Day 61: Friday, August 9th 12:21am

Hey all–

Just a quick update so you don’t forget to check my blog every now and then. Today I went down to the friendly folks at the US Green Building Council (USGBC) and filmed a really fun Green Finger video. Here it is:

Expect a longer post at some time in the near future!

Thanks!

Day 50: Monday, July 28th 12:40pm

Hello all!

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve posted on the good ol’ blog, I was isolated in Southern Virginia where there was internet censorship and I wasn’t able to access any blogs or discussion forums of any sort. No worries, however, that just means that this blog post will be super spectacular as it contains two weeks worth of climate battling news!

Primarily, the whole world has been abuzz with news of Al Gore’s magnificent speech given in DC on the future of American efforts to combat climate change and his ambitious goals of having the United States’ electricity grid be 100% FOSSIL FUEL FREE in ten years. There is already so much debate about this speech in the blogosphere, so if you want to hear about it you should check out Grist.org, Envirowonk.com, the NY Times’ DotEarth blog, or any other of the plethora of people who write about this sort of stuff on the internet. It’s truly interesting stuff.

I myself was not able to go to see Al Gore give his speech because I was at summer camp! Thankfully, my two weeks as a counselor at Riverview Camp in Virginia were not devoid of climate activism and I managed to film a really fun Green FInger video with some of my campers! Check it out (I hope it works, I’ve been having major YouTube issues…)

Also, some of my campers made postcards for the 350.org Postcards Project, so hopefully they will be up on 350.org sooner or later for you guys to see the hard work of some of the youngest climateers out there!

Another highlight of the past two weeks has been 1Sky’s decision to post a little piece I wrote about my Voyage for the Future trip and the implications strong American climate policy would have on the Arctic and international climate treaty discussions. If you want to read what I wrote, just click here! I hope to do more work with 1Sky in the next few days, weeks, months, years, etc. They are such a great group of people and have managed to blaze a name for themselves really rapidly since their launch in November.

Our work towards creating a more cohesive Green Finger Project is still at the drawing board and I am now realizing how hard it is to coordinate so many people across so many different continents, etc. I am sure, though, that we will have our own website soon which will be relatively easy to use and will enable people to see that their actions can make a difference in the world. Already, we’ve been getting some big names to make vids…albeit mostly from Norway. Here’s a video made by Maria, Karl Oskar, and WWF Norway (again, I hope this works for you…)

Alright, well, I’ll be in touch later when I figure out more of how I’m going to be spending my August fighting climate change! Thanks!

Day 33: Friday, July 11th 6:01pm

Hey everyone, just a quick update that I thought you should see. Maria uploaded this video of our Arctic swimming adventure…enjoy!

Day 29: Monday, July 7th 6:05pm

Hello from Washington!

If you’re still checking this blog, THANKS! You are awesome, as I’ve no doubt told you at some point or another. If this is your first visit to the page, welcome! Please feel free to look around! Since I’ve been home, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the Voyage program and what the next steps should be for me in relation to the global climate movement. First off, I’ve been in touch with the spectacular folks at 350.org about trying to collaborate with us at the WWF’s Voyage for the Future program in terms of spreading the movement of The Green Finger Project, which I hope you’ve heard about. We’ll be doing a lot of work on Green Finger in the days and weeks to come, so stay tuned. I’ve also been doing a lot of prep work involved in how to help shake up the existing climate movement and I’m ALMOST ready to make what I hope to be a big splash, so keep a heads up!

Not surprisingly, I’m not the only one who’s been keeping busy. Eunice and the rest of the WWF-US crew has successfully created the most spectacular web-page dedicated to the Voyage for the Future on the WWF-US site. You should check it out! if you click on my name, which is towards the top of the page, you can see all my video-blog entries that I made on the trip which haven’t been up on the internet yet. I like to think their goofy and fun, but also provide good insight into the Voyage. The site also includes the infamous “Aspen Group” video, which will be shown to a group of influential leaders who are going to be in the Arctic, including Former Pres. Jimmy Carter, former Sec. of State Madeline Albright, Former Sen. Tom Daschle, Prince Albert of Monaco, founder of Google Larry Paige, the CEO of Shell-US, the CEO of Chevron, many representatives of international NGOs, and LOADS of other cool people. I hope you watch the video - I know the crew at icentials, WWF, and Flashstudio worked REALLY hard on it! Also, Casper and Soli teamed up to make this cool Green Finger video at Futerra. Check it out and then MAKE YOUR OWN. Post it as a response to the YouTube Green Finger video we made on the Voyage for the Future (it’s further down on this blog…under Sunday, June 22nd.

