350 Vermont launched a Fossil Fuel Freedom Campaign at the statehouse on January 25. The campaign is a statewide grassroots initiative to encourage Vermonters to mount a full-scale urgent response to global climate change. Partners in the campaign are the Vermont Workers’ Center, the Vermont Sierra Club, the Vermont chapter of the AFL-CIO, the Vermont Energy Education Program, and the Vermont Institute for Social Ecology.
David Stember, staff organizer for 350 Vermont, explained that in the same year that weather disaster struck forty-nine states, Vermont saw the harsh face of climate change up close and personal as well. We can’t wait for more storms like Irene to rouse us to real action. The heroic way in which Vermonters responded to Irene’s devastation is the same way we must meet the crisis of climate change. The time has come to initiate a full-scale heroic response by ending our dependence on fossil fuels as quickly as we can.
Thus far, no state in the country has had the courage, vision, and leadership necessary to craft this kind of response, but history has shown repeatedly that Vermont has the requisite foresight to lead the nation on pivotal social issues of the day. Although tiny Vermont’s CO2 reductions will never be significant on a global scale, our example and our spirit, our models and our solutions can, once again, be a powerful clarion call to action for the nation and for the world.
Because global warming is nearing a number of dangerous tipping points much more quickly than anyone predicted, preventing runaway global climate change may largely depend on the actions the world takes during the next ten years. Therefore, the goals we set today in Vermont may be the most important goals we have ever set. This is why the campaign also focuses on achieving 90 percent renewable energy by 2025.
Any campaign worthy of hope today must also take on the politics of business-as-usual. It must build “people power” outside of the system in order to transform the political process, so that we can change quickly enough to meet this crisis in a timeframe that is meaningful. Only by combining the call for climate action with a demand for human rights, social justice, and true solutions will we be able to move beyond incremental progress to achieve transformational change. This is why citizens must be full, participatory partners of any plan to transition Vermont to renewable energy and end our dependence on fossil fuels.
At the heart of the campaign is this knowledge: a society free from fossil fuels will also be more spiritually fulfilling, more economically just, more environmentally sustainable, and more healthy and resilient.
Beginning in March of this year, the Fossil Fuel Freedom Campaign will convene a people’s energy planning process centered around citizen-based “Innovation Forums.” These forums will be designed to be boldly innovative and intensely democratic. They will continue through the summer and focus on goals that include:
Make Vermont’s transportation systems fossil fuel free by 2025
Put Solar panels on every rooftop in 10 years
Develop a shared plan to maximize Vermont’s wind resources
Weatherize all Vermont’s buildings and end fossil fuel heating by 2025
Working both with the statehouse and with citizens outside of the political process, the campaign hopes to inspire and catalyze citizen leadership. As we know, historically when Vermonters have decided to act with a shared sense of focus and urgency, we have achieved radical progressive change. If this campaign succeeds as envisioned, Vermont will once again be making national history with bold solutions to the epic challenge of climate change.
Jamie Henn Co-founder and Communications Director, 350.org
The Martin Luther King Jr. memorial dedication was canceled last August 22 because of Hurricane Irene, a storm that grazed D.C. on its way to causing devastation in parts of northern New England. While the dedication events down by the Lincoln Memorial were put on hold, another sort of celebration of Dr. King’s legacy was taking place at the other end of the mall. That Monday morning, over 100 people walked across Pennsylvania Avenue and started the second week of sit-ins at the White House to push President Obama to deny the permit for Keystone XL, a 1,700 mile pipeline from the tar sands of Alberta to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. By the end of August, exactly 1,253 people would be arrested during the protest.
At the time, Keystone XL was just gaining prominence as a national issue. Now, five months later, the pipeline has become the highest profile energy and environmental fight in the nation. Big Oil front groups like the American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are spending millions of dollars on TV ads promoting the project. Republicans in Congress are using legislative tricks to pressure President Obama on the issue. And the mainstream media is increasingly mentioning the pipeline as a key election issue in 2012.
As Keystone XL gets pulled into the center of the political battlefield, it’s worth remembering how the pipeline became a national issue and the tactics and strategies that delivered the first significant victory in a fight to stop what writer Bill McKibben has called “a fuse to the largest carbon bomb in North America.” The campaign against Keystone XL was not, after all, a traditional political lobbying effort or online petition drive, but something much more in the spirit of Dr. King’s tactics of “creative nonviolence.”
