Unlimited

Wow, what a week. My life here in Berkeley is quickly becoming a whirlwind of environmental activism, incredible and thought provoking classes, and mind-bending conversations. As I have begun working on the 350 campaign, I have gotten the opportunity to meet some really awesome global organizers. I am developing my own leadership skills as Earth Week co-coordinator and Focus the Nation coordinator under the Sustainability Team umbrella. I'm taking a big seminar-style class called "Edible Education: The Future of the Food Movement," facilitated/organized by Michael Pollan (!!!) and Nikki Henderson (!), and so far we have been fortunate enough to hear two incredible speakers: Carlo Petrini and Peter Sellars. Additionally, I was offered a research position in a forestry lab which looks at correlations between above ground and below ground biomass in redwoods and aspen. Last, I got to hear Bill McKibben's free talk at Berkeley the other night, and then hung out with him at a brewery in Oakland with the 350 team. I really, really love the Bay Area.
 
Now, after spending freshman year just kind of getting a feel for what everything's like out here (and hiking - A LOT), I now feel like I am delving into the very activities, classes, ideas, and passions that will define me at least during my college years if not beyond. So you can't blame me for being a little bit confused, a little bit lost, a little bit overwhelmed. There are literally unlimited options, unlimited causes, unlimited ways to act, unlimited ways to be an activist.


So I'll start with Peter Sellars. Peter Sellars told his huge audience in Wheeler Auditorium on Tuesday evening that the real "us" is the part of ourselves that "isn't for sale." The part of us that no one needs to pay us for. The skills we use for jobs we would do if they weren't paid (and often aren't.) He told us to create a "zone of justice" wherever we go- so even if we can't change the entire world and topple corporations, we can refuse to put any unjustly produced food in our bodies, we can refuse to drink Coca Cola, we can refuse to wear clothes made in factories with conditions worse than slavery, and so on. That concept of a zone of justice really stuck with me. In a video we watched of Peter prior to the class, he spoke about how massive demonstrations rarely work like we want them to, whereas doing what's within reach and working on oneself and on the local level seems to be the right direction right now. Now that makes a lot of sense to me, but at the same time I'm getting really involved with a massive global demonstration (Moving Planet). Hmm. How to reconcile.

Next, Bill McKibben. Bill has been one of my heroes ever since PowerShift in 2009, which was a life-changing weekend for me. It was really PowerShift that introduced me to the youth environmental movement, to activism, to organizing, and to the collective spirit and energy that exists in this movement. Bill McKibben gave one of the most energetic speeches I have ever heard a guy with grey hair give, and inspired me to get involved with the October 24th International Day of Climate Action. Hearing him again reaffirmed the need for large-scale, awareness-building, tidal-wave-forming global demonstration. Moving Planet is going to make it clear that the (extra)ordinary people of the world are not satisfied with the way world leaders are acting toward climate change. We are the ones who have already embarked on the quest to find sustainability. We are mini "zones of justice" and when we come together we are one HUGE zone of justice. We mobilize so that the remainder will join us. Moving Planet is exciting. It's fun. It's a reminder that we have are a force to be reckoned with. We're in this fight together. It's kind of a local movement on a global scale. After Bill's talk, I went and hung out with some awesome people I met at the California Student Sustainability Coalition convergence last spring. Yesterday I hung out with 350 organizers, including Bill, in Oakland. I am constantly in awe of the network of incredible people I am starting to acquire as I enter the activist world.

 I had an interesting talk with my environmental economics professor in office hours yesterday. I went to ask him if he had any suggestions for a faculty advisor for my Focus the Nation clean energy project. It turned into him trying to convince me that activism is futile, and the best thing I can do is get a research position, learn the stuff on the deepest level possible, and implement it from there. Basically, he told me to be an engineer and that that is the only way to actually make a difference. Now, I absolutely believe in understanding the facts and the true story of technology, economics, etc. I understand the desire to be a scientist- I'm a Forestry and Natural Resources major who just took on a research position in a lab! But after everything that went down this week, I simply have to believe that there's something necessary, something fulfilling, something really important about activism. I've got a role in this fight, and I just don't think it's as an engineer. We learned at the Recharge! Retreat that there's a role for storytellers and politicos, not just technicians and innovators. I am really excited to have my first lab position, especially since it's in forestry. I don't know how it connects to the rest of my life/activities right now, but somehow I'm sure it'll fit in quite seamlessly. I can't wait to start making connections between forestry and climate activism. Sounds cool! So I've got a lot going on, and a lot of questions to think about as I immerse myself in all of these projects. These past two weeks have been some of the happiest and most fulfilling of my life, and it's only September. I think as long as I continue to love life, and as long as I continue to feel like I'm part of something important, I must be on the right path. We'll see where it leads me.