Check out the BFP Alumni/ae Newsletter!

The latest edition of the Better Future Project  Alumni Newsletter is out!

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This month features an update from Alyssa (Climate Summer 2011) on the grassroots climate movement in the Pacific Northwest, a squash recipe from Dan (Climate Summer 2012), a reflection on biking in ice and snow from Anna in the Netherlands (Climate Summer 2012), and from Louisa (Climate Summer 2011) a hilarious spoof article about the Center for Climate Change Denial. Here’s a sneak peak:

“Center For Climate Change Denial To Become Underwater Center For Climate Change Denial And Family Fun By 2030″

Highlights from 2012: Climate Riding is Sexy!

What are you doing this summer?

Get on your bike with Climate Summer!

Amanda Crawford-Staub – a Pennsylvania native, a student at Boston University, and the 2012 Outreach Coordinator for Team Maine – is here to tell you that Climate Riding is Sexy! You can read her July 14th blog post on the subject here.

Are you ready for this much sexy?  How about a summer of movement-building? Either way:

Join us this summer.

Apply today!

http://climatesummer.net/apply/

Team Maine preps the site for their August 4th Day of Action (in Portland, Maine). Tar Sands Kill!

Pedal People

Climate Summer met with the Pedal People of Northampton. They are a cooperative that uses bikes to collect trash, recycling, and compost.

Stone Soup for the Biker’s Soul

One of our main goals at Climate Summer is movement building. Worcester presented a huge challenge: as the second-largest city in New England, it is culturally, intellectually, and economically diverse. More than that, there is a growing environmental consciousness here, and it seemed that every corner we turned there was someone quietly doing amazing work.

Then we visited the Stone Soup Collective.

Our team was blown away by the sense of solidarity that exuded from the Stone Soup Collective. It is a coalition of groups from Worcester doing important work, some community-related, some environmental, but all sharing a sense of friendship. Members include Worcester Earn a Bike, which provides bicycles in exchange for volunteer time; YouthGROW, a community garden run by teenagers; Worcester Roots; Food Not Bombs; Worcester Immigrant Coalition; and many others. They banded together a few years ago to rent a house where they could all have offices. They used the space, explained Stone Soup organizer Judy, as a way to share resources, but also to provide the community a meeting space.

The many organizations that are rebuilding the Stone Soup building. Photo taken from http://www.stonesoupworcester.org

This was what we had been envisioning all along.

Just as they were raising money to purchase the space outright, there was a tragic fire that made the house unusable. Rather than accepting this setback, however, the Stone Soup stayed strong. Even scattered across the city, the cooperatives still maintain their ties. And they are working to rebuild the house in a way that is representative of their overall morals. We were lucky enough to be able to walk through the shell of the old house, and Judy pointed out where the new offices would be, a rooftop garden, residential spaces, even community gathering space. Even in the midst of construction, the classic lines of architecture shone through. We admired the antique woodwork, the high ceilings, the traditional arched doorways. It was clear that this building was magnificent.

Even more beautiful than the house itself, though, was the way in which it was being restored. Stone Soup is using the fairest labor practices possible to complete the project. Judy described utilizing both the local carpenters’ union as well as unskilled youths who gained experience in apprenticeships. She also mentioned having community groups like the Worcester Energy Barnraisers to help with weatherization and holding educational seminars during points of the construction process.

The community is literally rebuilding its own community center. It was amazingly beautiful and inspiring to see.

The YouthGROW participants rebuild the soil. Photo courtesy of http://www.recworcester.org/what-we-do/food-justice-2/youthgrow/

What’s the Future of Life on Earth Worth to You?

By Shea Riester, Team Vermont

At one point this may have been a facetious or cliched question, but it’s now deadly serious.  What is the future of human and animal life on earth–not some sort of utopian paradise, but simply a habitable planet, complete with all its modern complexities and imperfections–worth to you?

