– JANUARY 4, 2016POSTED IN: CEP FACULTY, THE POWER DIALOG

Know a college student or a teacher?  Then you can help 10,000 students around the country, and hundreds in your own state, change their future.

The week of April 4, 2016 The Power Dialog is organizing conversations in every state capitol between students and the top regulators in their state charged with reducing global warming pollution under the EPA’s Clean Power Plan. The EPA’s new rule is the main vehicle enabling the 30% cuts in pollution pledged by the US in Paris. But so far, the regulators drafting statewide pollution reduction plans have not heard from their most critical stakeholders: young people who will actually be around in 2050, living through the consequences of our action—or inaction—today.

The Power Dialog gives young people that vital voice.

The model is simple.  Faculty teaching courses in environmental studies, energy, climate change, environmental politics, economics, or sociology include material on the Clean Power Plan. They then bring their classes on field trips to the state capitol for the Dialog. Students reach out to their faculty to insure their classes are included.  With fifteen to twenty college, university or high school classes involved in each state, hundreds of students statewide will have the chance to get educated about the Clean Power Plan. Then, they engage directly with their state’s top regulator about cutting global warming pollution locally.

The Power Dialog, organized nationally by The Center for Environmental Policy at Bard College, is not an advocacy or lobbying project. There is no legislative agenda. Rather, the goal is simply to educate thousands of young people about the emerging new rules for climate protection, and to give them a chance to talk face-to-face with the state regulators who are shaping their future.

So here’s the easy and effective way you can help. Pass this post along to the students, faculty and educational staff you know to build the Power Dialog in their state. Our country, and our world, critically need the voices of 10,000 engaged young people next April, and beyond.

Do this now, and get your year changing the climate started strong. Lots more opportunities to come.