Youth at Powershift 2011 unhappy with Obama energy policies

Current energy policies are second in destructive and self defeating practices, only to legalized corporate influence and control of Congress. To truly change energy policies, we must have complete campaign finance reform and end corporate personhood.

Once again, Obama is pandering to the right and expecting his left wing base to just trust that a more progressive agenda is ahead in his second term. People have gotten 3 years of that already. And it's getting tired. Rachel Maddow said on her show this week that when it comes to off shore drilling permits, that they won't even make those public anymore. So much for transparency in government.

Fantastic post. This is really exciting.

I and my son have decided that we are going to try to get a climate youth group going in our town. I would hope to bring in young people in my community who care about the future but believe there is no place for them to express that. Also, I will use it as a way to educate them about what is happening globally due to biodistress, and we will use our education and caring to petition our government to do something about this NOW. I was part of a conservation group in the seventies that did community work as far as education and cleaning up communities and it made me feel as though I did have a stake in the future.

I really think more people doing this on a community level is what is needed to finally bring a true vocal expression of our urgency. No other movement that ever took place in this country came about by people remaining silent. And while I have not been silent, while I have spoken out, blogged, and participated on my own, I think it is time for me to move to using what I have learned to reach as many young people as I can. Especially those young people who have no hand in voting for what is left them! It is immoral to leave them a burden we ourselves made. So this is not only about environment, it is about morality, responsibility and truly caring about the world we make for ourselves and for those to come.

It may seem as if it isn't happening fast enough, but it is happening. The successes are like 4 steps foreward followed by 3 steps back. Weaning an entire infrastructure and society off hydrocarbon fuels would take enormass amounts of energy, plus immediate removal of conveniences already in use, would put society at a standstill. So have faith, tho' progress isn't at leaps and bounds. Maybe 1 step back is politics and two steps back economics, but the four steps foreward wouldn't be possible without your determination and all those agreeing with you.

It's not just the youth that are breathing fire over this. Between living in LA and being from New Orleans, LA., breathing air we can chew to seafood we can't. This is not the man I voted for. I know I can't point a finger & yell at him screaming," it's all his fault". Harry Reid and a church mouse could out butch each other. He couldn't navigate legislation through the Senate to save his life, whereas Nancy Pelosi rocked it.
But the President really does have to push the Green Agenda HARD besides the clean air, water, and land factor it will put millions of Americans to work. Hey there's a hell of a concept! Re-open factories and put people to work, OMG! How could we do that?????

Are they they trying to be THAT stupid?

Jan, post a link if it's uploaded somewhere.

One more comment: Surprised Current didn't cover this. This is your demographic!

I just watched Al Gore speaking on the LiveStream and heard from the young women moderating that they had a meeting with President Obama today to tell him of their concerns. They seem to be fired up, so I hope that the youth of America can join together to give the momentum to shift the consciousness of the country for the future. But they need the rest of us too.

On edit: And how lucky the youth are to have Al Gore as someone to inspire them. Thanks for mentioning sustainable agriculture and forestry too Mr .Gore. It gets left out of the solutions when it is really one of the main (and most viable ) ways we will sequester carbon and bring our planet back to health! I also think that is a ploy oil bought politicians and lobbyists play to make people believe that a transition to a more sustainable and healthier lifestyle and planet will be impossible because it is too technical when all you have to do is dig the coal out and burn it. They want to make Americans think this has to be some hard, arduous technological fix that will be expensive. It isn't. The answers to solving this crisis are all around us, especially in the soil. If we work with nature, she will work with us.

But notice when he speaks of clean energy it is always what he "wants" to do as opposed to the toxic energy sources they are accomodating now. This is not about some hatred. It is however, a deep seated concern and urgency for the fact that biodistress is now encroaching on a larger and larger portion of this globe, and we are running out of time to make changes that will match the pace of the changes taking place already in our ecosystems and biosphere. I thank the youth at this convention then speaking out and putting the principle above the politics. To do so does give hope for the future.