The fight against Keystone XL has its roots in the resistance to the Canadian tar sands led in large part by indigenous communities in Alberta and across western Canada. As news about the dangers of the pipeline spread along its proposed route, ranchers and farmers in states like Nebraska and Texas joined in the fight. National environmental groups and some progressive unions stepped in with additional resources to help the effort. The struggle against the pipeline remained a mostly regional effort until this summer, however, when a new coalition effort called Tar Sands Action sprung onto the scene to coordinate the August sit-ins against the project.
From the very beginning, Tar Sands Action was a distinctly grassroots effort. The website was hacked together on a Word Press platform with minimal design. The emails from the campaign were distinctly honest and straight to the point: we want you to come get arrested, because this is a time when online petitions just won’t cut it. And the organizing was fast and furious: it was only a few weeks after the campaign’s launch that people started getting pulled away from the White House in handcuffs.
The effort was also deeply grounded in the need for collaboration amongst environmental groups. While Tar Sands Action formed a progressive, action oriented edge for the campaign, groups like NRDC perfected policy arguments and lobbied on the Hill, online campaigns like CREDO sent tens of thousands of emails and phone calls to the White House, BOLD Nebraska led a strategy to block the pipeline on the ground in their state, Friends of the Earth focused on a conflict of interest scandal over the pipeline at the State Department, the Indigenous Environmental Network united native communities across North America, the Transit Workers Union and other labor groups came out against the project, the Energy Action Coalition organized young people, and many, many others stepped in with their unique contributions. We likened the approach to a “swarm,” a team effort that was light on formal processes and meetings and dedicated above all to speed, efficiency, and an ambitious plan of attack.
By the end of August, the sit-ins had successfully launched the Keystone XL campaign into its second phase: nationwide protest. For the next two months, President Obama was met by protesters at nearly every public campaign stop. In Colorado, he was interrupted by a person in the crowd who demanded the president stop the pipeline. “I hear your concerns,” he responded. “We’re looking very closely at the issue.” The next stop the president made, yet another group was there to make sure he was staying true to his word.
The coalition knew that it was going to take an even larger action to push the White House to make the right decision. So, on November 6, Tar Sands Action coordinated another massive protest at the White House, this time encircling the property with nearly 15,000 people a giant, blow-up pipeline that marched around the perimeter. The protest set off a chain reaction of comments from the State Department and White House, culminating in the announcement on November 10 that the administration would be delaying the permit for a year to consider a new route in Nebraska and take into better account the health, safety and climate concerns associated with the project.
The announcement was as major victory and one of the largest wins for the climate movement in recent history. It was also the validation of the coalition’s new approach to campaigning. Keystone XL was not won because of massive spending on TV ads, highly polished talking points developed by consultants, or inside the beltway compromises and back-room deals. Instead, the campaign was successful because of its focus on grassroots mobilization, including the use of nonviolent civil disobedience, genuine and straight-forward communication with the public, a distinctly coalition approach, and a sharp political strategy that consistently turned up the pressure on President Obama.
The coalition’s victory, of course, was a temporary one. This December, Republicans in Congress managed to pass a rider on the payroll tax-cut extension that forces President Obama to make a final decision on the pipeline by the end of February or find a way to further delay the permitting process. If the president does delay the project again, Republicans are promising to continue to bring bills to pressure the White House. Either way, the pipeline will surely be a Republican and Big Oil talking point for the rest of the election.
With the political stakes increasing, it would be tempting to try and “win the win” on Keystone XL by falling back on traditional campaign strategies, the massive ad buys, slick talking points, and consultant driven campaigns that both sides use to battle out the latest hot button issues. This would be a mistake. Needless to say, some hard-hitting ads in swing states that tie pro-pipeline members of Congress to the dirty money they receive from Big Oil would be helpful, but in order to defeat Keystone XL once-and-for-all and use the win to build momentum for even more important victories in the future, we pipeline protesters need to remain bold, grassroots risk-takers. This January 23, we’ll be taking the first step in this direction with another big, creative demonstration on Capitol Hill, with 500 referees “blowing the whistle” on oil money in Congress (you can sign up here).
