Although many students are also ramping up for exams and summer internships, all across the country student activists hosted earth day events and actions to honor this planet and bring more people into the fight to protect it. In Michigan it looks like it was also a nice opportunity to spend some time outside, appreciating nature and good friends:

Photo from Connor Meston, MSU student.

And of course, Earth Day isn’t the only day students are hosting awesome events and taking action to make our world a more sustainable one. Most of these students are engaged in campaigns that work every day to undertake important sustainability goals on campus, like ending the sale of bottled water, transitioning to renewable energy, and divesting from fossil fuels. Stand in solidarity with these students by taking action today too! Take a minute to prevent oil spills in the Great Lakes by voicing your opposition to Enbridge’s tar sands pipelines. 

Despite the difficulty for students to access the endowment information, they now know that the university [of Michigan] has almost 1 billion dollars invested in fossil fuels out of its total 8 billion dollar endowment (one of the largest endowments in the country). This 1 billion dollars from UM accounts for 5% of the total amount of fossil fuel investments from US universities. Despite UM’s large amount of funding for faculty and research dedicated to sustainability and climate change, they still support the fossil fuel industry with this significant chunk of change from their endowment.

Michigan students are certainly not alone in this effort, there are already over 200 campuses involved, and many cities as well. This divestment movement also ties in with another, larger movement, something Bill McKibben would classify as the “Fossil Fuels Resistance”. McKibben recently wrote an article in rolling stone that goes over this movement and the many reasons why people all over the globe are finding the need to stand up to these companies that are intent on destroying our climate.

This week registered student organizations from five Michigan campuses signed on to endorse Prop 3. These student groups were also joined in their endorsements by two statewide groups: the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition and the Michigan Federation of College Democrats.

Michigan State MSSC students educating their peers about clean energy and Prop 3

If you are interested in supporting Michigan students, or clean energy, please join us for our national day of action on October 30 to support Prop 3. Individuals and organizations from all over the country will be making phone calls to undecided voters in Michigan and educating them about clean energy and Prop 3. Please sign up here to get involved and help support our future, and the future of clean energy for our country.

Unfortunately, the majority of this chat was focused on the candidates deafening silence on one of the world’s most pressing issues: climate change. After tonight’s chat, I can confidently say that this nation’s youth will not be satisfied with any candidate or president who refuses to address this issue.

To us, the overwhelming evidence that human’s are affecting the climate in a negative way seems pretty hard to ignore. Has anyone been hearing about the Arctic lately? According to researchers from the National Center for Atmospheric Science at the University of Reading, at least 70% or Arctic ice loss is due to climate change. How about Kiribati? This island nation in the Pacific, and also one of the greenest countries in the world, is having to move its population to higher ground because of sea level rise. Meet some of our world’s first climate change refugees.

Although Obama and Romney managed to ignore all of these problems, they did talk plenty about job creation and stimulating the economy. Ironically, climate solutions could  be a great way to accomplish both of these goals! In Michigan, we are hoping to create more jobs and investment by increasing our state’s renewable energy standard to 25% by the year 2025, which citizens will have a chance to vote on in November (Prop 3). With this one state policy, we could create 74,000 jobs that can’t be outsourced, and spur $10.3 billion in investment. Michigan hasn’t been doing great in the whole ‘economy’ area lately, but using a little green economy innovation we could begin to rebuild and someday become the nation’s leader in clean energy manufacturing.

Finally, I have read a couple articles lately that point out exactly how strategic it could be for either of the candidates to talk about climate change solutions, given that 80% of undecided voters believe climate change is real, and over half of them say that the climate is an important issue for them. Is the stigma about climate change in this country so large that these candidates will not take this opportunity to win over these undecided voters?! It seems like they are doing literally everything else possible to sway them, so why not break the climate silence?

All in all this debate was pretty mind boggling for me, and not just because I once failed micro economics in college. The biggest conclusion that I can draw from this debate (don’t worry, it’s nothing original) is that we need bi-partisan cooperation and a cultural shift around the climate issues in America. It seems pretty crazy that we can turn something as fundamental as protecting our planet (AKA the source of all our life) in to something so highly politicized that our PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES, and the other leaders of this country, cannot even mention it.

So what can we do? Well I’ll just go with the great feeling I got taking part in the youth online actions last night. The more we can work together, learn from each other, and create grassroots momentum, the better shot we have at getting our candidates to be accountable to the people and break the climate silence. So, for the next debate, lets do it again! Be sure to check out PowerVote.org for any updates and upcoming actions.

If you live in Michigan, be sure to check out Prop 3 before you go to the voting booth this year and see what you can do to support more clean energy and the green economy here.

This transition to clean energy, and stopping the impending climate doom (or tipping point), is not going to be easy or convenient, but I’m not sure anyone ever said that changing the world was supposed to be. Remember that old fashioned American value of hard work that we still cling to with nostalgia? Well maybe its time to pick it back up, and put in the hard work that is needed to ensure that our world is beautiful and livable for generations to come, and maybe create a job or two while we’re at it. Everyone can start by taking the time to research the issues and candidates that will be on the ballot this year, and take the pledge to vote for clean energy. 

We recently held events on the campuses of Michigan State University and the University of Michigan—as part of  the National Powervote Day of Action—to collect student pledges to vote for clean energy. We collected about 400 pledges statewide, and spread awareness of how corporate polluters are affecting national policy. The event coincided with the release of the NWF’s Student Guide on Corporate Oil, Gas and Coal Money Influences in U.S. Energy Policy. Thanks to all of our friends and organizers for putting in so much effort and hard work. Here is a blurb from Molly Black, our Student Coordinator running our Clean Energy Champion campaign at Michigan State:

“2012 Day of Action was a success with the help of my fellow Michigan State University students. Together with MSU Greenpeace, MSU Beyond Coal, and the members of the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition we collected more than 237 pledges! Through determination, collaboration, and teamwork we all went above and beyond our goal to collect 100 more pledges for MSU’s campus. Some students stood at bus stops, performed class raps, posted the online pledge on Facebook, or asked friends to sign on to be a clean energy champion.”

MSU students prepping fact sheets and candy for our action!

If you want to see for yourself how well we are doing, check out the PowerVote.org leader-board. We currently have Michigan State, the University of Michigan, and Central Michigan University all in the top 10!

This day of action was a great opportunity for us to collect pledges and spread awareness about corporate polluters, but we aren’t stopping here. We will continue on our path to connecting thousands of students committed to voting for clean energy (we currently have 1,800), and make sure that Michigan’s youth are able to play a critical role in creating more clean energy for our state. Up next, we will be holding fun educational events on several campuses during the month of October to collect more pledges and educate our peers about why clean energy is good—and necessary—for us!

Do you have any good ideas for fun, creative events that also provide education? We are hoping to draw some students that might be unsure about how they feel about clean energy, but want to come learn more. Email me at starkee [ at] nwf.org to share any creative ideas or best practices!

You can also support the movement by signing this petition to ask the moderator of the first presidential debate question the candidates about climate change! Don’t forget to share with your friends and networks.