Announcements/20100214181850

Students for a Just and Stable Future - The Leadership Campaign

The Leadership Campaign, led by Students for a Just and Stable Future, is a movement dedicated to effecting real, pragmatic, goal oriented change in order to prevent the catastrophic environmental and social damages that global climate change will incur unless we take drastic action. We work strategically on a local and state level to make a statement to the national and global community which we inhabit.

The new scientific consensus on climate change dictates that '''we maintain a maximum level of 350 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere in order to preserve conditions on Earth amenable to civilization and human life. '''We view reaching this goal as a top global priority, but only through solutions that benefit all of Earth's inhabitants, and break down historical patterns of inequality and injustice.

Despite the ‘hard facts,’ the political community, even at its most progressive, has only generated cautious movement towards the more conservative estimate of 450 parts per million—a maximum limit which would fail to yield conditions on Earth suitable for humanity.

Last fall we built a student movement across the state. Hundreds of students were engaged, many choosing to "Sleep Out" and give up the comfort of their beds to make a statement that they refuse to follow the fossil-fueled status quo. ''200 students faced criminal charges for sleeping on the Boston Common, an act of civil disobedience. We received conciliatory offers from the Governor and his staff, but as they fell short of our goal of 100% clean electricity, and we chose to continue on our own terms.''

This spring, we are working to pass a bill in the Massachusetts State House, An Act to Create a Repower Massachusetts Task Force, which will create a fast acting committee charged with assessing how the state can achieve our foundational goal of 100% Clean Electricity Within the Next 10 Years in Massachusetts. The results of the taskforce will pave the way for legislation to pass 100% into law.

So far, the bill has 17 co-sponsor legislators, has been introduced into the House and Senate, and has passed through the Senate Rules and Ethics Committee. Our bill is currently in the Joint Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy Committee.

We need to urge our representatives on the Committee to push the bill as quickly as possible so that it will become eligible for a vote. Moreover, we need to pressure Massachusetts’ legislators to voice their support for the measure.

In order to ensure the future of our civilization, our planet, and ourselves we need to demand Nothing More than 350 PPM, and Nothing Less than 100%.

Our efforts at Hampshire this spring will focus of creating legislative pressure and building organizational strength.

''We will be sleeping out on the Amherst Commons on Saturday, February 20th. This will be a massive gathering of students and community members from around the state--people coming from Boston, Worcester, and Western Ma area colleges. We will have speakers at this event including Amherst Representative Ellen Storey (at 4:30), and live music from local bands in the evening.''

We really need your support, and hope that you can make it on Saturday!

Thank you,

Visit our website and Hampedia page!

https://hampedia.org/wiki/Leadership_Campaign www.theleadershipcampaign.org

Contact us directly!

Rebecca Siegel: rss07@hampshire.edu

Nora Stedman: ers09@hampshire.edu