A trip to the Arctic

This is a guest blog from Ben Wessel, a 19-year old college student at Middlebury College [1] in Middlebury, VT. -- Luis

Recently, I had the good fortune to visit the most amazing and pristine wilderness on the planet – the Arctic. Accompanied by 17 other young people from nine different countries, I was lucky enough to travel to the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard [2] as a part of a program entitled the Voyage for the Future [3]. The Voyage brought all these energetic and motivated young people together in order to teach us about climate change and its effects on the fragile Arctic ecosystem, and to inspire us to convince policy, business, and social leaders to tackle this crisis head on. Thankfully, the trip was a great success! (You can read more about the trip at my blog [4]).

Together, we explored Svalbard aboard an old Russian research vessel with a team of scientists, activists, communicators, and organizers. Through lectures and guided hikes, we saw first hand the extreme impacts that rising temperatures are having on the Arctic. Unluckily for us, the Arctic is feeling the effects of climate change more strongly than any other spot on Earth,

The Arctic is also the site of many feedback mechanisms and tipping points which, if crossed, will contribute to more and more warming, even if we were to cut all our emissions today. Melting sea ice, decreased glacier mass, a strengthened albedo effect [5], and the northward migration of many plants and animals will not only spell disaster for the Arctic environment, but also for the rest of the world. The keys to keeping the jet-stream constant, stopping rising sea levels, and ensuring continued worldwide biodiversity can all be said to lie in the Arctic. As you can imagine, we were sometimes a little depressed on our voyage and daunted by the size of our challenge.

More often, however, we were incredibly encouraged by the energy, enthusiasm, and ideas that came out of our discussions and incessant banter. Together, we have no doubt that humanity can arise to the climate challenge and move toward a safer, cleaner, more secure world than the one we currently inhabit. As representatives of the global youth, we feel an urge to act to secure our futures, as well as the future of every following generation.

We are ready to help the climate movement show policymakers, business leaders, and members of the general public how urgent climate action is and that tackling the climate crisis is the defining issue of our time. We recognize that this is not just an environmental issue, but also an economic issue, a human rights issue, a moral issue, and a cultural issue. We feel an obligation to save the Arctic, due largely to our newfound attachment to the beauty of that area, but we feel an obligation to humanity as well. It seems these feelings are representative of the massive up welling of support from the world’s young people, who consistently support efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions ad are extremely vocal on this issue.

One major step to securing this bright and prosperous future is strong American climate policy. The 1Sky platform [6] is an excellent model for politicians in that it is simple, robust, implementable, and the positive ramifications will be felt immediately, both in the lungs of American children and in the pockets of American families. The creation of five million green jobs [7] will help switch our antiquated energy portfolio to a clean and renewable one while providing relief from the current economic crisis for many Americans. The establishment of a long-term emissions goal [8] is crucial in laying out the framework for the work that lies ahead in guaranteeing a prosperous future, devoid of climate catastrophes. A moratorium on coal [9] shows the urgent need to think about reshuffling America’s priorities, from profit to people and from greed to goodness.

We believe that the passage of strong American climate legislation incorporating the 1Sky platform will contribute immensely to the Voyage for the Future’s ultimate goal: A comprehensive international treaty authored in Copenhagen at the UNFCCC meeting in December 2009 [10]. Such an agreement would provide the roadmap for a future that’s forever renewable in terms of energy, prosperity, and hope.

As motivated young people, dubbed “Ambassadors for Change” by the organizers of the Voyage for the Future, we are trying to mobilize at least 100 million people worldwide to support our end goal of a successful Copenhagen treaty. One way in which we wish to help spread our message and show influential leaders that we need change is through the Green Finger Project [11].

The Green Finger was developed by the Step It Up [12] organizers and has been adopted by 1Sky as a great way to show support for the climate movement while highlighting the personal nature of the climate crisis and demanding leadership from our elected officials. The idea is that everyone colors their index finger green with paint or marker or ink to symbolize one climate, one future, one vote, one chance, etc. They then write one thing that a vote to stop global warming would personally protect for them on their palm and film themselves showing it off. These pictures and videos are an ideal way to show that a diverse coalition of people care about ending this climate crisis and that they support leaders who take ambitious steps to formulate strong energy policies and become climate leaders.

You can watch the video [13] we created as the Voyage for the Future here [13] . Make your own video and post it as a response to ours and soon enough we’ll have enough supporters that officials will have to listen. We are working to develop a good way to tie all these green fingers together and get them in the hands of policymakers and other important leaders. Alone we cannot solve the climate crisis, but together we have a pretty good shot.

Thanks!

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