I believe this is the most important question of our moment in history, the 11th hour of climate change.  And right now, although you may not be aware of it, it’s being answered in action by courageous souls across our country and across our world.   The past 3 months have been the first ever “Climate Summer of Solidarity” (#ClimateSOS), perhaps the largest wave of American climate related actions ever.  Brave people from the ports to the plains have been putting their bodies on the line, chiming together in a chorus of “Enough! We will no longer stand by and watch as big oil, coal and gas destroys our futures and our children’s futures!”

For my college friend Dorian Williams, a member of the group of activists who blockaded a coal mountaintop removal site in West Virginia, the future of our planet was worth her freedom.  On July 28th, those folks put their bodies on the line to stop the coal mining that brings cancer to locals, ruins the habitat and continues to roll the earth towards a deep precipice.  Dorian was one of the most level-headed, compassionate people I knew at Brandeis University.  Her moral compass is dead on.  She knows the stakes of burning more carbon. For Dorian, the future of the earth and her beloved communities was worth risking arrest and even violence.

So I ask again, what is the future of our planet worth to you?  Perhaps it is worth nothing.  Maybe you don’t care about future generations and are happy to stand by as our civilization burns carbon until our earth is uninhabitable.  At least you’re being honest.

But just maybe the earth’s future is worth something to you.  Maybe it’s worth taking that extra moment to recycle, or speak to your neighbor about global warming and living more sustainably. For me it was worth traveling exclusively by bike all summer, promoting clean energy and connecting the strands of this movement.  But if we truly want to prevent world-wide calamity we’re going to have to stop coal, tar sands, gas and oil in their tracks.  That means more of us are going to need to make the bigger sacrifices.  It’s not hard to understand, and I don’t believe it’s “radical.”  Unless “radical” means trying to prevent the unnecessary devastation of our planet.

We know the game left unattended: if the energy is cheap–if our government refuses to force big oil, coal and gas to factor in the true cost of their deadly product–the corporations will extract the oil till the ground is dry, and most consumers, having no feasible, affordable alternative, will burn fossil fuels until New York has Florida’s climate and our coastal cities are under water.

As an excellent article on the new surge of climate actions notes, nonviolent direct action is slowly but surely working to be an effective way for the people to take back the power from mindless, short-sighted corporations and corrupt politicians.  Nonviolent direct action means intervening, usually with our bodies in the form of an occupation or a blockade, to stop something we view as immoral from happening, such as coal extraction or the building of an oil pipeline.  Like the nonviolent countertop sit-ins or freedom rides of the civil rights movement, we are called upon to put our bodies on the line day after day, until we are finally heard, or until it simply becomes too much of a burden, too insane to keep arresting all these people standing up for their futures.

At the 2011 climate action conference PowerShift, imprisoned activist Tim DeChristopher said:

“With only the people in this room, we could send 30 people onto a mountaintop removal site, shut it down temporarily, start to clog up the West Virginia court system. And we could send 30 people the day after that and the day after that and the day after that every day for a year. I believe we would never get to the end of that year because mountaintop removal would end before we reached that point.”

So, I ask once more: what is the future of life on earth worth to you?

I pray it is worth joining this movement for our collective futures.  The time to play nice with politicians and corporations who care more about money than our planet’s future is long over.  We must realize that the personal lifestyle changes or even occasional street protests are not enough.  We must also realize there are enough of us out there to turn the tide.

Right now, as I write this, there are folks peacefully occupying the Montana state capitol in opposition to coal mining (@CoalXportAction), New Yorkers moving to stop expanding “fracked” natural gas pipelines, and Texans mobilizing to block the Keystone XL Pipeline (@KXLBlockade).

They understand what needs to be done to have any chance in this fight for our future, and I hope you do too: we must use nonviolent direct action to ensure that the carbon is left in the ground before our time runs out.  Maybe then, at the very least, we can look at our children without regret and tell them we tried our best.

Aug 4th Bridgeport Day of Action

Clips from our Rally! While this short video does not do the day justice, it’s a nice little tribute to the people inConnecticut who came out and supported the shutting down of the Bridgeport Harbor Power Station. Thank you to everyone involved, especially the Healthy Connecticut Alliance and 350.Connecticut.

