A guest post by Eban Goodstein, Professor of Economics at Lewis & Clark College and project director of the National Teach-in on Global Warming Solutions.
—–
One thing you can do to stop global warming right now is tell a teacher — a friend, your kid’s teacher, a cousin, or a colleague — about The National Teach-In on Global Warming Solutions, set for Thursday, Feb. 5.
With the election over, it is tempting to assume that the hard work is done. But the same coalition that has stifled progress to date — the fossil-fuel industry, along with “government is the problem" politicians — are still in Washington, still fighting to preserve the “business as usual" that unchecked, is on track to destroy half the life on the planet. The only thing powerful enough to overcome D.C. gridlock is a mobilized American public — so get moving, and tell a teacher (or a leader at your church, synagogue, or mosque) to join the Teach-In!
Participation in the teach-in is easy:
- Screen the launch web cast, The First 100 Days, featuring David Orr, Hunter Lovins, and youth climate leaders Billy Parish and Wahela Johns. The webcast will draw on solutions from the Presidential Climate Action Project. Watch the webcast in a campus auditorium, church basement or hold a D.I.Y. Teach-In in your living room.
- Campuses can engage further with day-long teach-ins — we have model curricula for schools from K-8 to university levels. Schools planning major events include the University of Central Florida, Skidmore College, and Missouri State. Use the Teach-In to highlight progress on your campus — or lack of it — towards the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment.
- End your teach-in with a round-table dialogue of decision-makers: inviting Governors, mayors, and city-councilors to sit down with young people for face-to-face conversation about solutions. Let us know, and we will also invite your federal representatives to engage with your teach-in via video dialogues that we are setting up in the capitol on Feb. 5.
Already, more than 400 colleges, universities, high schools and K-8 schools around the country (also churches, synagogues, mosques, libraries, civic organizations, and businesses) have signed on to participate. At a critical moment at the beginning of the new administration, help mobilize thousands of institutions and millions of Americans, and on this one day, raise global warming solutions to the top of the nation’s agenda.
This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
