Where we are.

Jay’s post was nothing short than brilliant.  Mine….won’t be so reflective, but rather an announcement on what we have accomplished.

OUR BILL WAS INTRODUCED INTO THE MASSACHUSETTS STATE LEGISLATURE.

Craig says I can’t swear.  If I was going to swear…THIS WOULD BE WHERE I WOULD BE DOING IT!! I could end the post right here!! For only a 7 week campaign, having a bill introduced in the state legislature is nothing short of incredible.

The bill is named: An Act to Create a Repower Massachusetts Emergency Task Force and was introduced on the 68th anniversary of Pearl Harbor and the first day of international climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

Fast facts:

-by Friday December 11th, there were 17 cosponsors (including the legislators that filed it) in both the house AND senate

-bill creates a task force to propose ways to get the Commonwealth to 100% clean electricity by Jan 1st, 2020

-task force is headed by the Secretary for Energy and Environment Affairs and has a body of 3 state commissioners, the global warming house and senate committee chairs, and a delegate from eight different “communities” including areas such as business, renewable energy, environmental justice…etc.

-bill gives the task force six months to create said proposals

-bill maintains an active advisory council until the target of 100% clean electricity is completed.

100% is possible. 100% is necessary.  Once this task force makes its proposals, we’ll be able to go to legislators and show them concrete evidence and convince them that 100% is the only way out of this mess known as climate disruption.

The Leadership Campaign is suspended until next semester.  January 4th-10th is our winter retreat, in which we will gather and formulate next steps for the campaign.  We will come back in 2010 even stronger.  I promise!

Unfortunately, I will not be – I will be studying abroad in Costa Rica for the spring semester.  But you best believe, I will be coming back May 14th and jumping right back in.  Scouts honor.

For life as we know it,

Dan Abrams

Boston & New Media Coordinator

The Leadership Campaign 2009

 

Then You Win

Fall semester has wound down.  Students across the state are busy with finals and papers, making up for all the time they devoted to halting catastrophic climate change. International negotiations have begun at the Copenhagen climate conference and the Leadership Campaign has finished up a thrilling first semester of action. This matters. For all the flashy things going on at Copenhagen and in Washington, DC it is efforts at the real grassroots level that will change the course of history, and amount to more than theater. It matters because the only way that we can solve this crisis is by mobilizing the collective resources of everyone in this nation, and the only way we can do that is to build a movement powerful enough to change the laws.

As Al Gore has said, while it is important to change a lightbulb, it is more important to change the laws. And against all odds, it is working. For seven weeks, students, citizens and people of faith across the Commonwealth have been building a movement to change the laws by refusing to sleep in their houses, dorms and apartments powered by dirty electricity. In the lead-up to Copenhagen we have demonstrated to the state, nation and world that we are ready to lead the way to a green and prosperous future. In the process we have met face to face with Governor Patrick, gained the support of dozens of state legislators, brought Dr. James Hansen and Bill McKibben to stand in solidarity with us, and had a bill introduced into the House and Senate that would put us on the path to 100% Clean Electricity in the next 10 years. This is just the beginning.

 

The Last Sleep Out!

So I was sitting here in the church, getting ready to get started on the staggering pile of work that I have, when I decided a blog entry would be more fun.  Also, Ian took a bunch of fantastic pictures, and we decided they should be up for all to see.

First, I will address last week a little bit.

• Friday night, we had pizza delivered straight to our tent door.  It was awesome.
• Saturday night (last night) it snowed and we slept in a winter wonderland.  There was a snowball fight, and hot cocoa, and all sorts of merriment.  We also took part in the ancient Tufts tradition of painting the cannon.  It was awesome.

Now on to tonight.  I firmly believe that the powers that be are on our side tonight, at least visually.  I mean, have you seen the Common tonight?  It’s beautiful, with the lights and the snow and the people and the tents (and the media).  Take a look:

Photos by Ian MacLellan

 

Our Bill Will Be Introduced Monday! And other exciting news!

We will be hosting our FINAL SLEEPOUT this Sunday, December 6th.  Joining us this week will be Reverend Yearwood, President and CEO of The Hip Hop Caucus! Rally begins at 3PM at Boston Common across from the Statehouse.

The next morning, plenty of fun stuff:

Hopefully you know that Monday, December 7th is the first day of the international climate negotiations at Copenhagen.  You may be wondering what’s happening in good ol’ Massachusetts to raise awareness?  Look no further then the LC:

On Monday, Representative Brownsberger will be filing our bill, An Act to Re-power Massachusetts, in the House.  It calls on the Governor to create a task force that will create a plan to get us to 100% clean electricity by 2020.

ALSO on Monday, participants from the LC will be performing a direct action with real solar panels (3 feet by 5 feet!!) and wind turbines (8 feet tall!!!) in front of the Statehouse to raise awareness of our bill.  We, regular citizens of Massachusetts, are ready to get to work to begin our war on climate disruption.  We want the state legislature to take notice. This action may result in arrests.