A Day Out of Climate Summer

Written by Sara Mitsinikos, Media Coordinator, Team Maine

Last week I had to leave Climate Summer for a mandatory family vacation. I was not pleased with having to leave my team to carry my weight both with the biking, as I would not be there to haul the trailer, and with my role as media coordinator. I wasn’t just leaving them with my work, I was leaving them with my work during our hardest days: a biking day of fifty-five miles and our Day of Action. On top of all this I was leaving to go on a cruise ship, the likes of which emits the pollution of millions of cars in one day. This was not what I considered “living my values.”

As I sat on the bust that carried me and a number of other passengers to New York I saw the road through new eyes, the eyes of a biker. This hill would’ve been murder. This is a nice, flat stretch. I also noticed the surroundings of the road and watched the world around me turn from green to grey. The reality of this grey world with plastic bags in what few trees remained almost made me cry. Luckily the woman sitting next to me didn’t notice because I was curled up in such a tight ball anyway. The bus industry would save a lot of energy if they didn’t keep the buses refrigerated.

Then there was the cruise itself. I hated feeling so isolated from my environment, stuck on a boat not able to swim in the ocean or take a substantial walk. I went onto the deck to feel the wind and smell the salt of the ocean but all that grasped my attention was the black smoke coming out of the ship. Time for another nap.

View from the deck— note the black smoke in the corner

The type of people who go on cruises are the type that are not willing to make changes in their lifestyles, not for themselves and not for their planet. I could tell these people were all about convenience by how they ordered room service when the food was one story above them and how if they did decide to go the one story they used the elevator. Also I think people do cruises for the food. To try to offset the effects of all the food I now had available to me (goodbye five dollar a day budget) and to at least be active if I couldn’t be an activist, I went to the gym and rode the stationary bike. I question the validity of my “work summary” as one day I burned six hundred eighty-three calories and another day only four hundred whild doing the same program- hills plus

Finally getting off the ship was great. Jamaica’s Fern Gully, a name my cousins and I recognized from a favorite childhood video, had beautiful, lush forests. Snorkeling in the Caymen Islands was a bittersweet experience. It was bitter because it was not as colorful and full of life as you always imagine. I remembered my biology professor telling us there are few “pristine” coral reefs left in the world. It was sweet because it was not something I would be able to experience in New York or New England and pristine or not, I’m glad I got to experience it at all since who knows if it will exist in the future.

Back on the cruise ship I would’ve gone crazy if it weren’t for my family. On second thought, I may have still gone a little crazy, depending on how normal dancing on a table is.

And I’m back home, shocked by my parents wanting to drive to the pizzeria in town. Again I’m shocked by how quick my friend is to ask if I want him to pick me up. We’re going to the next town over, we’ll bike. And then I’m disappointed that I can’t go to Home Depot and bring back rain collectors for my dad’s birthday by bike. Climate Summer has made me realize how much I don’t need a car, but also how much I do. But knowing the difference is what makes a difference. This difference means a better future.

Community Gardens

Written by Laura Lea Rubino, Team Coordinator, Team Maine

Before showing up for the start of Climate Summer I was unsure of what to expect for my upcoming two-month adventure. I knew I would be riding a bike, and I knew I would be speaking about climate change, but I did not know that I would end many of my days with dirt underneath my fingernails and a farmer’s tan that was the real deal. When people ask our team what sort of activities we do from week to week we say that it really depends on the town. And though our weeks do vary depending on the local climate (no pun intended) surrounding the issues we are covering, one thing we have done in every place is work in a community garden.

We have gardened up a storm this summer and had a lot of fun in the process. Along with endless hours of pulling dandelions, amaranth, and clover by the roots, I have planted seeds, propped tomato plants with homemade trellises of string, and mulched yards upon yards of garden paths. Much of our work in gardens has occurred in midday sun and 90-degree heat. I have left gardens with blisters on my hands and dirt smeared across my face, but I cannot complain about the hours spent in these plots bursting with life and color. This is work that must be done, and I am excited to see how popular of a project this has become.

