This is our second guest blog from Ben Wessel, a 19-year old college student at Middlebury College in Middlebury, VT, and 1Sky intern. -- Luis

If my name sounds vaguely familiar, it might be because I wrote a blog entry on the Skywriter blog earlier this summer detailing a trip to the Arctic that I went on with the Voyage for the Future. Since then, I’ve been working hard to help the burgeoning climate movement achieve its goals of strong, bold domestic and international action on climate change. One way I’ve been doing that is by helping out here at 1Sky, with some of the most dedicated climate warriors!

As an environmental studies major at Middlebury College in Vermont, I’ve always gravitated towards the politics of the climate crisis and luckily I’ve been thrown headfirst into the policy side of things here at 1Sky. Working mostly with Jason Kowalski, 1Sky’s wonderful policy and research fellow, I’ve been doing a lot of work on the different economic costs and benefits associated with passing strong climate policy or not taking action on climate change at all. I never thought that I’d really use all the stuff I learned in my spring semester microeconomics course so soon, but who knew it would be so handy so quickly! In addition, I’ve been helping Jason with a publication on green jobs in anticipation of the Green Jobs Now day of action on September 27. Our work has been focused on showing how great green jobs are for both economy and the planet. This is a super exciting time to be thinking about green jobs, as all sorts of politicians from both sides of the aisle are mentioning the 1Sky platform point of 5 million green jobs. As you can see at www.GreenJobsNow.com, this is going to be a very exciting day dedicated to help to combat climate change and poverty at the same time.

As for me, I’ll be spending my Green Jobs Now day in DC with a group of young people from SustainUS, the US youth network for sustainable development. We’ll be together because we are all going to the UNFCCC Conference of Parties meeting in Poznan, Poland this December to stress the importance of urgent action on the climate crisis, both in the United States and internationally. While I’m in DC for a training weekend, many of my friends at Middlebury will be in Burlington, VT for 350.org’s Green Jobs Now action. So far, it seems like this event will be great, featuring speakers, performance art, and, or course, the requisite “I’m ready for green jobs now!” picture. If you want to set up your own Green Jobs Now event or find one to attend near you, check out www.GreenJobsNow.com to see what sort of events are planed. Hopefully, your hometown will be added to the master map in the near future!