ICOSA
Appetite for Change
RECEIVED Sat., Feb. 23, 2008
Dear Editor,
Thank you for the article on the Re-Energize Texas Summit [“The Re-Energizer Revival,” News, Feb. 15]. It is important that communities realize young leaders are rising to face the challenge of a climate change crisis and get onboard.
As an attendee and reporter myself, I would like to offer a few suggestions:
1) If one listened carefully, not only did most speakers equate the climate change challenge to the civil rights movement, they gave global warming one better and pronounced it a greater challenge than past movements have seen.
2) It is belittling to write off the young activists' commitment to the message as a flirtation with fashion: "a 'Proud to Be Vegan' patch" and "virtually obligatory dreadlocks." Activists know that patches and T-shirts are good mediums for a message, but it doesn't end there. And respectfully, I don't think there were more than three sets of dreadlocks (if that) in the auditorium and only a handful of Birkenstock sandals, while we're on stereotypes.
3) Gary Hirshberg served himself up as a great example of economical success being compatible with environmentally responsible business. And I, for one, left with an appetite for change (not a hunger for yogurt).
4) Whether you call it a revival, a resuscitation, or a re-energizing, this call for action, and others happening simultaneously around the country, is aimed at giving citizens the tools and inspiration to face the titanic problem of climate change. Global warming is not new, but it is now. We have acted irresponsibly, and now we must act in response.
Again, thank you for writing this well-crafted criticism of the summit. We can all sit in the corner and sneer cynically at the vegangelicals and bedreadlocked tree-huggers, or we can write responsibly, act immediately, and save a swiftly warming planet from the "major downer" that is climate change.
Thank you for the article on the Re-Energize Texas Summit [“The Re-Energizer Revival,” News, Feb. 15]. It is important that communities realize young leaders are rising to face the challenge of a climate change crisis and get onboard.
As an attendee and reporter myself, I would like to offer a few suggestions:
1) If one listened carefully, not only did most speakers equate the climate change challenge to the civil rights movement, they gave global warming one better and pronounced it a greater challenge than past movements have seen.
2) It is belittling to write off the young activists' commitment to the message as a flirtation with fashion: "a 'Proud to Be Vegan' patch" and "virtually obligatory dreadlocks." Activists know that patches and T-shirts are good mediums for a message, but it doesn't end there. And respectfully, I don't think there were more than three sets of dreadlocks (if that) in the auditorium and only a handful of Birkenstock sandals, while we're on stereotypes.
3) Gary Hirshberg served himself up as a great example of economical success being compatible with environmentally responsible business. And I, for one, left with an appetite for change (not a hunger for yogurt).
4) Whether you call it a revival, a resuscitation, or a re-energizing, this call for action, and others happening simultaneously around the country, is aimed at giving citizens the tools and inspiration to face the titanic problem of climate change. Global warming is not new, but it is now. We have acted irresponsibly, and now we must act in response.
Again, thank you for writing this well-crafted criticism of the summit. We can all sit in the corner and sneer cynically at the vegangelicals and bedreadlocked tree-huggers, or we can write responsibly, act immediately, and save a swiftly warming planet from the "major downer" that is climate change.
Angel Horne