In addition many others, especially WWF-Norway and WWF-Russia, are doing a GREAT JOB spreading the Green Finger. Check out THIS poster from Norway featuring the lovely Maria Waag: plakat_22

Hopefully, I’ll be able to post some more concrete information up here in the next week, but for now, I’m checking out! Thanks! P

Day 21: Sunday, June 29th, 5:38 pm

I’ve decided to keep the “day” count in titles of my posts because our work surely isn’t over, and neither is our “voyage”. Yes, we’ve all returned home (well, except for Evanne who’s in Uganda…), but we haven’t stopped our fight against climate change.

In the US, we’re starting to see a little bit of press about our Voyage for the Future. Cloe Shasha, a friend of mine from Middlebury, just published an article entitled “What I Did on My Summer Vacation: Fought Global Warming” on ABCNews.com. You can read it here. Also, I did an interview for Voice of America on Friday at WWF’s offices in DC, and that should be up on the web in a couple of weeks, I’ll look for the URL when it’s been published.

Much more important, however, are all our bold and broad plans. We continue to discuss the Green Finger project and how to best use it to grow the climate movement. Internationally, Voyage participant have been SUPER busy. Casper and Emma just announced that they’ve created a new organization, the UK Youth Climate Coalition (YCC), which seems to be the British version of the Energy Action Coalition or the Sierra Student Coalition. This is VERY COOL!!! Emma is also in the running to appear on the BBC’s top political program, entitled “Question Time.” She is in the top 10 and YOU can help her get on the show by going to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/question_time/schools_question_time/7460834.stm and write a comment that you think EMMA deserves to be on the show!! Sven in Sweden is at the Tallberg Forum in Sweden, where such important dignitaries as the Swedish Prime Minister, NASA climatologist James Hansen, and Middlebury’s own Bill McKibben are present and speaking. Maria and Karl Oskar are pushing climate awareness at summer music and sports festivals in Norway. Everyone is working as hard as possible to further the cause!

Tune in later for more updates and pix! Here’s a little video that you may or may not have seen:

350

Just a quick note - if any of you haven’t seen 350.org’s new website (www.350.org) just click on the link on the right hand side of this page, it’s awesome. Here’s their newest video/animation:

Sunday, June 22, 6:39 am

At home in Washington, DC

What a wonderful and terrible feeling to be back home again. I can’t believe that our trip is over but I do really think that this is just the beginning of our whole journey.

After returning to Oslo on Friday evening, the group headed to the WWF-Norway and WWF International Arctic Programme (those crazy Brits and their spelling) office on Saturday morning. Oslo is a beautiful European city situated on a fjord and complete with fashionable Scandinavians, open park space, and cobbled streets. The WWF office looks exactly as I imagined it would, complete with IKEA furniture and motivated thirtysomethings behind desks adorned with photos of coral reefs, polar bears, and tropical rainforests. After being introduced to some of the staff, we headed to a meeting room and got down to business.

We’ve got incredibly high goals and I think that’s important. But if the whole world is dreamers and targets, nothing gets changed. So, very rationally but still tinged with our trademark optimism and goofiness, we sat around a table and talked. When it comes down to it, where will we be most effective? What can we do, as 18 motivated youth who have witnessed the beauty of the place feeling the affects of anthropogenic climate change in the most extreme and destructive ways on the planet? What concrete target are we striving for and how do we use our enthusiasm to further progess towards that goal? Naturally, there is no way we could answer all those questions in two hours, but we did get a good jump start on them.

