Climate Action Day Speach - Joe Solomon
Saturday, February 5, 2011 at 07:38AM Joe Solomon of 350.org prepped an inspired talk for Vermont Climate Action Day 2/3/2011. But, with so many inspired speakers that day, we didn't get to hear Joe. However, this one is really too good to miss, so here it is for all to apprecaite.
I stand here to humbly represent the burgeoning 350 Vermont movement. and to share a reminder. while it feels like we're standing or sitting in a very ornate beautiful well lit room, in our beloved statehouse, we're also hunkered down on a big rock hurtling through ...the darkness of space. and that rock, that planet, is very different than what it used to be.
All that snow outside right now isn’t irony -- it’s the physics and chemistry of a new world at work. For the last two centuries we’ve been burning epic amounts of oil, coal, and gas: blanketing our sky in carbon. And as we know, that's why our atmosphere's been burning up.
Here’s the thing: warmer air sucks more moisture out of the air than colder air. so while sucking the moisture out spreads drought in more places, in other places all that moisture eventually comes down in more and more super storms.
If you were up in space this week, you would have seen a vast blanket of white covering the US -- and a massive 300-mile swirl of angry whiteness racing towards Australia. Here, it’s a near-country-covering blizzard. Over there, it’s a Category 5 cyclone. Extreme weather has become the new norm.
So, how can Vermont fight climate change? it can't really. we should own that. our carbon emissions are paltry. in 2005, we emitted a mere 6.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. Compare that to New Jersey, one of the few states that are smaller than us, with over 133 metric tons. Or California: with over 395.
6.9...395...We cannot solve the climate crisis by simply cutting carbon.
The only way Vermont can change the world, is by inspiring the rest of the world to do so. the only way we can lead, is to act on such a scale, that other big polluter states and nations look at us as a model that works. our best shot as a tiny state is to make such massive waves of change that they resound and ripple and are replicated across the world.
We can no longer content ourselves with being the Green Mountain State. It's time to be the bright, burning, luminescent Climate Solutions State. the 1st 100% clean energy state. the Solar everywhere state. the Wind, where it makes sense, state. the Energy efficient home for ALL state. the Public Transport for EVERY Vermonter state. the local food state. the Transition state. the renewable jobs state. the Justice which surrounds us state -- and that includes universal healthcare.
This only works if we go all out. this only works: if our actions roar, and in so doing mobilize the rest of this nation to echo our deeds, and to return those roars.
This only works if we act at the scale of the crisis we seek to fix. anything less than inspiring, anything less than bright burning and luminescent, and we’re still hurtling through space on a planet that’s falling apart.
We are given a chance to be a candle in this darkness. But we must make ourselves a sun.
A beautiful social movement is just getting started to make it so.
Join us at:
Reader Comments (4)
I like this text. Here's a bit more from the end.
"...This only works if we go all out. this only works: if our actions roar, and in so doing mobilize the rest of this nation to echo our deeds, and to return those roars.
This only works if we act at the scale of the crisis we seek to fix. Anything less than inspiring, anything less than bright burning and luminescent, and we're still hurtling through space on a planet that's falling apart.
We are given a chance to be a candle in this darkness. But we must make ourselves a sun.
A beautiful social movement is just getting started to make it so."
This is probably my fave line: "Justice which surrounds us state." What an image: Vermont immersed in, filled with, justice. A justice that's like love, ours for the making.
your inspirational words remind me of the words of my favorite dr suess books:
'UNLESS someone like you
cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better.
It's not.'
we need to teach everyone to care a whole awful lot. and teaching by example is such and effective way to do it.
Thanks, I'm going to have nightmares tonight. tvckur tvckur - Belstaff Blouson moto.
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