2008 Woodie Awards
Students tackle climate crisis
16 UCF students attend D.C. summit
Tara Young
Issue date: 11/5/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 3 next >
Sixteen UCF students joined with more than 5,000 students from across the nation in Washington, D.C., Friday to kick off a weekend of confronting climate change head-on.
Power Shift 2007, the first national youth summit of its kind, was created to bring young adults from around the country together to solve the climate crisis.
"The goal of Power Shift is to basically bring students together to unite all of the amazing activists from across the nation and get more people involved and updated on the climate issues," Power Shift National Organizer Natalie De Sole said.
Through workshops, speakers and a final day of action and lobbying on Capitol Hill, the students hope to convey a strong message to the U.S. national leaders that they will not stand for apathy and a business-as-usual attitude any longer.
"I hope to see that we take global warming more seriously right now because it seems to be a big game in the media," Eco-Advocates member Jhessye Moore-Thomas said. "We've had enough of lobbyists saying that it doesn't exist. We need to get serious about this so we can help the future and help future generations. People put our generation off as Generation Q - we're quiet - but I want to be Generation L - Generation Loud."
The UCF group headed to Washington in two different shifts, with one van leaving Thursday night and the other leaving Friday afternoon. They checked their bags at the Howard Johnson hotel for the weekend and divided four rooms among the 16 people.
Energy Action Coalition, the main organizing group for the event, put together a jam-packed agenda that included panel sessions, workshops and tons of speakers in the climate and energy crisis fields. Most of the sessions and workshops were held at the University of Maryland, College Park.
The panel covered a variety of topics, including "Green Your School," "The Role of Civil Disobedience in the Climate Movement," and "The Soul of Environmentalism: A Call for Deep Change Solutions."
Power Shift 2007, the first national youth summit of its kind, was created to bring young adults from around the country together to solve the climate crisis.
"The goal of Power Shift is to basically bring students together to unite all of the amazing activists from across the nation and get more people involved and updated on the climate issues," Power Shift National Organizer Natalie De Sole said.
Through workshops, speakers and a final day of action and lobbying on Capitol Hill, the students hope to convey a strong message to the U.S. national leaders that they will not stand for apathy and a business-as-usual attitude any longer.
"I hope to see that we take global warming more seriously right now because it seems to be a big game in the media," Eco-Advocates member Jhessye Moore-Thomas said. "We've had enough of lobbyists saying that it doesn't exist. We need to get serious about this so we can help the future and help future generations. People put our generation off as Generation Q - we're quiet - but I want to be Generation L - Generation Loud."
The UCF group headed to Washington in two different shifts, with one van leaving Thursday night and the other leaving Friday afternoon. They checked their bags at the Howard Johnson hotel for the weekend and divided four rooms among the 16 people.
Energy Action Coalition, the main organizing group for the event, put together a jam-packed agenda that included panel sessions, workshops and tons of speakers in the climate and energy crisis fields. Most of the sessions and workshops were held at the University of Maryland, College Park.
The panel covered a variety of topics, including "Green Your School," "The Role of Civil Disobedience in the Climate Movement," and "The Soul of Environmentalism: A Call for Deep Change Solutions."