It's important to have strong, well-funded organizations working to stop climate change before it's too late. But even more important is the need for committed activists and volunteers who work together and organize themselves on this issue, just like any other. It was this sort of organizing that made the recent 350.org International Day of Climate Action a tremendous success with nearly 4,000 events around the world.
It is this sort of amazing power and potential that is leading 1Sky to build a network of Climate Precinct Captains across the country, and across Iowa.
Visit http://local.1sky.org to become a CPC so that you can communicate with other activists in your community, plan events, and build a network that can outlast any individual organizer. We must pass strong clean energy legislation this Fall and build a strong international commitment at Copenhagen, but we also need to be prepared for the next fight to solve this crisis.
Also, I've scheduled some small meetings over the next few days across the state to meet with local activists. Since many of you don't yet receive our updates, I want to make sure you know about these opportunities to join us and talk about future events as well.
Please RSVP by commenting below if you can join us for the following meetings:
11/5/09…
Iowa City – River Room Cafe at Iowa Memorial Union – 12 p.m.
Cedar Rapids – Brewed Awakenings at 1271 1st Ave SE – 2 p.m.
Cedar Falls – Chat's Coffee Shop in the Maucker Union at UNI – 4 p.m.
11/7/09…
Council Bluffs – Scooter's Java Express at 3030 W Broadway – 2:30 p.m.
Sioux City – Long Home Coffee 5714 Sunnybrook Dr – 5:30 p.m.
Again, please RSVP so that I can reach you in case of illness or an emergency venue change.
2 Comments
Local activism
“I would also like to see more local activism urging city governments to promote energy-efficiency measures and other ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
One of the great things about the Climate Precinct Captain program is that activists can create their own events and groups, recruit others to join them, and generally use a fairly powerful tool for their own local environmental organizing.
The more people use the tool, the more powerful it will become. If someone in Cedar Rapids has a huge victory on limiting emissions from wood-burning boilers, for instance, someone in Council Bluffs who wants to do the same thing can connect with them and compare notes. Right now, this is the only online tool, of which I am aware, that allows local activists to organize themselves and connect on environmental issues.
For this reason, and not just because I work for 1Sky, I encourage all of you to join and make use of the website at http://local.1sky.org
1sky-iowa Fri 6 Nov 11:03 AM
Meeting tomorrow postponed
Meetings tomorrow in Sioux City and Council Bluffs have been postponed. I will leave an update when the meetings are rescheduled.
1sky-iowa Fri 6 Nov 9:28 PM