in New Hampshire – at the farms we stay at, from the words of the people we meet. Now we just need to piece it together.

Join us on Sunday for the Rally to ReEnergize New Hampshire, and help us piece together the workings of a clean energy economy in the Granite State – here, we can lead the nation in the right direction.

Ultimately all their hard work and dedicated produced a great result as posted below:-

And by all these people joining together they were able to make a difference and the result was posted on their blog

On August 5, 2007, over a thousand miles away from each other, marchers in Iowa and New Hampshire converged on the capitols of each state calling for real global warming solutions and the creation of a clean energy economy: 80% cuts in carbon by 2050, and 2 million new clean energy jobs across the country.

Both marches had a great turnout. But more important than the numbers was our spirit: hopeful yet determined, loud and joyful, united in our vision and our call – we are the leaders we’ve been waiting for to create a clean energy economy here in this country and around the world. There’ll be more reflections to come, but for now, check out our photos, videos, and next steps – and thank you to all who made this journey possible!

Since those days, which seems a lifetime ago, the understanding of the issues facting the world has grown. We understand we are living on borrowed time if nothing is done. The Swedish environmental activist, Greta Thunberg, who has gained international recognition for promoting the view that humanity is facing an existential crisis arising from climate change has galvanised the youngsters of today and have helped to make them understand action has to happen now.

Hopefully, the correct steps will be taken and that all countries will work together to ensure a future for all our people.

Natural products such as trees are key to helping in this fight provided they are part of a sustainable policy and they are used is so many different ways. From paper, to housing, to timber buildings such as summer houses, log cabins and garden workshops. Musical instruments, boats (although not so much nowadays, for fuel and for use in many forms of art.

So it’s good that people cared about these issues over the years and between us all should find the long term solution to these problems.