Here is what we decided (with the help of Neil and a book that he was reading): If you see a fire, you do not network with your neighbors, explain how sparks, ignition, or oxidation work, address the economic and social issues associated with this fire, educate the decision makers about the fire and its potential affects on GDP, and wait for consensus about fire safety bylaws in committee. Instead, you raise the alarm, get to safety with your family, and call the fire brigade. We need to raise awareness, engage with others, and take action.

So now we know we need to solve this fiery crisis on our planet, but it is too true that if you don’t have something to strive for, you will fail. We can’t just say “Stop climate change” and hope it gets done. We must declare missions, objectives, programs, projects, and action plans. It sounds like some bad training guide for office management, but in reality all those boring-sounding steps are rungs on the ladder of change.

Our mission is a safe future for our planet and ourselves. Our mission is a world with less conflict and more equality. Our mission is to combat climate change. Our mission is to make sure that when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meets in Copenhagen, Denmark in December 2009, they will emerge with a robust and implementable international treaty that will halt climate change in favor of a clean, safe, and fun world.

We’re still trying to figure out the best way to achieve our missions, but I think we all believe that in order for Copenhagen to be a huge success, we’ve got to build a global climate movement that can mobilize millions in the interest of not only a safe future, but also a safe present. We need to let politicians, business leaders, and social leaders know that this is the defining issue of our time and that both our physical and historical legacy is dependent on how we rise to this challenge. They must know that failure is not an option because it results in a fundamentally altered world, inhospitable in terms of climate, political problems, economic collapse, and social outrage. On the other hand, these leaders must see that rising to the occasion and recognizing that tackling the climate crisis is an opportunity to save human lives, save ourselves some money and strife, and save the beautiful planet that we take for granted. This is no burden. This is an opportunity that we can’t afford to waste.

Well, after all that rhetoric, we are still left with the problem of how to mobilize millions of people the world over. And that is the stage we are at now. We are eighteen powerful people. We have eighteen moths before Copenhagen. We have no boundaries but our own imaginations. We have no obtuse political constraints. We have no sense of duty to the status quo. We have only energy, power, and the truth on our side.

With that said, I have immense faith that a transformation is coming, and that the ambassadors for change that have been shaped and molded on board the Aleksey Maryshev and the Voyage for the Future will help lead the charge. So keep a look out for us, we’ll be around.

We made a green finger video on our trip and I just posted it on YouTube. Hopefully, it will successfully post into my blog right above this sentence. Watch it if you have the time. This is something that we think can go viral and be a part of gathering the movement together.

I think I’ll keep writing on this blog for a little while at least, so feel free to keep reading it if you feel the need, I have heard from some of you, but my family informs me that many more are reading. THANK YOU! This is so cool to me and I am unbelievably humbled by the fact that you think my bizarre ramblings are deserving of your time. I know that every one of you has the power to change the world and has the urge to protect something in your lives from the dangers of many political, economic, and social challenges. I truly believe that we need as many informed and active people changing the behaviors and their ways of thinking before we can guarantee a world free from the grasp of incredible and terrible climate changes. If you have time, make a Green Finger video yourself, or take a green finger picture. Post it on YouTube, on Facebook, on your bedroom wall, above your toilet, anywhere. Know that there is something out there that you think is deserving of protection, and know that you have the power to protect it. Thank you! Peace!

DAY 10: Wednesday, June 18th 2008, 10:38pm

At the Mary-Ann Polarriggen Hotel, Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway

You know you’ve formed a community when you start to develop your own slang. Thus, I am proud today to say “Sad Panda,’ meaning, of course, that today is a rueful day as we left the Aleksey Maryshev and came back to Longyearbyen. Our farewell with the crew was sad and I think Troels, our boat’s expedition leader, said it best when he noted, “It’s hard to find this much enthusiasm on one ship.”

Once back on solid ground, we headed over to UNIS (the University of Svalbard, in so many words) and caught a cool lecture by Jack Kohler, an American glaciologist who is evidently the greatest thing since ice cubes in his field. He was a forceful and engaging lecturer and we were able to get lots of great information from him in regards to how glaciers are feeling the affects of a warmer climate. We learned a lot from Jack and his answers to our questions will definitely be invaluable when having to deal with climate skeptics and picky detractors.