The Governor’s office has gotten back to us on what his administration is prepared to do with renewable and clean energy.  We are double checking our numbers, but trust me friends, it ain’t pretty.  His office thought it would be great for us to publicly announce our support for his offerings.  Unfortunately, we cannot do that with the numbers he gave us.

It is time for us to LEAD.  We are The Leadership Campaign for a reason.  We have asked the Governor to lead, and he hasn’t – so we are going to the state legislature.  The participants of the LC are ready to lead.  We are ready to get to work and re-power this state.  If the Governor is not ready to lead, then we, participants of the LC will.  We will make sure that Massachusetts does not fall victim to “politics as usual” and we succeed in a clean energy revolution.

When I get the word to publicly disclose what the Patrick Administration offered, you will read it first here.

I said this yesterday, and I will say it here:

Friends, this ain’t bunnies and lollipops anymore.  It’s about time we get serious.

For life as we know it, and for growing some balls to make up for those who haven’t,

Dan Abrams

Boston & New Media Coordinator

The Leadership Campaign

 

Harvard Escalation Week: Day 2

9:19PM

We have just set up our tents, and the banner is looking pretty fine. More importantly, my toes are feeling significantly warmer now that I’ve discovered the wonder of my roommate’s Uggs. Who knows what time HUPD will show up tonight? Interestingly, this will be our first time sleeping out for the second time on the same day of the week – OK, that was confusing. I mean that we slept out last Tuesday and we’re sleeping out again this Tuesday, so we’re wondering if the same officers will be patrolling. We’ve been told that if we refuse to leave when they arrive, we will be arrested. Looking forward to another great sleep out. Can we break 3 hours?

Hm, that was interesting. A man just rode up to our site on a bike asking what we were doing this for. When I told him that we are sleeping out for clean electricity, he responded with “Oh, so you believe Al Gore and the global warming hoax?” He then proceeded to tell me to read up on climate gate and that everyone is lying to me. I didn’t say much back and after a minute or so he rode away.

10:23

Still no sign of HUPD. But there’s a group of guys dressed in camo – and t-shirts at that! They must be cold – who are one by one running up to the John Harvard statue and kissing the foot. That’s kind of gross…don’t they know where that foot has been? But it’s good entertainment while John is on the conference call.

The Next Morning

Answer to “Can we break 3 hours?”: No. HUPD arrived, as expected. It was the same officer as the night before and he was quite friendly.  We look forward to seeing him again tonight!

 

Welcome!

THREE GREAT SCHOOLS HAVE JOINED OUR CAMPAIGN:

Emmanuel College

Lesley University

Lassel College

 

Thank you and welcome aboard!

 

-Dan

 

PS: Great work at Harvard, read their live blogging below!

 

 

Back Inside

I’m writing this from my bed now, sadly. When 11:30 rolled around with still no sign of HUPD, we thought we were in the clear and started setting up our sleeping bags. I (Eva) went back to my room to brew some cups of Victory Tea, but on my way back to the tent I saw John talking to a HUPD officer and I knew the jig was up. We packed up and headed back inside, but not before a friendly officer gave us some advice on how to do this more effectively. He says we need numbers if we’re going to get the Dean’s attention. Goal for tomorrow: everyone bring 2 friends!

P.S. John is the long unofficial long jump champion, though I say I got just as far.

 

Post 6:Conference Call Excitement!

10:58Our campus coordinator, Eva Roben, just got a text from Nick Dahlberg about an emergency regional conference call at 11. The excitement is palpable. We should have heard back from the Governor about our ask of 100% clean electricity in 10 years some time today. At our meeting several weeks ago, Patrick had seemed receptive, but today was when we got the hard answer. Eva is getting on the call now. Let’s see what happens!

 

Post 5: Foot Races!

Even the Crimson FlyBy reporter joins in!

Spirits are easily kept high with long jump competitions!

10:47: Still no new signs of HUPD.We were all huddled up doing work (I was working on a masterpiece concerning the coastal dune ecosystems of cape cod) and we were getting freezing. Solution: Footraces. It is 41, and feels like 34 (according to weather.com). We need to keep moving. So we read some pages, nd then race to the nearest tree. I am proud to annouce that I am currently the undisputed short run champion, with honorable mentions going to Eva Roben (our campus coordinator) and Sophia Wen (New Schools coordinator). We still have yet to crown a champion of the long jump, but more on the situation as it develops.

 

Post 4: We’re Famous

10:22 This is kind of meta, but I am currently talking with Stephanie from the Flyby Blog of the Harvard Crimson (our big newspaper here) *she’s taking our pictures right now*. We’ve had some good coverage in the Crimson and were even picked up by U.S. News & World Report. There have definitely been passerbyers who have made “its the sleep-out people” comments as they’ve gone by. While most don’ know that other campuses are sleeping out every night, as we have not been able to sleep out every night, they do know about the sunday sleepouts and are pretty supportive. We’re hoping to really turn out a big number for this Sunday. Still no HUPD.