op-ed Unruly students are not the image of Power Shift

Author: Kevin Redmon

Your front page coverage of Middlebury's participation in Power Shift 2007 was encouraging to see ("Students aid D.C. green looby," Nov. 8). Despite being one of the smaller colleges represented, Middlebury sent nearly 80 students (in a bio-diesel bus, no less) to the conference - the largest representation from a single school. What concerned me was the dominant, eye-catching photograph that you chose to accompany the story. Of the 200 photos I took at Power Shift, the one that ended up above the fold in the Campus was perhaps the least representative of the events that transpired over the long weekend. The issue is not that the photo showed no Middlebury students. Instead, it showed a scene that I am afraid will reinforce common stereotypes and assumptions - however apparently harmless - about the climate change movement. In the photo, set against the Capitol, are a dozen raucous students, holding spray painted signs, flashing peace symbols and looking unruly. Someone is holding a sign displaying the American Indian Great Circle symbol, while a costumed, bipedal polar bear dances nearby.

I fear that this is how Middlebury students - and society at large - view the climate change movement, and I would like to vehemently challenge that vision.

The photograph in question was taken at a culminating outdoor rally, and represents about five percent of our time at Power Shift. Otherwise, the three-day weekend was essentially a long policy conference, where we attended seminars, workshops, speeches and panels alongside our peers. These classes were taught by some of the leading environmentalists, economists and politicians in the nation, all of whom volunteered their time and knowledge with the goal of empowering and educating students like us. Under the overarching topic of "climate change" there were classes concerned with legislation, biochemistry, media and messaging, race, environmental justice, journalism, political science and international relations. Whether you wanted to explore the evangelical Christians' efforts to mitigate climate change or understand the mechanical engineering behind carbon sequestration, the options were myriad and diverse. Further, they were representative of the true challenge we face when we speak of climate change.

Climate change is no longer - if it was ever - an 'environmental' issue. In our rapidly shrinking world of globalized politics and economics, there can no longer be an issue that is exclusively environmental. To label a threat like climate change as such is to diminish and deny its importance. Recognize first that carbon emission is the definition of a market failure - it does not obey the fundamental rule of economics that the party deriving the benefit from an action is the same party bearing the cost. In the case of carbon emission, the developed and rapidly developing world derives the overwhelming majority of the benefit, but the entire global community bears the cost. What's more, lesser developed countries often pay a disproportionately higher cost. From there, understand that climate change is not about saving polar bears or Arctic glaciers, despite what the mainstream media might have you think. It can be - and is - partially about these issues, but it is equally about resource allocation and conflict, national security, a fundamentally new 'green' economy and market stability, climatology, the future of progressivism ≠≠- the list is virtually endless. Climate change is neither 'Weybridge House' nor 'the Sunday Night Group.' It is not about party politics, short term solutions or Kyoto. Climate change is about developing radically new and innovative technologies that rethink the way we understand energy. It is about integrating 'sustainability' into our lexicon, our built environment, and our consciousness. It is about economic revitalization through 'green jobs' and a rethinking of environmental and social justice. Mark this: climate change - and our approach to understanding and mitigating it - will be the largest single force in every one of our lifetimes. It will affect the politics, economics, and conflicts of our global generation and of the many generations that follow.

A better picture for The Campus might have been one of Middlebury students sitting in a small group, engaged in discussion about the role of climate change in the 2008 elections, or the impact of China and India's carbon emissions on worldwide levels - we spent a lot of time thinking about these sorts of issues that weekend, and we intend on spending much more time engaged in similar discussions. The face of climate change does not resemble the WTO riots of Seattle, the ROTC burnings during Vietnam or race riots of the late 1960s. Climate change is not a chaotic, violent battle waiting to be won in the streets by marginalized and disillusioned youth. Rather, it is an issue that will be addressed in board rooms, on Wall Street, by Fortune 500 companies and on every level of scale from the grassroots to the transnational. It is time for all of us to recognize it as such.

Kevin Redmon '09.5 is from Minneapolis, Minn.