After Jack’s talk, it was time for us to say goodbye to Soli Townsend, which was definitely the hardest part of the day. Soli has been such an amazing force for this trip from the moment she stepped on board the ship and I really think that her information has been incredibly valuable for me as an activist. There are so many things I wish I had talked to her about while I had the opportunity, but hopefully her work and my work will collide sometime in the near future. It was “with open arms” that Soli welcomed us into the global climate movement, and I think that we’re all ready to play a big part in this international push to guarantee a sustainable future for all people on earth.

I can’t stress enough how high the ceiling seems right now. There is so much optimism and enthusiasm bubbling around this group of individuals that it’s hard not to feel it too. Although I’m aware we face an uphill climb, especially in the US, where politicians, business, and the public are all decades behind the rest of the developed world, I am so confident that we can view this challenge as an opportunity. An opportunity to take on political challenges, economic challenges, development challenges, and human rights challenges. An opportunity to take on poverty challenges, joblessness challenges, hunger challenges, and inequality challenges. It sounds broad and lofty and preposterous and ridiculous, but I really think that in fifty years we can look back on this time as one of transformation and renewal, rather than stubbornness and greed. It is so cool to me that I might be a part of this transformation. It sounds dumb, I know, but big things are happening and bigger ones are on the horizon.

The bulk of today was spent on a secret mission that I can’t write about in the blogosphere yet, butt let me tell you that it was one of the highpoints of this “long, strange trip” we’re on. I’ll try and post tomorrow, but I really do hope to continue writing even after I return home, for no other reason than to order my own ramblings. Thanks for keeping in touch! Peace!

DAY 9: Tuesday, June 17th 2008

Aboard the MS Aleksey Maryshev

Only time for a short post before I pass out. Today was another fun day in the Arctic, chilly but not too bad. This morning we headed over to a Polish research station here on the west coast of Spitsbergen. They showed off their cool research equipment and talked about what it’s like to spend two years in Svalbard without any women. Needless to say, I admire them immensely and can’t imagine having a job like theirs. Soli and Keith geeked out like the Sci-Fi nerds they are as they realized that the station’s satellite dish points down to get reception because we are so far north. Needless to say, this place holds more and more surprises everyday.

This afternoon we went on a Zodiac cruise through some amazing sea ice scenery and checked out a couple cool glaciers. A couple seals came and said hello to us and we spotted another polar bear (our second), albeit from a couple of kilometers away. This place is just too cool to describe.

It is with a heavy heart that I write that tonight is our last night aboard this amazing ship. To think that it was only seven days ago that I first stepped on the deck is absolutely mind-blowing to me. I can’t imagine ever getting another opportunity like this. But, as everybody’s been saying, “Our journey isn’t over, it’s just beginning.” I’m going to do my best to make sure that statement stays a reality.

If I were more awake, this is where I’d try to be inspirational and urge everyone to take bold action on climate change now, but frankly, I’m exhausted. But stay tuned and I’ll inspire you tomorrow! Peace!

DAY 8: Monday, June 16th 11:15 pm

Aboard the MS Aleksey Maryshev

Sorry I didn’t post a blog entry last night. I hope tonight’s comments will make up for it.

More and more I am beginning to realize the true value of this trip. I think initially, I applied to be an “Ambassador for Change” because it would force me to talk about climate change for 10 days and I would get to go the Arctic. In my typically cocky and confident manner, I didn’t recognize how much this trip isn’t about me doing anything; it’s about us. I thought that I would come and have the same old conversations about activism and climate policy etc. etc. etc. Thank goodness that hasn’t been the case.

Every single person on this boat has a part to play in this voyage, just as every person on the planet has some responsibility as “a crewmember on Spaceship Earth.” (Thank you “Wet Hot American Summer”) I’m not quite sure what part I’m playing on this journey, and I think that’s a good thing, but I’m sure having a lot of fun playing it. We have grown together as a unit unbelievably quickly. I am amazed by every person here – and not just in the cheesy way that that sounds.