Community gardens are so much more than a place where delicious food is grown and harvested. While these convenient little plots of land do provide sustenance for countless individuals and families, there is a spirit of goodness embedded in the concept of locally tended gardens and it makes me want to support them in any way I can. I am currently reading the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barabara Kingsolver in which a captivating and humorous account of her family’s valiant effort to live completely off their own land is given.  Kingsolver’s husband Steven Hopp has several informational excerpts sprinkled throughout the pages of the book covering topics from CAFO’s (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) to the dangers of chemical fertilizers. In one of his pieces titled “Dig! Dig! Dig! And Your Muscles Will Grow Big,” Hopp describes the many things a community garden can accomplish: “In addition to providing fresh local produce, gardens like these serve as air filters, help recycle wastes, absorb rainfall, present pleasing green spaces, alleviate loss of land to development, provide food security, reduce fossil fuel consumption, provide jobs, educate children, and revitalize communities.” I guess the better question to ask is what do community gardens not do?

Making friends in the Cumberland Community Garden

I have personally witnessed gardens filling all of the aforementioned roles this summer, and for these reasons and more I am a firm believer that community gardens need to be everywhere. Initiatives like Lots to Gardens in Lewiston and Cultivating Community in Portland are prime examples of organizations that have helped diverse community populations undergo positive transformations. Local, small-scale gardening has the potential to fundamentally change the way Americans understand and obtain their food. If every home, school, community center, library, vacant lot and place of worship had a garden overflowing with organic and nutritious fruits and vegetables, we would be a nation much less reliant on fossil fuels and far more healthy and active.  This is a better future that we all can, and should take part in building.

 

Would You Like Oil With That?

Written by Amanda Crawford-Staub, Outreach Coordinator, Team Main

The dislike for deadly energy companies like oil, coal, and gas is loud. They profit billions of dollars, destroy our environment, and make us sick with little to no accountability for all their wrong doing. I think my disdain for them is justified. BUT-is it possible that these atrocities are all  their fault? Maybe I have a bigger role to play than I would like to admit.

A delicious lunch (including fries) with Bob Klotz, head of 350 Maine

If you have ever read Chuck Klosterman you know he is vulgar, blunt, but pretty amazingly clever. Recently, I read his essay McDiculous as it challenges the movie Super Size Me and its attack on the McDonalds industry. In many ways, McDonalds can be compared to big oil- the company profits millions of dollars, makes us sick, probably isn’t very good for our environment. The movie Super Size Me was made to try to hold it accountable. Although the film succeeds in making McDonalds look pretty atrocious, Klosterman argues that the larger issue is actually not McDonalds. He says, “The biggest problem with America is not faceless corporate forces. The biggest problem with America is people who blame faceless corporate forces instead of accepting accountability for their own lives.” Klosterman argues that McDonalds exists to make money by offering people a product that’s in demand. He asks why an organization should care about the negative impacts of people consuming a product they supposedly “don’t want”.

Klosterman mentions that he doesn’t feel completely comfortable defending McDonalds and I don’t mean to totally defend deadly energy companies. I do feel, however, that Klosterman proves an interesting point about corporate and personal responsibility. Just like McDonald’s, deadly energy companies exist and will continue to do so as long as their product is in demand. Now I do understand that products like gasoline are different from a Big Mac in many ways. Not filling your gas tank will change your day quite differently than just avoiding the drive thru. To some extent we are almost forced to consume deadly energy- not necessarily because we want to. Still, I have learned that before I point the finger at these energy companies I should remember that they only exist because I continue to consume their products. The corporation isn’t totally responsible, I am too.

So what is my personal responsibility then? Moving forward I think it will be more important than ever to make it clear what kind of energy I do want, and try my best to support it. The current system makes it difficult not to consume deadly energy but the options are there and they are growing. The number of people I’ve seen pursuing these other options this summer has been remarkable and inspiring. Deadly energy companies need to know I don’t want their products. Give me solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro-energy.  This is my responsibility and I hope others recognize it as their too.