What better inspiration could we ask for than Martin Luther King, Jr., a leader who fundamentally understood the importance of an inside and outside game. Someone who was just as comfortable lobbying for Civil Rights legislation in the White House as he was leading a sit-in or bus-boycott. As we enter the next phase of the Keystone XL pipeline fight, we can look to King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail for guidance. In the letter to his more mainstream detractors, King wrote:
You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.
There’s surely going to be some tension ahead for those of us working on Keystone XL. As a movement, we’ll need to continue to find ways to work together as a swarm, each group and individual finding his or her unique way to make a contribution. And we’ll need to be prepared for some brutal attacks from the other side: the American Petroleum Institute has already promised “major electoral consequences” if President Obama further delays or denies the pipeline. But this sort of tension is exactly what movements are about. So, as we enter the next phase of the fight to stop Keystone XL and finally confront the climate crisis, we can only straighten our backs, look to some elders like King for guidance, and say, in the words of a certain young senator from Illinois, “Yes We Can.”
As we move into 2012, we’re launching a Fossil Fuel Freedom Campaign at the Statehouse calling for bold leadership to solve the climate crisis.
What: Press Conference to launch the Fossil Fuel Freedom Campaign
Where: Vermont Statehouse – Cedar Creek Room
When: Wednesday, January 25th 10:00 AM
The Fossil Fuel Freedom Campaign advances the goals and strategies you’ve called for to make Vermont the leader the country so urgently needs today to solve the climate crisis.
Despite being surrounded daily by growing evidence of rapidly changing climate – even in Vermont – our leaders are too preoccupied with the urgencies of today, and have so far failed to take the level of bold action required to protect our future.
Today, we hear over and over that Vermont must be a leader for the rest of the country. Yet at a time when much of the country remains stuck in an ill-informed debate around climate change, the question is, what does leadership look like for solving the climate crisis?
To lead this effort Vermont must do no less than initiate a full-scale response to the climate crisis, a response that matches the vast scope of the challenge and demonstrates powerful, potent levels of action and justice.
Because science has identified greenhouse gas emissions generated from burning fossil fuels as the primary cause of global warming, meeting the climate crisis successfully hinges on our ability to rapidly end our dependence on fossil fuels.
The formula for unleashing this level of sustained collective effort involves inspired leadership, bold goals and superhuman effort. Whenever people truly unite behind a cause the results are always unparalleled innovation and fresh new models of thought and action; in short, complete, wholesale transformation.
Transformational change doesn’t arise just from doing the same thing in a slightly different way. It demands we recognize the fundamental dysfunctions that have shaped our society, our economy, and our energy philosophy. Such dysfunctions have marched us all to the edge of a precipice. Avoiding escalating global climate chaos necessitates the boldest level of action in the shortest possible time-frame.
Together we are creating the energy and vision needed to help this state become the model for bold climate leadership in the U.S. and beyond. To accelerate our journey down that path, 350VT proposes a series of Innovation Forums to bring citizens together in a process designed to spur dialogue, support creative collaboration, and engage Vermonters in every aspect of discovering, developing, and delivering the projects which will make Vermont a model of health, resilience and justice. January 25th will mark a new phase in the movement for citizen engagement and climate justice in Vermont. We can create a future that is livable, just, sustainable, and free from the tyranny of fossil fuels.
We just sent this email to all of our Vermont supporters–if you’re not on our list yet, please sign up over on the right. (If you’re not reading this on the front page, just click here.)
Dear Friends,
We took this photo this past January–less than a year ago today:
It’s just a picture of an open horizon on the road, but it means so much more. It’s a photo from when an eager band of Vermonters passionate about 350 took an experimental road trip across the state to meet other 350 groups beginning to emerge. It was on this road trip that we realized there was a real yearning for a connected statewide movement, and “350Vermont” was born.
