Alliance for Climate Education (ACE)
Founded in 2008 in California, the Alliance for Climate Education has challenged youth to understand and pass the message about climate change.
“Our goal by 2020 is to educate, inspire and activate 12 million teens and young adults as part of a multigenerational force for carbon reduction and healthy communities.”
“We value the right of young people today to know about climate change; the science, its causes and the radically different futures that will result from the action, or inaction, we take today.
“We believe that teens and young adults can handle the truth and we have a moral imperative to share the science, communicate the consequences and spark the solutions with them.”
These are strong and necessary commitments.
The primary mode for spreading the word of ACE is through assembly programs at middle and high schools. These form the kick-offs for youth to take on personal life style changes (look up DOT) and begin their climate change mitigation actions. Presentations incorporate the latest national Next Generation Science Standards for public schools. Programs have been given in most areas of the United States (including Wisconsin) and have anchored into a dozen specified regions. National recognition is growing, as this NPR clip explains. iMatter Youth: Kids vs Global Warming
Kids vs Global Warming was started with passionate, grassroot actions and education by an incredible teenager, Alec Loorz. I began following Alec at age 13, who, with his mom, organized a youth movement. Alec had a vision of moral responsibility to climate change issues and excelled in animated graphics and the spoken word. Now, at 18, he is leading iMatter Youth in multiple directions, including the lobbying of the US Congress.
Alec Loorz
”We know that our futures are at stake. And the solutions are going to take a whole lot more than riding our bikes and changing lightbulbs. We need to look at the core of the problem. We need a revolutionary mindset shift. And we, the generation with the most at risk, are making that happen. We are the solution. We are the Youth vs Global Warming. And we matter.”
Take time to listen to the “Voices” of youth who have taken the gut initiative to act in each of their lives, such as Jaime of Arizona.
Global Power Shift
350.org is the foremost international grassroots organization for climate change action. Founder Bill McKibben began the movement along with college students at Vermont’s Middlebury College, and young adults have been a huge part of the energy ever since. Youth of all ages are encouraged to get to work through 350Youth.
“Global Power Shift is a catalyst for bolder, broader, deeper action and organising in our movements to confront those causing the climate crisis and for social justice.”
The most recent international gathering was in Istanbul, Turkey in June of 2013. Young participants from 134 countries shared cultural backgrounds and worked on strategies for climate action. From Istanbul, the Phase 2 operations began back in home countries in October. In the USA, Power Shift Pittsburgh drew thousands of young adults, including four UW Madison students sponsored by 350Madison.
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| UW Students Heading Out To Pittsburgh |
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It is fairly certain that adult greed and lack of compromise world-wide will stall actions necessary for a livable planet. The common concerns from our younger generations seems to reinforce the proverbial Native American sentiment:
"The world was not given to you by your parents;
it was loaned to you by your children."
