Students Head to D.C. to Participate in Power Shift 2009
Young people are on the cusp of something big. We know our country is off track, that our economy and environment are crashing, and we want to take action—as the next inheritors of this world,
we must.
College students gather at the nation’s Capital
at Power Shift 2007 to encourage elected officials
to support a clean energy economy
and create green jobs.
In November 2007, thousands of youth gathered in Washington, D.C. for Power Shift 2007, the first national youth summit to solve the climate crisis. We came together to build a clean energy economy, achieve energy independence, create millions of green jobs, increase global equity and revitalize the American economy.
One month after our newly elected officials are sworn into office, more than 400 Ohio college students will join 10,000 young people from across the country at the Washington D.C. Convention Center for a historic conference called Power Shift 2009. We will demand that our new leaders come up with a powerful national game plan to fix the economy and stop global warming.
It’s clear that this is the time to act. The first 100 days of the new administration is a critical time for achieving real and significant down payments on solving our biggest problems. Through Power Shift 2009, we will redefine what is politically possible to protect our future. We will take the climate movement to new levels. Young people from across the country will move beyond the same old special interests, empty promises and inadequate results, to embrace a new paradigm that leverages our strengths toward a sustainable future. With new leadership and an empowered generation, we are presented with a fresh opportunity to harness solutions to the climate crisis and uplift a depressed economy. We must unite in a collective call for change.
Power Shift 2009 attendees will participate in skill trainings, get inspired by awesome speakers (invitees include Al Gore, Van Jones, Kofi Annan, Vandana Shiva and Leonardo DiCaprio), check out an enormous sustainability career fair, and meet other students to network, share ideas and create plans to make their dreams a reality.
Participants will also have the opportunity to be part of a massive action of civil disobedience to protest the capitol coal plant, as well as the largest global warming lobby day in history to pressure the new administration and Congress to pass bold, comprehensive, and just national energy and economic legislation.
An Ohio University junior, Janina Klimas, is ready to head to D.C. to create some real change. “Students have been building the clean energy movement in Ohio for years, and now we’re taking our message to the top,” Klimas said. Working off the momentum of Power Vote, which gathered 341,127 pledges from young people nationwide, the Ohio University Sierra Student Coalition plans to send 100 students to Power Shift this year.
Together, we can create a Power Shift. The weekend of February 27 - March 2, we have the opportunity to show our politicians, country and the world that we are ready to establish a secure, healthy and just future for all.
For more information about logistics, speakers, agenda, materials and registration, visit www.powershift09.org and www.oh-sec.org.