The road trip that started 350Vermont was less than a year ago. It’s kind of hard to believe what we all have accomplished together over the 12 months since:
Feb 5th, the snowiest day of the year, 150 people crowded into the statehouse on Climate Action Day and witnessed the passing of a resolution calling for Vermont to chart a path back to 350
350Vermont organized our first youth climate action training and then joined the I Matter March, standing with inspiring youth activists and listening to Bill McKibben speak on the statehouse steps
A series of 350 Vermont summer potlucks bringing people together across the state
Tars Sands Action – Round I: organizing the bus and heading south to DC–just as hurricane Irene was driving north. In the days to come over 100 Vermonters got arrested in this historic action, standing together to help prevent more devastating climate impacts
Moving Planet, the single largest rally on climate change ever held in Vermont, organized by a statewide team from many organizations, scene of the most inspired speech given by any American politician that day (Governor Shumlin!) –calling to end Vermont’s dependence on Fossil Fuels
Tar Sands Action – Round II: 4 buses and untold Vermonters converging on the White House to halt approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline – followed by the movement’s first victory: President Obama postponing the pipeline review deep into 2013
Even though the progress we’ve all made in 2011 is quite impressive–we still have a great open road ahead of us.
Thanks to all your ideas, energy and support — here are a few of the fronts we’re ready to surge forward on in 2012:
350Vermont will advance a legislative agenda calling for stronger measures to achieve Fossil Fuel Freedom in Vermont
Climate Action Day 2 – We’re excited to roll-out a “350VT Climate Change Primer” at the statehouse, bringing clear and powerful climate science updates to our reps, aimed at ramping up the urgency for bolder solutions in Vermont
Hosting a series of visionary “Innovation Forums” around the state to advance fundamental change in the models we use to define, design and implement true solutions to climate change
Yes, as you might expect–part of our effort during this Holiday Season is to ask for your financial help to support 350Vermont’s capacity to mobilize more great things in 2012.
We’ve got to make Vermont a bold leader to make this work count–and this campaign will only remain truly bold if it is sustained by bold Vermonters. So if you can give, we’d deeply appreciate it. We’re especially looking for “monthly sustainers” — people who can give $5, $10, $35 or more a month to keep this movement moving.
Please help make 2012 an amazing year for VT’s climate movement–give here.
The journey ahead is surely going to involve some risky and unexpected twists and turns, and your money can help us navigate them. But more than your money, we’re going to need your continued active companionship. Expect us to be asking you to buckle up quite soon. Or better yet, to put your bike helmet on.
Power Youth Intervention given by Anjali Appadurai followed by a Mic-Check during Plenary.
See the full text of Anjali’s intervention:
I speak for more than half the world’s population.
We are the silent majority. You’ve given us a seat in this hall, but our interests are not on the table.
What does it take to get a stake in this game? Lobbyists? Corporate influence? Money?
You have been negotiating all of my life. In that time, you’ve failed to meet pledges, you’ve missed targets, and you’ve broken promises.
But you’ve heard this all before.
We’re in Africa, home to communities on the frontline of climate change. The world’s poorest countries need funding for adaptation NOW. The Horn of Africa, and those nearby in KwaMashu needed it yesterday.
But as 2012 dawns, our Green Climate Fund remains empty.
The IEA tells us that we have 5 years until the window to avoid irreversible climate change closes.
The science tells us that we have 5 years, MAXIMUM. You’re saying: give us 10.
The most stark betrayal of your generation’s responsibility to ours is that you call this AMBITION.
Where is the courage in this room? Now is not the time for incremental action. In the long-run, these will be seen as the defining moments of an era in which narrow self-interest prevailed over science, reason, and common compassion.
There is real ambition in this room but it’s been dismissed as radical, deemed not “politically possible”.
Long-term thinking is not radical. What’s radical is to completely alter the planet’s climate, to betray the future of my generation and to condemn millions to death by climate change.
What’s radical is to write off the fact that change is within our reach.
Stand with Africa.
2011 was the year in which the silent majority found their voice, the year when the bottom shook the top, 2011 was the year when the radical became reality.
Common but differentiated and historical responsibility are NOT up for debate. Respect the foundational principles of this Convention. Respect the integral values of humanity. Respect the future of your descendants.
Mandela said “it always seems impossible, until it’s done”.
So, distinguished delegates and governments of the developed world – deep cuts now. Get it done.
“I am speaking on behalf of the United States of America because my negotiators cannot. The obstructionist Congress has shackled justice and delayed ambition for far too long. I am scared for my future. 2020 is too late to wait. We need an urgent path to a fair ambitious and legally binding treaty.
