Looking forward as The Teen Environmentalist heads to UC Berkeley

In about two weeks, I'll be heading to California to embark on my next adventure: college. More specifically, the University of California, Berkeley. Known for it's history of activism, energy, and passion. While this summer has left most of us environmental people feeling pretty depressed, between the biggest environmental catastrophe in American history and the death of what was supposed to be the US's first climate bill, I think I still deserve to keep some optimism. I'm going to Berkeley! I'm going to study in the College of Natural Resources! I have 25,000 other young people whom I can rally to fight with me, and I'm sure I'll be meeting some amazing people that will help me learn and build this movement. So... as I look ahead, I'm going to compile a list of things I want to learn at UC Berkeley :

- natural resource management

- in depth science of climate change

- ecosystem restoration

- environmental sampling

- environmental economics

- wilderness philosophy

- attitudes toward climate change

- reasons why political and cultural change is so hard to come by

- how to build a movement

- how to organize and energize people. lots, and lots of people

- persuasive writing

- how to really do something with my life (that one pretty much sums up it all)

So what's on the horizon for the environmental movement (hopefully this blog will help to make sure I don't get stuck in a college bubble - the global movement pushes on!) ?

10/10/10 is the next 350 International Day of Climate Action. It's like last year's event, but more urgent. More urgent because another year has gone by without significant change. A year has gone by without a U.S. climate bill. A year has gone by without a global treaty to bind us into changing our lifestyles. With the world's ecological balance in danger, I've learned that every single year, every single week, every single day matters more than we an even fathom.

So it's time for me to make these next four years matter.

Right now I don't know what the Berkeley campus is going to do for 10/10/10, but with me there, something is going to go down. The wheels are turning - we'll see where they go!