The Conference

For 3 days, we had the amazing opportunity to hear from inspiring leaders and experts from many diverse backgrounds. Some of my favorites were environmental and social justice visionaries Van Jones and Majora Carter, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and Salt Lake City’s very own Rocky Anderson. I was struck by the selflessness and the vision of these brilliant individuals, and how they were using those qualities to really make a difference for humanity. It was so clear that they were motivated by a concern for the greater good, not by simple-minded “us and them” politics like the shit of so many mainstream sources such as Fox news. Leaders like these are a great source of inspiration for me, and I hope more people can emulate to their example.

At Power Shift, I learned how the environmental movement is part of something so much larger. It’s about equality for all… Globally. You see, there are externalities that are inherent to globalized capitalistism. They manifest in the form of pollution, degradation, and exploitation, which are inevitabely directed toward the poorest members of society. This leaves so many people in a cycle of economic, environmental, and spiritual poverty… and it’s all of our doing. It’s all the gas we put in our cars, all the big houses we build to feed our egos, and all the shit we buy that we don’t need. The American consumerist way of life exists only at the expense of these ‘disposable human beings,’ and it’s killing both us and them. This is what happens when Americans consume (e.g. buy shit) in a way that would require 5 planets were all 6.7 billion people to adopt it. This is truly a failure of environmental justice.

Waking Up

Before the conference, Peaceful Uprising held a fund raiser at the city library, where I heard Tim DeChristopher describe the situation we all are finding ourselves in. He said that the alarm for us to wake up sounded years ago, and that we all slept through it. So now, those of us waking up to the reality of the situation are finding out that we are frighteningly late.

The importance cannot be overstated. One of my favorite parts of the conference was also the most sobering and disheartening experiences I have ever experienced. It was the 3 hour Awakening the Dreamer Symposium. In this relatively short time, I came to a profound realization of the perils that we face. In the midst of this experience, I updated my Facebook status to:

Jake is ashamed of humanity. sad but true

That is how I genuinely felt… all of the selfishness, ignorance, and plain small-mindedness that has plagued our species was truely sinking into my heart. I felt sick. But I am so grateful for that experience… because by opening up and embracing that profound pain, I was at the same time inspired in a enduring way. I found within myself a conviction to dedicate my life to something greater than myself. I woke up.

Not Just a Bunch of Hippies

The people I became friends with this last weekend are some of the most inspiring individuals I have ever met. The intelligence, integrity, and commitment I saw in them was stunning. This became all too clear on Monday morning, when we braved freezing temperatures and 6 inches of snow, in our dress clothes, to go and lobby our elected officials, rally at the capitol, then spend hours on the streets blocking the entrances to the capitol power plant. These peers of mine have also woken up and realized that humanity is late. And we are determined to set things right.

When lobbying at the offices of Jason Chaffetz, James Matheson, Orin Hatch, and Bob Bennett, I was moved by the eloquence and sincerity of the messages my friends shared. If you want to see for yourself what I mean, listen to them on KRCL’s Radio Active. Like the inspirational leaders we heard at the conference, these individuals act out of a selfless and geniune concern for all life… for the greater good of the planet which we all must learn to share.

The people of the environmental movement are those who believe that imposed inequality in any form, whether through racism, sexism, environmental injustice, or any other form of bigotry, is unacceptable. Likewise, we believe in the rights of future generations to live in a world that does force them to live in resource scarcity, but that is able to sustain a glorious diversity of life for millennia to come. We believe that peace and non-violence are the best ways of achieving our goals. And the best of us are willing to commit to the better good even in the face of significant personal sacrifice.

This is Only the Beginning

If there is one thing I’d like to attest to, it is the energy of this movement. It gives me goosebumps when I consider the inspiration and conviction I gained at Power Shift… multiplied by 12,000 other students who had similar experiences. We all have amazing stories, and as we share them with those around us, the consciousness will spread exponentially. This is the true power of democracy… but it takes inspiration.

Indeed, humanity has never faced as daunting and serious a problem as global climate destabilization. However, with great challenges come great opportunities. The global nature of this problem has the potential to unite people of all walks of life toward a common goal. It has the potential to help people transcend old paradigms of inequality and injustice, uniting instead toward paradigms of holistic benefit. Perhaps this great challenge can serve as a trial by fire that can raise humanity to a greater level of consciousness, awakening a profound respect for the interconnectedness of all life as One Life.