You must take responsibility to act now, or you will threaten the lives of youth and the world’s most vulnerable.
You must set aside partisan politics and let science dictate decisions. You must pledge ambitious targets to lower emissions not expectations. Citizens across the world are being held hostage by stillborn negotiations.
We need leaders who will commit to real change, not empty rhetoric. Keep your promises. Keep our hope alive. 2020 is too late to wait.”
At a press conference on Wednesday, top U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern explained to reporters in Durban that he sees the goal of limiting global warming to less than two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — more than double the amount of existing warming — as a “guidepost,” instead of “some kind of mandatory obligation”: Read the rest of this entry »
Last week, Vermonters hosted at least six local gatherings as part of the nationwide 350.org and Tar Sands Actionnext steps strategy session mashup.
In this blog post, one of the participants grapples with some of the lessons from the Brattleboro session, drawing in part on meeting notes by Gary Fox:
At the Elliot Street Cafe in Brattleboro, a pretty remarkable thing happened at our strategy session. There was this one person who showed up halfway through the meeting. She had wanted to go down for the sit-in at the end of August, and had wanted to get on the bus for the big hug at the White House on November 6, but hadn’t been able to make it.
When she arrived at the cafe, she jumped right in and described how her passion for the Tar Sands Action #noKXL campaign had developed, the aspects of it that had made her feel welcome — made it feel right and meaningful — made her feel that what she did as she got involved with the campaign mattered. The remarkable thing was that her description captured almost all the key elements the rest of us had been brainstorming around until that point.
Key elements of the Tar Sands Action Campaign:
the vastness of the human wrong of the tar sands
the extra-large wrongness of the pipeline itself
the lies, multi-faceted corruption, and total nonsense surrounding the promotion & assessment of the pipeline (and the tar sands)
the broad all-inclusive open range of such a wide wild variety of people speaking up for what’s right, against what’s wrong — such a powerful coalition of human voices, often tied to extraordinary local organizing
the never-before-heard-of unity of so many organizations that identify as “environmental,” in opposition to the pipeline
the synergy with the Occupy movement!
the visual impact (beauty) of key campaign chapters (the design, implementation, and photography)
the use of civil disobedience to expose the moral flaws of those in power…
(Tim DeChristopher on the purpose of civil disobedience, April, 2011)
… which civil disobedience does all the more powerfully when the non-violent direct action makes a direct demand of a single person who actually has the power to meet the demand, then and there….
the merging, in civil disobedience, of so-called “personal action” and “political action”
Photo: Shadia Fayne Wood
…the laser-sharp focus on President Obama
Obama’s pre-Presidential quotes in such jarring juxtaposition to his fossil-fuel focus, let alone a focus on extreme fossil fuels
the feeling that there was room for everyone in the campaign, the feeling welcome, making you feel like you can contribute
the hope-inspiring realization that this campaign is not about Congress, not about “the Republicans”, not about wrestling with climate deniers; despite the magnitude of the challenge, it’s about the human scale: one person, the President… Read the rest of this entry »
UPDATE: Charlotte is on the map! See below for list of all Vermont locations for Wednesday November 30 strategy sessions.
President Obama has delayed construction of Keystone XL, but we still have to keep the pressure on so that it is never built, and to stop further development of the Alberta Tar Sands. Next week as part of a national strategy dialogue Vermonters will be discussing ways to continue the momentum of this movement to ensure our demands our met, and our President is held accountable. Even if you haven’t yet joined the fight against Keystone XL and the Tar Sands, come join this session and be a part of this historic movement.
On November 28th in Brattleboro and November 30th across the state individual Movement Strategy Sessions will be hosted to join the live video chat led by the Tar Sands Action organizing team that will lay out some of the ideas being forwarded for what comes next. This meeting will outline a few possible campaigns, how they relate to Keystone XL and the tar sands, and what we could do to take action on each.
Then, each of the local strategy sessions listed below will hold a discussion about what each group thinks should happen next. Later, on December 5th all the groups will come together for a joint report back on a nationwide conference call to get a sense of what people want to do nationally.
