The local spin on the International Day of Climate Action

What an absurd conflagration of politicking and hype. College aged children sleeping "out" and play-acting homelessness ONE night a week to "raise awareness" is almost as laughable as having a Bon Jovi concert to "raise awareness" of CO2 production (7.7.07 anyone?). It's not "sacrifice," it's self-indulgent solipsism masquerading as compassion. These impressionable and well-intentioned, but misguided, children are being manipulated and used by politicians, globalists, and collectivists for their own invidious ends.

I'm taking my SUV up to NH for some tax free shopping.

Jonathan, reread the blog; you're confusing issues. The Sleep Out is about rejecting the dirty energy that powers our homes, and lobbying legislators as they arrive to work at the State House on Monday morning. The kind of homelessness they're concerned with is the ecological refugees who are losing their island nation homelands in the Pacific Ocean, because rising sea levels caused by glacial melt are submerging their homes.

Furthermore, the Sleep Out is a student-led campaign of Young Adults (so far as I know, they're all at least 18yrs old, thus NOT "children") who have educated themselves about the ecological, economic, and political factors underlying climate change. They've analyzed and reflected upon the scientific data, and come to the conclusion that WE ALL need to come together and work toward a cleaner, more sustainable future.

Take action for 350 ppm CO2, to turn toxic tides,
lessen lethal overheatings and slow climate changes

1:00 pm Prospect Hill Park, Somerville (above Union Sq)
Stand where American flag first flew over Washington’s Continental Army
Pick up your own compass-whistle with duck and paddle logo at ORI's tent. Bring signs and display materials on what it means to strive for 350 ppm, or get your photo taken holding a comment board with your words written in your hand across it.

Below Prospect Hill January 1776 Washington had read aloud to his troops from Common Sense:
"Tis not the affair of a city, a country, a province, or a kingdom, but of a continent – of at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. ‘Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to the end of time, by the proceeding now. Now is the seed time of continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; the wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity read in it full grown characters." Thomas Paine

Seed Time Has Come Again! We must act now lest carbon footprints enlarge with time to cause more fatal freezings, more lethal over-heatings, floods and pestilence. Rally for 350 ppm CO2!

1:30 pm Bike Ride to Columbus Park from Prospect Hill
Freedom Riders Unite for the International Day of Climate Action! Dress in water gear for rain or wear blue for a bike ride along the Freedom Trail from Somerville to Boston. Meet at Prospect Hill Park in Union Square and ride to the Under Water Festival at Christopher Columbus Park by Boston's North End. Whistle while you ride and be prepared to make some noise for Climate Justice! (This ride route is not suitable for inexperienced bikers)

3:00 to 5:30 Boston Underwater Festival 350 Action at Columbus Park

I'd add that the Sleep Out is occurring 7 nights per week... people from around the Commonwealth will converge on the Boston Common one night per week, and sleep out in their communities the other six nights (as the blog post mentioned). The Sleep Out is meant to show the world (and our legislators) that we are not just committed to rallying for "350"... we're committed to the changes that we'll need to make to get there. We're calling for serious, significant action that will result in a safer climate future. Clergy and other members of our communities who are NOT college students are supporting this effort. To be sure, students have taken the lead, but they are calling on the rest of us to step up and join them. Faith communities (among other groups) are answering that call: the Massachusetts Council of Churches was an early endorser of the goals of The Leadership Campaign (www.theleadershipcampaign.org).

The Westboro Congregational Church will be standing in our rainy, and wind-swept rotary tomorrow with our 350 signs, hoping to draw attention to the number and the cause. This is not about politics. This is about the poor. Anyone of faith should be concerned what is happening to island nations such as the Maldives.

I am one of these "impressionable and well-intentioned, but misguided, children," who is in his fourth year of graduate studies at Harvard where I am receiving a Master in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and a Juris Doctorate (law degree) from Harvard Law School.

