The SSC Climate Campaign
SIERRA STUDENT COALITION
the national student chapter of the sierra club
the national student chapter of the sierra club
Rising to the Challenge of our Generation:
A Sierra Student Coalition Campaign for a Clean and Efficient Energy Future
Everyone is talking about global warming, but no one is talking about solutions, even though the technologies that can solve problem already exist. We can construct dorms, skyscrapers, office buildings, and homes that use only a fraction of the energy buildings use today. We can create cars that go further on a gallon of gas -- or that use no gas at all. We can meet all of our energy needs through clean, safe, renewable sources like wind and solar power. We have all of the technology we need, but we're still missing the political to implement reforms. We must create the demand to use these technologies now - this is our generation's problem, and it is up to us to solve it.
We seek an energy revolution that will make efficiency and clean power the norm, not the exception, and that will help us realize a just and sustainable society.
Climate change is a vast problem that affects every issue the Sierra Student Coalition has ever worked on. Not only does global warming, caused by human greenhouse gas emissions, present possibly the greatest threat to the continued health and sustainability of our planet, but also our current energy policy pollutes our air and water, threatens our security, and endangers our last wild places. Unhealthy air days, asthma inducing smog, and toxic lakes and rivers are the reality of today's existence for much of America's youth, especially low-income and minority people. In addition, our consumption of 25% of the world's oil while we hold only 3% of global oil reserves creates an unsustainable and dangerous situation - both for our health and security.
We are working for clean energy and climate neutrality to achieve our larger goal of a safe and sustainable world. Find out how you can take action help stop climate change
ON YOUR CAMPUS - IN YOUR CITY AND COMMUNITY -
IN POLITICS
ON YOUR CAMPUS: The Campus Climate Challenge:
The Campus Climate Challenge is the largest youth mobilization to stop global warming. This international effort is taking place on more than 530 campuses in the US and Canada, and through the Challenge, youth is leading the world toward clean energy solutions. Students are working to transform their campuses into models of sustainability by passing climate neutrality, efficency, transportation, green building, and clean energy policies.
These individual campus victories are combining to become more than the sum of their parts. We are showing that the youth of the United States are stepping up to take on the challenge of our generation: stopping global warming and transitioning to clean, renewable energy. These efforts also signify a challenge from our generation - which has the most to lose from global warming - to our politicians from the local to the national level: it is time to act!
The Campus Climate Challenge has two major components:
- We can show the public the far limit of what is possible. Every time we convince our schools to use 100% clean energy, we push the envelope. We want this to happen in more places than ever and to aggressively promote what we have acheived to the media, the public and our elected officials, challenging them to follow our leadership.
- We can educate our fellow students about global warming solutions. In just a few years, our generation will be teaching, running businesses, and electing leaders. If we engage our peers in global warming solutions now, we will be able to implement those solutions much sooner.
Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions
There are many ways that your school can move towards clean energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but we have grouped them into four categories to make it easier to talk about. You can pursue one, a combination, or all of these approaches in your Challenge campaign.
Model Policies
Sample policies for each of these categories are available for download from ClimateChallenge.org
The Presidents Climate Commitment is a high-visibility effort to address global warming by garnering institutional commitments to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions, and to accelerate the research and educational efforts of higher education to equip society to re-stabilize the earth's climate. The Commitment provides a framework and support for America's colleges and universities to go climate neutral. Presidents signing the Commitment are pledging to eliminate their campuses' greenhouse gas emissions over time.
Due to student pressure and the support of engaged faculty, over 100 college campuses have purchased substantial amounts of clean energy and many others are pioneering new methods of energy efficient design, green buildings and climate-responsible investment policies. With your help, we can expand that effort and build a movement that will spread to campuses and school districts across the country. By making your campus or school district more clean and efficient, you can issue a challenge to political leaders on behalf of your generation's future, demanding to know: Will you follow our lead in slowing, stopping, and finally reversing global warming?
The national Campus Climate Challenge is sponsored by the Energy Action coalition, of which the Sierra Student Coalition is founding member, and is bringing hundreds of colleges and high schools together under one umbrella, one banner, and one challenge of a generation! You can make an existing clean energy campaign part of this effort, or start a new clean energy campaign as part of the Challenge.
With this campaign the generation with the most to lose from global warming will prove that a new energy future is not only possible but that it can be here today with the right leadership.
Join the Challenge today by signing up here. We will register your group with the Campus Climate Challenge and send you everything you need to get started!
Campus Climate Challenge Resources
The SSC's Campus Climate Challenge Campaign Planning Guide is designed to help you plan and run a Challenge Campaign on your campus. It is one of the best guides ever produced by the SSC, so download it today
and use it as your guide to victory!
Looking for all the resources you need to run an amazing campaign? Check out our updated campaign resources site for more information and sample materials.
IN YOUR CITY AND COMMUNITY: Cool Cities / Cool Communities:
Take the Challenge off-campus and into your communities with the Cool Cities Campaign! Over 180 mayors have already stepped forward and said that they will bring their cities into line with the international Kyoto Protocol to stop climate change. It's time to get your Mayor on board and make every city, town, and country a clean energy community.
In partnership with the Sierra Club Chapters and Groups across the country, this campaign allows you to move your city or community forward with clean and efficient energy solutions that cut dependence on oil, benefit public health, and save taxpayer dollars. Sign up now to get help from the SSC to get your city or community on board! Learn more about Cool Cities.
IN POLITICS: The Separation of Oil and State
Forty years ago America decided to go to the moon and in within ten years Neil Armstrong took "one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Today we are dependent on foreign oil, our rural communities and auto industry are hurting, and our energy sources despoil our environment and threaten our climate. Top economists have proposed an "Apollo Project" for clean energy. With a new, efficient and clean energy system, America could create three million new jobs, promote peace, and protect the environment, all by powering our economy with clean solar and wind energy produced right here in America.
At the same time, the world's best scientists have issued stark warnings that if we do not get serious about curbing our carbon emissions from fossil fuels like coal and oil during the coming years we could face catastrophic global warming. Global warming could lead to stronger hurricanes, more droughts, sea level rise, and threats to fragile ecosystems and agriculture. Our government has a responsibility to protect us from disasters yet our political leaders have remained silent and failed to act to stop this disaster in the making.
So what's stopping us?
The barriers to a clean energy future are not technical - they are political. Too many of our politicians remain beholden to oil companies and lack the political will to act against global warming. With your help we can demand a Separation of Oil and State. We will join coalition partners across the country to demand that our politicians stop taking campaign money from oil company executives and Political Action Committees - and we will demand real plans to stop global warming from them. We will free political leaders to do what is best for America, to solve our energy problems with innovation, good jobs, and environmentally responsible renewable energies, and demand action to stop global warming.
Learn more about the seperation of Oil and State from Oil Change International.