Here is the information on Five Vermont meetings. To attend a meeting contact the listed host. For general information about these meetings contact david@350vt.org
WHERE: Elliot St. Cafe, 134 Elliot St, Brattleboro WHEN: MondayNov. 28: 5:00 – 6:30 PM WHAT: Come celebrate something remarkable: People power sent a massively unjust and unhealthy pipeline proposal, the Keystone XL tar sands project, back to the drawing board. No one expected us to accomplish as much as we did – and we did it with incredible grace, class and power. We have a lot to learn from each other. We’re getting together at the Elliot Street Cafe to kick off our 350VT-SE Monday night ping pong/dance/strategy party and talk about next steps and campaigns. This meeting is in advance of the Wed night nationwide Tar Sands Action strategy chat on Nov 30. All are very welcome!! Contact: Rebecca Jones,rmjo@rcn.com 350VT-SE Strategy Reportback Summary
WHERE: 129 Dorr Drive, Rutland City. WHEN: Wednesday Nov. 30th 7:00 – 9:30 PM WHAT Meeting to take part in the nationwide Tar Sands Action strategy chat Contact: Steve Steigerwald stevenjsteigerwald@gmail.com : 8022822965
WHERE: 3 Brennan Circle, Poultney, East Room Green Mountain College WHEN: Wednesday Nov. 30th 7:00 – 9:00 PM WHAT: Club Activism will be hosting a Strategy Movement Session for Tar Sands Action in the East Room of Withey at Green Mountain College. Although President Obama delayed construction of Keystone XL, we have to keep the pressure on that it cannot be built, and Tar Sands cannot be further developed. We will be discussing ways to continue the momentum of this movement to ensure our demands our met, and our President is held accountable. Even if you haven’t yet joined the fight against Keystone XL and the Tar Sands, come join this session and be a part of this historic movement. Contact: Scott Chernoff 609-605-0137
WHERE: 1 College Drive, Bennington, V T05201 Cricket Hill Barn, right next to Campus Safety kiosk. WHEN: Wednesday Nov. 30t 08:00PM to 09:30PM
WHAT:Joining the nation wide session to focus on local, statewide, and national strategies to fight climate change Contact: Casey Taylor 802-440-4866
WHERE: 180 East Ave at East Village, Burlington, VT 05401 WHEN: Wednesday November 30th 7:00 – 9:00 PM WHAT: One of several 350Vermont meetings happening statewide to help clarify next steps in Vermont and beyond around ending all Fossil Fuel expansion. Contact: David Stember david@350vt.org802 540 0379
WHERE: 99 Toad Rd., Charlotte, 05445 WHEN: Wednesday November 30th Call for time WHAT: Meeting to take part in the nationwide Tar Sands Action strategy sessions Contact: Arthur Hynes 802-233-4123 Please RSVP
Almost 20 years ago, at the Earth Summit in Rio, the international community created a treaty for the purpose of preventing dangerous human interference with the climate system. That treaty is known as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change — a legally non-binding treaty ratified by 195 nations, including the United States.
This set the stage for two decades of global conversation and investigation surrounding what counts as “preventing” “dangerous” interference. As part of that conversation, annual meetings are arranged, called Conference of the Parties, or COPs. We’re up to COP17 (a link worth clicking and exploring) by now. This year, the meeting is in Durban, South Africa, from November 28 thru December 9. The purpose is to advance implementation of the Convention and the agreements stemming from it, for the purpose of preventing dangerous interference with climate.
Importantly, those most likely to be most affected by early climate destabilization are among those least likely to have their voices heard in the global conversation surrounding what level of human interference with climate should count as acceptable and what should count as dangerous and is to be “prevented.” Climate researcher Kevin Anderson makes this last point in the first few minutes in this presentation (cued to the relevant start time, 7:11, although anyone who has a chance should watch the whole thing):
350 Vermont launched a Fossil Fuel Freedom Campaign at the statehouse on January 25. The campaign is a statewide grassroots initiative to encourage Vermonters to mount a full-scale urgent response to global climate change. Partners in the campaign are the Vermont Workers’ Center, the Vermont Sierra Club, the Vermont chapter of the AFL-CIO, the Vermont Energy Education Program, and the Vermont Institute for Social Ecology.