I assure you, Jonathan, that we are indeed well-intentioned, but also very informed about the huge looming disaster that will result if we do not take action. Far from being manipulated, we are instead leading by example, and inviting others to join us in our leadership.

We are calling for 100% Clean Electricity by 2020, and we will make sure that our call is heard.

And most of us are not just sleeping out one night per week; I am personally not going to sleep in my bed again until the world leaders meet to negotiate a climate treaty in Denmark on December 7th. You are right that more sacrifice is indeed possible, and more may indeed be required for the urgency of this issue to be realized.

We invite you to join us in our efforts. We need all hands on deck to avoid catastrophe.

Congrats to everyone who is working to make Saturday the biggest day ever. To those who aren't committed to an event, get out on the streets. The targets that our state and national legislation and international negotiations are aiming for are woefully inadequate. Build community, build strength. Then grab your tent and sleeping bag and head to the Common on Sunday!

Sede, you're confused. You're free to reject "dirty power" in your home any and every day of the week without attempting to make an absurd spectacle out of the pseudosacrifice of indulged college kids play-acting for politicians' and the media's amusement.

Secondly, though these "junior intellectuals" may well have reached the age of majority, clearly you've not grasped the distinction between being legally "of age" and being an "adult." Adults take concrete steps to actualize results. They don't "camp out" with other kids "for fun" and delude themselves into thinking such play-dates and stunts make an iota of difference.

Third, the contention that these kids have "educated" themselves through analysis and reflection is the ultimate overstatement. These kids have had their ideas spoon-fed to them by their leaders, those permanent cripples in ivory towers, those failed seekers that hide in academia where children have neither the knowledge, backbone, nor experience to challenge radical leftist indoctrination.

And finally, no matter what your, or these children's, "conclusions" are, I don't need you to tell me what I "need" to do, no matter how sanctimonious your analysis. I'll make my own decisions for myself, based on reality, not on overhyped political stunts.

Jonathon, you are a very cynical, angry & pathetic person. The international efforts to bring about action with climate change should be lauded, not castigated. Also, the effort by any college students- who as someone already noted are most likely all adults- is an effort far greater than most people are willing to do in making their beliefs heard, whether you agree with them or not. How easy it is of you to criticize their efforts- which ARE a sacrifice, mind you, given that not only will it be cold from now until December, but they could choose to do NOTHING instead. This would be a radical difference from the mostly lackadaisical, hands-off approach by most Americans that allows inaction to continue. If it weren't for the efforts of people who are passionate enough to actually DO something, unlike you & other cynics alike, nothing would ever be accomplished.

And heynow98, how about you do us all a favor, take your gas-guzzling SUV & just move to NH if it's so great.

I hope it doesn't snow......

350.org = Van Jones = UU = MOONBATS!

They will not be welcome in NH at the Statehouse that's for sure!

They've been outed by the Tea Party!

I would hope that those of you who feel that fossil fuels are harming the planet, sleep outside every night all year. Give up your home or apartment as well. Think of the good that will do. It will lessen energy expenditures, lessen the need for natural gas or oil for heating, lessen the need for hot water or any water, the list goes on. I applaud the efforts of people passionate enough to do this.

UnionStudio Yoga in Andover is having a Low Carbon Footprint Party for the Planet.
Instead of going out and buying "stuff", we are staying in at the studio for the evening and playing all kinds of low impact board games from cribbage to Uno. Foods are being prepared with the earth in mind...and the movie,"The Story of Stuff" as well as the series "Planet Earth" will be played.
Free will donations will go to Trees for the Future.
In yoga the practice is always about realizing the sacred in all of life. Our 350 gathering is just another way of reminding those in government that they are held to the same standard.

I'll be going for a nice, long drive to celebrate. The stupid earth has stalled in its warming trend--getting cooler, not warmer, since 1998. If we can get temps and CO2 back up, it means milder winters for New England, bountiful crops for the USA and Canada! Woo hoo!

