I’m writing from the Powershift ’09 conference, a congregation of 11,000 students and young people from across the country to address the problem of climate change. It is at once inspiring to witness the passion shared by so many youth and sobering to obtain a clearer perspective of the sheer amount of work needed. A palpable anxiety fills the air, 11,000 minds desperately hoping that the energy created here will translate into real action rather than dissipating.   The self-congratulatory zeitgeist of the event: “We are the ones we have been waiting for!!”: will amount to nothing if nobody brings the message home.   So, here’s a start:

On Saturday night, Congressman Ed Markey drew a comparison between the environmental movement and the civil rights movement as well as the termination of apartheid. At first glance, the analogy seems a little skewed; activists in these other campaigns sacrificed, suffered, risked arrest and death for their causes. The climate movement hasn’t seen anything like this, right? For the general population of the United States, climate change is a “petition problem” and nothing more.   At Whitman, some students still won’t even bother to sign a petition.

“I used to think just caring about the environment was enough. No longer. Only action will bring the necessary change.”

But here’s the dirty truth: people are already dying for climate change.  

Around the world, rising temperatures are increasing the range of malarial mosquitoes. Floods and droughts are increasing in severity, causing mass casualties.  

The systemic failure of our energy system has wreaked havoc aside from climate change, too. The oil addiction which contributes to global warming has generated wars and coups for most of a century. And right here under the red white and blue, coal plants dramatically increase lung cancer rates in the low-income neighborhoods where they are situated.

Make no mistake: climate change kills.  

On a human scale, the severity of this issue meets and surpasses the precedent set by the civil rights movement and apartheid struggle. Further, from the holistic perspective of global biodiversity, no challenge has ever even remotely resembled global climate change.

During civil rights movement, ordinary people reexamined their beliefs and changed their habits. They suffered and sacrificed. To win this unprecedented fight against climate change, we all must sacrifice as well. Our compatriots around the world are already dying for the struggle; it’s the least we can do.

This means sacrificing time and energy: write letters to your Congressperson and energy company, educate yourself about the causes and solutions of climate change, perform direct actions, and inform others of the necessity to get involved. This means sacrificing old habits: turn off your lights whenever you don’t need them, eat local food even when it costs more, and think twice before buying another worthless piece of plastic.

The wonderful thing about the climate movement is its breadth. It intersects so many fields: biology, chemistry, engineering, human rights, architecture, social organization, education, geopolitics: that absolutely nobody reading this has an excuse not to participate.

I used to think just caring about the environment was enough. No longer. Only action will bring the necessary change. Our collective sacrifices can and will fuel a progressive, equitable and sustainable future.

So, Whitman, please get involved. We live on a self-aware, liberal campus, but there is still much work to be done (remember our C on the environmental report card)?

As green jobs crusader Van Jones says, the human race faces a choice.   Will we be locusts or honeybees?