California Student Sustainability Coalition Convergence

Last weekend I traveled to an alternate universe. It was a universe where you are constantly meeting outgoing, passionate, smart, environmentally focused, all around amazing people. It was a world where people live the change they wish to see in the world. It seemed like every person I met had been involved in some kind of awesomely creative sustainability project. It was a world where nighttime is spent around a campfire, listening to eco-spoken word, guitars, our own harmonious voices, and a didgeridoo.

So where was I?










The California Student Sustainability Coalition (CSSC) Spring Convergence, taking place at UC Davis. The event was a weekend full of workshops, speakers, vegan meals, but most of all, a weekend of meeting incredible people. The weekend had a distinctly California feel (logically)- unlike environmental conferences/gatherings that I've been to on the east coast, here there was the clear mentality that sustainability is a lifestyle, that we're not trying to make "green" fit into society, we're trying to turn society upside down and rebuild a world that is green inside and out.

Some quotes from the weekend:

"The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones"- Riki Ott, on why the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy makes sense for the planet and for ourselves

                                                              Riki Ott and Tim DeChristopher

"Our civilization doesn't make most people happy!"
"We can't have a sustainable aspect of an unsustainable system"-
"People are more powerful fighting for what they really want, than half of what they want"
-Tim DeChristopher, on why we need to fight for a completely new society and system, rather than fighting to simply make the existing broken system more sustainable

"UBUNTU" ("I am because you are") - heard this one all the time, wherever I went- we learn from and thrive on each other. If there's one thing I learned this weekend, it's that the best thing about the environmental movement is having an amazing network of the best people you'll ever meet. We are nothing without each other.

What are the steps that the California sustainability movement is gearing up to take?
---Fighting for CLEAN contracts (feed-in tariffs) which are small-scale, local economic policies to get clean energy put into motion
---Powershift WEST: coming in 2011/2012!
---Moving Planet (350.org) - the next global day of action, revolving around moving (think bikes!) toward climate solutions
---Real Food in our schools, everywhere
---getting rid of "Corporate personhood" and reclaiming rights as individuals

I can't wait to be back in the Bay Area in the fall to work on all these amazing projects!