I’ll start my requisite chronology of the day’s events with yesterday morning, when we docked in Longyearbyen to admit some new passengers and drop of some others. Sadly, we said goodbye to goofy geologist Appy Sluijs, WWF-Japan employee Yumiko, and members of the Japanese and Norwegian press, as well as a reporter from the Associated Press. Thankfully, they were replaced by new friends! Solitaire Townsend, who wins the award for best Bond girl name impression, is the founder and CEO of Futerra – a ridiculously successful communications consulting firm dealing with issues of sustainability and climate change. Along with “Soli,” members of the Dutch and German press have joined us for the remainder of our boat trip. With all these people running around the boat and coast, shouting in so many languages, it feels like a playground at the United Nations.

After a morning of relaxation and much deserved mellow downtime, we had a lecture from Dr. Michael Roleda, a marine biologist from the University of Kiel in Kiel, Germany. His talk, which touched on the impacts of climate change on various plants of the Arctic Ocean, was packed with information and important results which contribute to the conclusion that we are rapidly all coming to – this place is really under attack and it won’t see any relief until we stop selfishly spoiling our natural environment.

After Dr. Roleda left us and we raised anchor and sped out of the Longyearbyen harbor dominated by a huge cruise ship, we were blessed with the most spectacular scenery of the trip so far. Alpine peaks dot the coastline like suburban houses in Northern Virginia, separated by glaciers and ice flows instead of shrubs and picket fences. While that similie is incredibly forced, it’s true that this landscape has become second nature to my sight. I now expect to see jagged rocks and snow-covered plains, and am somewhat unimpressed by sights which would normally knock me senseless. We had the opportunity yesterday to go on a magnificent hike, which included my boot getting stuck in a chest-high snow drift and a massive extraction effort to finally free it from the frozen depths as well as a bearded seal spotting and my first excursion onto sea ice on my own two feet. After all that excitement, we decided that we better “cool” our selves off with a little dip in the Arctic Ocean. I gotta say, Lake Dunmore in Vermont is cold but it’s got nothing on the water at 78º N. These little excursions that we have almost everyday do a great job capturing the unique nature of this corner of the world. I’m not sure I’ll ever have an opportunity to be in a landscape quite like this one ever again, so I’m trying to soak in as much of this one as I can. We finished the night yesterday with the recording of a Green Finger video, which I think went really well and will post on YouTube when I return home. I’ll have to check it with the folks at Step It Up/350.org, but maybe this video will appear on the WWF website someday soon.

This morning, after sleeping through breakfast, I stumbled downstairs for the requisite three cups of coffee and had the good fortune of securing a prime viewing for Soli’s morning presentation. I swear, I’ve learned more about messaging this movement and my personal role in halting climate change from this woman in one day than I have in the past six months. Soli has this magnetism about her that draws in your eyes and ears and makes you eager for her to resume distributing wisdom when she pauses for a breath. I kid you not, this woman is a genius. Together, the group (with Soli) discussed the most effective ways to discuss climate change with others, depending on your audience. I feel that I have been plagued with the impossible question of “How do you make people care?” for years, and in maybe a few days with Soli, I hope to be able to come up with a concise and polite response to that question of all questions. Her help will prove invaluable to the global climate movement and I can already tell any UK citizens reading this that she sure looks like a good replacement for Gordon Brown.

Later today we headed out for another excursion and were able to trek across huge scree piles and steep slopes of snow-covered ice onto a glacier measuring three kilometers in breadth. The sheer whiteness of the glacier was shocking enough, but the piercing blue of the sky and gray of the water behind it helped make this an absolutely iconic image in my mind. I find it hard to believe that I will ever forget this sight. We stumbled through the waist-deep snow admiring our surroundings before surrendering to the cold and heading back to the ship, where another activity with Soli awaited us, as well as a barbeque and dance party held in our honor by the crew of the Aleksey Maryshev. As if all that wasn’t enough, we found out earlier tonight that we’ll be meeting with the Crown Princess of Norway at her private cabin in Svalbard on Wednesday to discuss her leadership role in the climate movement.

I can’t remember feeling so productive and goofy at the same time as I did today, and it is an amazing feeling. I am beginning to regret leaving, but am also excited to start on the next step of my climate journey. That’s all for now - Thanks!