I hope it snows.

What's amazing to me is all you left-turds who put down religeon (not a holy roller here. I haven't been in a church in more than 30 years) because it's "smoke and mirrors" compared to science but seem to not rely on that same science when it comes to the climate.

If you did you would realize that the earth has repeatedly heated and cooled for more than 3 billion years and has done so with clock like regularity for the last 800,000 years.

Maybe some of you geniuses (ROFLMFAO) can tell me how that occurred without your typical whinning points to blame. You know the ones; Exxon, GM, Hummers, Industry, Geo Bush, cow farts, etc, etc, etc.

This nothing but a scam by lib%u2014turds with money to make money off others by using their ignorant constituents to peddle carbon credits and the vast majority of liberals are either to naive to realize it, not smart enough to realize it or too embarrassed to admit it.

BTW - the earth will eventually be consumed by the sun as the sun enters its last phases of a dying star. Then who are all you pseudo intellectual lib--turds going to blame as we all turn to vapor? Actually you'll be long dead and hopefully your ancestors won't be quite as stupid to think they can do anything to stop it.

If climate change is such a farce then explain why so many nations are taking actions against it? the Maldives will be carbon neutral in 10 years, they also fear inundation from rising sea levels. Why are nations heading to the COP 15 to set emission policy? to set GHG policy, GHG reduction , why on earth would they be doing this? We have a climate crisis. It's time to deal with it.

Exactly--climate change is only a "farce" among angry American conservatives who don't want to believe that their lives have to change, and instead lash out with angry, hateful words so they can go back to their mundane lives while entire island nations go underwater. This is why you see that rhetoric nowhere else in the world.

Anyone who posits that the climate change we are seeing today is part of a natural cycle just hasn't looked at the numbers. We are exponentially beyond what a normal cycle looks like (at least for the Holocene Era in which human civilization has developed). The last time we had carbon levels this high in the atmosphere (over 350 ppm) was over 10 million years ago when there were crocodiles in the arctic and sea level was about 40 meters higher (goodbye Boston).

As far as the role that education plays in this, it is no coincidence that almost no "climate skeptics" can be found among the most educated people of this country and of the world. It is also no coincidence that it is difficult to find a single comment by a climate skeptic that cites any type of verifiable data, fact, or research. Please, if you just can't bring yourself to open your eyes, at least step aside so that those of us who can see can lead the way.

After reading the negative, discouraging, and insulting posts, the only logical response to your disbelief and pessimism towards our cause is: even if you believe climate change is a hoax, and even if you think what we are doing is a result of naivety, why would you not support a movement that advocates the health of the planet you live on?

The only effects climate legislation will have on the United States and its' citizens will be positive. If we implement healthy standards for the planet, all aspects of life on it will thrive, why wouldn't you want that?

However, if these logical means of support for the movement do not convince you that the actions taking place should be respected, supported, and encouraged, ask yourself these two things:

In the event that climate change is a real and you choose to play no part in trying to prevent it as you have thus far, how will you justify this choice when the world you are accustomed to begins to fall apart?

If we succeed in our triumphs and protect the planet from these catastrophic changes, what will you tell your grandchildren when they ask what role you played in saving it?

If you do not believe in the virtues driving this movement; if you do not trust the sound science behind this issue; if you refuse to recognize and accept that, as a living creature on this earth, you are inescapably involved, then I regret to inform you that the answers to those questions will not be attainable.

Whatever you decide to believe, I hope you are honorable enough to thank those who do step up and lead this movement, so that people like you, and future generations, will be able to live in a healthy, just, and sustainable world.

I hope I did not insult you with my uncompromising statements. However, because I feel so strongly for the cause and its deserving of respect, I cannot state these opinions lightly. I trust that as a respectable human being you will refrain from posting such brazen comments discouraging our actions and insulting our intellect.

Remember, we are the people that you will be thanking.