“Just… Good Vibes”

written by Hillary Bernhardt, New Hampshire Team Video Coordinator

“Property has its duties as well as its rights.”  ~Thomas Drummon

One of the most fascinating aspects of this experience has been the beautiful and amazing people that we have had the pleasure of stumbling upon. Two kind and unique individuals, Amy and Jonas of Elliot, Maine deeply impacted us all. We actually met them as a sort of happy accident after our housing in Portsmouth, NH fell through. With the help of our team’s “Guardian Angel” and shining star of a contact, Susy Mansfield, we learned that we would be able to rest our sweaty heads and hang our helmets at their beautiful home.

Upon stepping onto the property, I immediately felt an inescapable sense of joy pulsing through my bones. Amy and Jonas both welcomed us with warm smiles and expressed their anxious anticipation of our arrival. Although we were merely strangers, bonded only by a serrendipitious alignment of the stars, their genuine warmth and hospitality towards us could only be matched by that of lifelong friends. Jonas was kind enough to give us a tour of the land, their home, the barn/guesthouse we’d be staying in, and the fire pit that they had set up in the woods.

He spoke in a careful, poignant manner emphasizing the key points of the land and the philosophy behind it. “We feel stewards, more so than owners of this land,” he told us. This statement particularly struck a cord with me, as the common western notion of owning land is always something that I’ve felt slightly uncomfortable with. Not to sound like a “penniless hippie” protesting outside of Professor Farnsworth’s laboratory in that classic episode of Futurama, my philosophy has always aligned with the idea that “You can’t own property, man!” To me saying that you own the land is just as ridiculous and narcissistic as saying that you own the air or the water, or any of the other amazing elements that Earth has graciously given us. Land is not ours for the taking, it’s not ours for the commandeering, the colonizing, and eventual destruction that has become written into our psyches as the norm for human beings. If you own the land, do you own the worms and plants and all of the creatures that inhabited the land long before anyone even stepped foot on it? It was incredibly refreshing to hear this and to see right before our very eyes,  line between the privately owned and publicly accessible that they appeared to be blurring.

Interestingly enough, Amy later told us that out of all of her places of residency (ranging from a yurt in the woods to a city apartment) she had never lived on a piece of property this large and therefore felt an inherent need to share it with the community as a whole. Her and Jonas both purchased the land with this shared vision in mind.

Jonas explained to us his vision of turning the property into a real community gathering site and how he and Amy were already doing that by hosting community dinners, bonfires, consciousness-raising movies and discussions, and even a latin music festival. Jonas also stressed he and his wife’s commitment to working with the land rather than against it. The bees that they had been keeping and harvesting the honey from were originally a swarm in one of their trees. They weren’t clearing land for garden plots, but were relying on where the sun decided to kiss the soil for where they would in turn decide to grow their crops. After growing up in a treeless suburb where composting and chicken-keeping were completely unheard of and actually against neighborhood regulations, I found this kind of symbiotic homesteading relationship with the land to be incredibly refreshing.

While we didn’t stay with Amy and Jonas all week, we did get the chance of stepping back onto their property with them for an excellent evening of home-cooked local food and in depth conversation. Amy was quick to put us to work in the kitchen and we were happy to help. While we made our communal meal, Amy regaled us with her tales of college activism and travels across the globe. She pointed to a yellowing newspaper clipping, the edges frayed, but the title concerning a group of young activists’ arrest still remained loud and clear. When we asked her about it, she excitedly responded that it was her in her college years and she kept it up there as a daily reminder to never stop fighting oppression.

The next morning, while we were sitting in the kitchen, admiring the array of crystals and artwork that decorated their home  and wafting in the aroma of their French- press shade-grown coffee, I couldn’t help but to think about how lucky we were to be residing with these two amazing beings that showed such an innate compassion and humanity towards each other, their land, and all who seem to cross their path. “This house is just surrounded by such an amazing energy,” I told Olivia. “Everywhere you look, all you can see and feel and taste and touch- I don’t even know how to describe it- it’s just…good vibes.”