Our Vision:
“WE are global warming solutions. We are a force for change, a force that can step outside the old energy paradigm to build the future and present that we know is possible. People like us, acting in every community, hold the ideas and inspiration for change, and we can believe in those people as we believe in ourselves.” *
As a society and as individuals, we stand at a key turning point in history. Our economy, built on fossil fuels, is slowly faltering in the face of rising costs of energy, the globalization of production, increasing global conflict, and the repeated and escalating blows of storms, droughts, fires, and other effects of global climate change. Ahead lies an incredible opportunity: to reforge a culture, economy, politics, and lifestyle that sustains our families, our communities, and our world. We can build a clean energy economy through innovative sustainable community development while restoring justice by building community and prosperity.
Minnesota Powershift 2008 is much more than a conference. It is part of a process of building people power around a vision for a clean energy economy and a sustainable future that can unite rural farmers, inner-city residents, labor leaders, small businesses, students, and local governments. It is a recognition of our own role in making change, bridging the gaps between our personal lives and the sweeping changes that must be made. Its time to build a climate positive society, one that has moved beyond “limiting the damage” we do to the global environment and oppressed communities and instead engages proactively and eagerly in the opportunities inherent in a post-carbon society.
Minnesota Powershift is about going beyond “drop-in-the-bucket” solutions – its about transformation. It is about recognizing our crucial role as change agents, not just to improve our own local communities, but to build models for change that generate more economic, social, and political power for the global transformation while inspiring other local groups, students, small businesses, and local leaders around the world. MN Powershift acknowledges the importance of both policy and technology, but also that neither will be adequate or effective unless they focus on empowering we, the people, to actually implement the solutions we need to reorient our lives and our neighborhoods for a sustainable future. It is literally a shift in power: from fossil fuels to clean energy, from an economy controlled by large centralized entities to one that emerges from the vibrant relationship of local producers, from seeing ourselves as victims of the turbulent changes facing our future to seeing ourselves as collaborative creators of the future we want to see.
The organizers are a group of young people who are closely connected with a broad range of efforts across the state and around the country that many are calling “the climate movement”. We see “climate” as an integration of rural development and sustainable agriculture challenges, transportaion and community design initiatives, clean energy and energy efficiency efforts, local and global economic, social, and environmental justice efforts, and the construction of a global civil society that links local efforts across the world. We have also started reframing the idea of “movement” as a “metamorphosis” – the whole world is changing with us, change needs to happen and will result in a profoundly beautiful society, and we have to bring everyone along. Over the past few years, tens of thousands of youth have been organizing, building powerful campus coalitions, hosting massive regional and national youth conference, and weighing in on corporate campaigns, regional development initiatives, and the political process. We’ve recognized however that this cannot be just a youth movement. We know that labor groups, farmers, people of faith, businesses, local governments, and many other groups are already working for a post-carbon future through initiatives that range from greening local facilities to green jobs development and building clean energy. MN Powershift is an inter-generational participatory conference that seeks to catalyze collaboration and innovative action between people from all walks of life and with diverse, yet connected goals and visions. We have seen the power of grassroots collaborations with just the few groups we have worked with over the past few years – we’re excited to take it to a whole new level. We hope you’ll join us!
Web design by Kai Bosworth
Comments and questions to kai@mnpowershift.org