"Forever around the world, people will remember this day ... because the revolution starts right now!"
Those were the words environmentalist and human-rights activist
Van Jones proclaimed to a crowd of 2,000-plus youth leaders in
Washington, D.C., on Monday. And the crowd's rallying cry was enough to
make any non-believer a supporter in the global environmentalist
movement.
The rally came on the heels of the weekend's Power Shift 2007
youth summit, a gathering of more than 5,000 students from schools
across the U.S. who came together to discuss issues of environmentalism
and climate change, and to mobilize people to act on the growing climate crisis.
Holly Jones, a 19-year-old from Iowa who also goes to school in
the state, drove to the nation's capital to participate in the rally,
as well as to talk to representatives in Congress. "There were about
2,000 of us out today," she said. "We lobbied with Congress, we came
out with signs, yelling, letting our voices get heard, letting them
know we want change now ... I know that I will never forget this in my
life."
"Basically, when you hear that 5,000-plus students are rallying
in Washington, you want to get involved," said Rob Friedman, a college
freshman. "It doesn't matter who you are or where you live. Everyone
has a stake in the environment."
And that was the overwhelming feeling at the rally: Everyone
has a stake in the environment, and the youth of America are ready to
send that message to the government. One after another, speakers came
out to address the energetic crowd — from Carol Browner, the former
head of the Environmental Protection Agency (she read a letter from Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore,
apologizing for not being able to attend the summit); to Jessy Tolkan,
executive director of the Energy Action Coalition; to the
aforementioned Van Jones, a visionary environmentalist who played an
instrumental role in convincing the House of Representatives to
incorporate the Green Jobs Act into its energy bill this year. And
while all the speakers touched on slightly different issues surrounding
climate change, the message was clear: America is ready for decisive
change in environmental policy, and Monday would be the starting point.
"The 2008 election is coming up, our representatives need to know that this is the
issue of the election," said Lauren Kim, a junior at the University of
Maryland, and the president of MaryPIRG. "We don't just want a
commitment to climate change, we want a plan for climate change."
Summer Rayne Oakes, one of Power Shift's youth representatives,
spoke passionately about the weekend after the rally ended. "There is
nothing that can even compare to this," she said. "We've just come
together to say, 'We want change.' "
Summer, clearly invigorated by the energy demonstrated at the
event, went on to say that although the rally was just the beginning,
she knows that America's youth are ready for the change. "It's a long
road ahead, and we are up for the challenge. ... We need to start
coming together and telling our candidates, telling our representatives
that this is important to us."
